Toe the party line, says Xi
Chinese President Xi Jinping swore in Hong Kong’s new leader yesterday with a warning that Beijing will not tolerate any challenge to its authority, in a strongly worded speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China.
Security was tight at the same harbourfront venue where two decades earlier, the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, tearfully handed back Hong Kong to Beijing at a rain-soaked ceremony.
‘‘Any attempt to endanger China’s sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the HKSAR or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible,’’ Xi told a gathering of dignitaries and mostly pro-Beijing establishment figures after swearing in Hong Kong’s first female leader, Carrie Lam.
Under Hong Kong’s miniconstitution, the Basic Law, the financial hub is guaranteed its freedoms for ‘‘at least 50 years’’ after 1997. HKSAR stands for the Hong Kong special administrative region, which is run under a ‘‘one country, two systems’’ formula allowing wideranging autonomy.
Xi’s words are his strongest yet to the world financial hub, and come at a time of heightened social and political tensions and concerns over what some in Hong Kong perceive as increased meddling by Beijing in the city’s affairs.
Minor scuffles broke out as pro-democracy activists and pro-Beijing groups taunted each other, with hundreds of police deployed on a traditional day of protest in Hong Kong.
Scores of democracy protesters were taken away by police, while several proChina groups remained, cheering loudly and waving flags as though in victory.
Beijing-backed civil servant Lam was chosen to be Hong Kong’s next leader in March by a 1200-person ‘‘election committee’’ stacked with proChina and pro-establishment loyalists.
Lam, speaking in Mandarin instead of the Cantonese dialect widely used in Hong Kong, said she wanted to create a harmonious society and explore new land supply in a city where the sky-high cost of housing has also triggered discontent.