XI VISITS HONG KONG FOR HANDOVER ANNIVERSARY
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday declared that Hong Kong had “risen from the ashes” as he ventured outside mainland China for the first time since the start of the pandemic to attend the 25th anniversary of the territory’s handover from British to Chinese rule.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, stepped off a train at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon station, terminus of the high-speed line that connects mainland China to the territory. They were greeted by young adults and children waving Chinese and Hong Kong flags and chanting “warmly welcome” in Mandarin Chinese, rather than the Cantonese traditionally used in the city.
In an apparent reference to protests in recent years against Beijing’s encroachment, eventually crushed by a strict national security law, Xi said in a brief speech that after “rain and storm, Hong Kong has risen from the ashes.”
For Xi, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, who is expected to take a precedent-breaking third term later this year, the proceedings are a chance to cement personal power over the Chinese Communist Party by declaring the nation has grown stronger and more united under his rule.
But for many in Hong Kong, the halfway point of a 50-year period where the city was guaranteed a “high degree of autonomy” under a mechanism known as “one country, two systems” is a time to mourn the erosion of freedoms and dashed hopes of a more democratic future.
Crushing the pro-democracy protests in 2019 and 2020 frayed Beijing’s relationship with the city’s youth and with many Western governments. But for the Chinese Communist Party, breaking through decades of inaction and pushback to pass national security legislation for Hong Kong is an important achievement.