HONG KONG — On his first full day at work, Hong Kong’s new leader John Lee shared a photo of himself working at his desk with a printout of what he described as an important speech by China’s leader Xi Jinping , next to his notebook.
mr. Lee isn’t the only Hong Kong official to follow Mr. Xi hangs. Lawmakers held a six-hour session this month praising Mr Xi’s comments on Hong Kong, with several also praising him for his recent visit to the city, despite an approaching typhoon and Covid outbreak. And hundreds of top officials attended group study sessions, including one titled “Spirit of the President’s Important Speech,” held by the Civil Service Bureau. In a government press release describing the session, the term “important speech” was used 10 times, in nearly every paragraph.
In mainland China, such displays of devotion to the country’s powerful leader are common, especially under Xi, who early in his tenure revived the politics of strongmen and a cult of personality around him. But they represent a shocking shift for Hong Kong, a former British colony that gained a high degree of autonomy 25 years ago when it came back under Chinese control.
While Hong Kong has long been forced to abide by Beijing’s decisions on key issues, Mr Xi’s conspicuous embrace by the bureaucracy has crystallized the city’s new identity as an area firmly in Beijing’s grip. Showing loyalty to Mr Xi is the latest feature of the Communist Party’s assertive approach to Hong Kong and its efforts to tame the city’s insurgent political leanings.
“In Hong Kong history, this is an unusual response,” said John P. Burns, a professor emeritus at the University of Hong Kong. “We’ve never spent so much time and energy digging into a speech.”
In his speech delivered on July 1 in Hong Kong to mark the 25th anniversary of the return of the area to Chinese control, Mr Xi emphasized that “political power must be in the hands of patriots.” His comments were printed by state-owned publishers and displayed in bookstores alongside the Chinese leader’s other books on governance, also recently released in traditional Chinese characters for the Hong Kong market.
So far, the writings of Mr. Xi received a mixed response from the public, with many people viewing them as a curiosity. But among the pro-Beijing camp that now dominates Hong Kong politics, the study of Mr. Xi, and be seen to do it, has become increasingly important.
Mr Lee, the chief executive of Hong Kong, a longtime security official specially handpicked by Beijing, has led the campaign to study Mr Xi’s words and has lectured during sessions for top officials. He called Mr Xi’s speech in Hong Kong a “blueprint” for the city and said he was organizing his government to meet its demands.
He has cited Mr Xi’s comments at most of his public events this month, including an exhibition of a giant hanging lantern and the graduation of a new class of police recruits. Mr. Lee encouraged the incoming officers to heed Mr. Xi’s reminder that “Hong Kong cannot withstand chaos.” (To mark their graduation, the new recruits stepped into a parade, the first time the step was used in the ceremony after Hong Kong’s law enforcement authorities dropped the British-style march.)
The frequent references to the Chinese leader highlight not only Beijing’s heavier hand in Hong Kong governance, but also the weakness of a local government battered by mass protests and then the pandemic. Mr. Lee, who has spent most of his career in the police and security services, lacks the kind of broad network that his predecessors brought to the job through years of experience in the civil service or in business.
“The leader of this government is much more dependent on the central government than any previous government,” said Mr Burns of the University of Hong Kong.
Xi’s brief visit to Hong Kong, his first in five years, was a round of victory for the leader as he announced an end to the recent era of large-scale dissent in the city. He urged the government to address livelihood issues, such as lack of access to housing and economic opportunities, the sorts of problems Beijing’s allies say are causing massive pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Mr Xi also gave orders to Hong Kong when he visited in 2017, warning that any challenge from Beijing’s authority “crosses the red line”. But those words were largely ignored until 2020, when Beijing imposed a strict security law on the city as part of a sweeping crackdown that had most of the city’s prominent pro-democracy politicians jailed or exiled. The legislative council once saw boisterous debates and occasional heated protests, but such divisions dissipated after Beijing introduced new rules to ensure only “patriots” could run for office.
After Mr Xi’s visit this month, dozens of lawmakers spent six hours praising Mr Xi’s speech and the support he showed for Hong Kong during his trip. “President Xi, undaunted by the epidemic risk and typhoon threat, made an important speech in Hong Kong,” said Regina Ip, a veteran pro-Beijing lawmaker.
Ted Hui, a former opposition lawmaker who went into exile, said he was shocked by the discussion about Mr Xi.
“In the past, Hong Kong politics and mainland China politics were quite separated under the ‘one country, two systems’ practice, and in the Hong Kong Legislative Council we didn’t talk about the speeches of mainland politicians, ” he said.
“What I see is that the culture of the mainland political system has been brought to Hong Kong,” he added. “It’s a cult of personality.”
At the Hong Kong Book Fair this week, newly printed copies of Mr. Xi’s speech in Hong Kong and works such as “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV”, the latest installment of his speeches and writings, were prominently displayed at the entrance to the large exhibition space.
The presence of Mr Xi’s work at the fair was breathlessly reported in the state media, with a headline in China Daily calling Mr Xi’s books a “big hit.” Top officials of Hong Kong publicized the exchange to buy copies of the books.
But on Monday, more people were taking pictures of the stacks of books than reading or buying them.
Many visitors said his name out loud when they saw the books. A man in a basketball jersey and a tattooed sleeve flipped through a tome with studied erudition as he posed for photos, suppressing laughter.
Chung Wah Chow, a freelance writer, said she was looking for “red books” after seeing posts on social media about them. She spent several minutes comparing the English version of a compilation of the Chinese leader’s speeches and written work with the original Chinese ones. She said the translation was better than she expected.
After she put the book back, she stopped and watched for others to approach the booth. Few did.
“There’s no one in line here,” she said. “I think of the workers who have to carry all those heavy books after the fair.”