HONG KONG – Under swarms of security, under clouds threatening rain, China’s leader Xi Jinping celebrated the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China with a showcase of just how thoroughly he transformed and once suppressed this once freewheeling city. .
Police walked in Chinese military at a flag lifting ceremony and showed new armored vehicles made on the continent. The city’s streets were empty of protesters who traditionally gathered in their thousands every July 1st. And Mr. Xi issued a stern admonition that the open opposition and pro-democracy activism that has stirred the city – and in many ways defined it – recent years are a thing of the past.
“Political power must be in the hands of patriots,” he said after swearing in a new leader for the city, a former policeman who led the suppression of giant anti-government protests in 2019. “There is no country or region in the world that will allow unpatriotic or even treacherous or treacherous forces and people to take power.”
The day’s ceremonies would have been significant in any case, leaving the halfway point in the 50 years that China had promised Hong Kong unchanged after the end of British colonial rule. But they have acquired particular significance as the first time that Mr. Xi has visited the city since the furious, sometimes violent protests of 2019, and since launching a comprehensive and successful onslaught on civil liberties in response. In the past three years, authorities have arrested thousands of protesters and activists, enacted a national security law that criminalizes virtually all discord, and banned government critics from participating in elections.
The commemoration also coincided with one of the most charged geopolitical moments that China has faced in recent history. His relations with Western democracies have deteriorated, including over his treatment of Hong Kong and friendly relations with Russia. And tensions over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, are growing.
Mr. Xi is only months away from a major Communist Party congress, when he is expected to demand an unprecedented third term and reaffirm his status as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
In that sense, Mr. Xi’s visit at the same time a declaration of victory over the opposition in Hong Kong, an assertion of power to viewers at home, and a warning to his critics abroad.
“The Hong Kong case makes it clear that challenges and undermining China’s core national interests will inevitably meet with serious counter-attacks, and ultimately fail,” said Tian Feilong, an assistant law professor at Beihang University in Beijing. and a prominent hawk vote on the central government’s Hong Kong policy.
Mr. Xi took a much tougher stance towards Hong Kong than his predecessors did. Hong Kong has long been home to vibrant civil society and protests – very directly critical of the Chinese government – but during Mr. Xi’s last visit, on the 20th anniversary of the handover in 2017, drew a “red line” for the first time. ” Any alleged threat to the central government’s sovereignty will “never be allowed,” he said.
The 2017 speech upset some local scholars and pro-democracy activists, who were concerned that Mr. Xi puts an end to the “one country, two systems” arrangement negotiated by Britain and China to guarantee Hong Kong’s freedoms impossible in the rest of the country. But those freedoms at that time still seemed mostly intact. Immediately to mr. Xi’s speech gathered thousands of protesters for an annual march demanding greater democracy.
Today, that Hong Kong has almost completely disappeared – largely because Mr. Xi followed his warning. After the 2019 protests, which posed the biggest challenge to the Chinese Communist Party government in decades, Beijing responded by enacting the National Security Act. This resulted in virtually all the leaders of the opposition being arrested or going into exile. Demonstrations do not exist. Rewritten textbooks emphasize patriotism.
The importance, and success, of that campaign was a central theme of Mr. Xi’s speech Friday. Mr. Xi no longer needed to keep Hong Kongers from disagreement, which had been so thoroughly eliminated. Instead, he outlined a vision for an improved future, in which the people of Hong Kong became rich, fueled their love of Chinese identity and fueled China’s global rise.
“Right now, Hong Kong is entering a new stage – moving from the transition from chaos to governance, to the transition from governance to prosperity,” he said. Xi told a crowd of carefully selected officials.
The renewed focus on Chinese identity and prosperity is also reflected in Mr. Xi’s itinerary reflects. In 2017, he visited the People’s Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong and viewed the troops from the back of an open-top jeep, in what some saw as an unspoken threat of military force. This year, he went to a science park, where he discussed research on artificial intelligence, robotics, and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. His wife, Peng Liyuan, went to a cantonal opera performance center, where she watched local troops emphasizing Chinese culture in a city where many resisted China’s embrace.
While Mr. Xi did visit the Chinese army headquarters this year, it was a short stop before leaving the city, without the fanfare of five years ago.
By emphasizing Hong Kong’s economic potential, Mr. Xi revisits a regular statement by the central government that Hong Kongers’ anger in recent years has not been rooted in politics, especially the desire for democracy, but rather in socio-economic causes. In his speech, he effectively extended the tacit political bargaining chip that supported the Communist Party’s power on the continent to Hong Kongers: total political control by the party, in exchange for economic prosperity for the people.
“What Hong Kongers want most is the hope of a better life, a more spacious home, more business opportunities, better education for their children and better care for their old age,” he said.
Some residents in the city on Friday said the economy is their primary concern. “I do not care about the handover, as long as I get my mouth fed,” says Candy Leung, 62, who runs an outdoor eatery that serves noodle soup and toast. “Only some people have a bit of an extreme mind about the government.”
As she spoke, a row of six police officers with shields and walkie-talkies flew by.
But just because the heavily policed streets were empty of protests did not mean political discontent did not exist.
At least one long-established group of activists, the League of Social Democrats, planned to hold a small rally on Friday – group rallies are still limited by coronavirus restrictions – but announced this week that they would cancel them, following warnings from police.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers have emigrated since the security law was enacted. Ted Hui, a former opposition lawmaker who fled abroad while facing several criminal charges for protesting, said the security restrictions on Mr. Xi’s journey means he has gained little understanding of what the city’s residents think.
“He does not see the general public at all,” he said. Hui, who now lives in Australia. “What is promoted as prosperous and glamorous is only on the surface. Beneath the surface, anger is spreading among the population. ”
Hours after Mr. Xi delivered his speech, he was back on the train and was leaving Hong Kong when a tropical storm approached, pouring rain on the city. He came to mark a victory, but his quick departure left questions about its certainty, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.
“Basically, he sees Hong Kong as a rebel area, where you can claim victory, but not quite sure the victory is complete,” he said. “It sounds like George Bush on that aircraft carrier claiming ‘Mission Accomplished’.”
Vivian Wang reported from Beijing. alexandra stevenson, Joy Dong and Zixu Wang reporting contributed.