HONG KONG — Amid swarms of safety, beneath clouds threatening rain, Chinese leader Xi Jinping marked the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China with a demonstration of how thoroughly he had transformed and subjugated this once free-spirited city.
Police stepped out in Chinese military fashion at a flag-raising ceremony and showed off new armored vehicles from the mainland. The streets of the city were empty of the protesters who traditionally gathered by the thousands each year. 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 police officer who led the crackdown on massive anti-government protests in 2019. “There is no country or region in the world that would allow unpatriotic or even treacherous or treacherous forces and people to take over.”
In any case, the ceremonies of that day would have been memorable, marking the half of the 50 years China promised that Hong Kong would remain unchanged after the end of British colonial rule. But they took on special significance as Mr Xi visited the city for the first time since the furious, sometimes violent protests of 2019, and since he launched a sweeping and successful attack on civil liberties in response. Over the past three years, authorities have arrested thousands of protesters and activists, imposed a national security law criminalizing virtually all dissent, and barred government critics from participating in elections.
The anniversary also coincided with one of the most fraught geopolitical moments China has faced in recent history. Relations with western democracies have seriously deteriorated, including the treatment of Hong Kong and friendly relations with Russia. And tensions over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, are mounting.
Xi is only months away from a major Communist Party congress when he is expected to claim an unprecedented third term and cement his status as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
In that sense, Mr Xi’s visit was both a declaration of victory over the opposition in Hong Kong, a declaration of power to viewers at home and a warning to his critics abroad.
“The case of Hong Kong makes it clear that challenges and subversions of China’s key national interests will inevitably face serious counter-attacks and ultimately fail,” Tian Feilong, an assistant professor of law at Beijing’s Beihang University, and a prominent aggressive vote on the policies of the central government in Hong Kong.
mr. Xi has taken a much tougher stance on Hong Kong than his predecessors had. Hong Kong has long been home to a vibrant civil society and protests – many directly critical of the Chinese government – but during Mr Xi’s last visit, on the 20th anniversary of the handover in 2017, he first laid a ” Red line .” Any perceived threat to central government sovereignty would “never be allowed,” he said.
The 2017 speech alarmed some local scholars and pro-democracy activists, who worried that Mr Xi was telegraphing an end to the “one country, two systems” settlement negotiated by Britain and China to protect freedoms. of Hong Kong in the rest of the country impossible. But then those freedoms still seemed largely intact. Immediately after Mr Xi’s speech, thousands of protesters gathered for an annual march demanding more democracy.
Today, that Hong Kong has almost completely disappeared – largely because Mr Xi followed his warning. Following the protests of 2019, which presented the biggest challenge to the Chinese Communist Party’s rule in decades, Beijing responded by enacting a national security law. It has resulted in virtually all opposition leaders being arrested or sent into exile. There are no protests. Rewritten textbooks emphasize patriotism.
The importance and success of that campaign was a central theme of Mr Xi’s speech on Friday. Xi no longer had to dissuade Hong Kongers from dissent, which had been so thoroughly wiped out. Instead, he outlined a vision for a brighter future in which the Hong Kong people grew wealthy, fueled their love of Chinese identity and fueled China’s global rise.
“Right now, Hong Kong is entering a new phase – from the transition from chaos to governance, to the transition from governance to prosperity,” Mr Xi told a crowd of carefully vetted officials.
The renewed focus on Chinese identity and prosperity was also reflected in Mr Xi’s itinerary. In 2017, he visited the People’s Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong and watched the troops from the back of an open-top jeep, in what some saw as an unspoken threat of military violence. This year he went to a science park, where he talked about research into artificial intelligence, robotics and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. His wife, Peng Liyuan, attended a Cantonese opera performing center where she watched local companies rehearse and emphasized Chinese culture in a city where many have resisted China’s embrace.
Although Mr Xi visited the Chinese army headquarters this year, it was a brief stop before leaving the city, without the fanfare of five years ago.
Emphasizing Hong Kong’s economic potential, Mr Xi went back to a frequent claim by the central government that Hong Kongers’ anger in recent years was not rooted in politics, particularly the desire for democracy, but rather in socio-economic causes. In his speech, he effectively extended to the Hong Kongers the tacit political agreement underlying the Communist Party’s power on the mainland: 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 in their old age,” he said.
In the city, some residents on Friday said the economy was their biggest concern. “I don’t mind the transfer anyway, as long as I can get my mouth shut,” says Candy Leung, 62, who runs an open-air restaurant serving noodle soups and egg toast. “Only some people have a little extreme thoughts about government.”
As she spoke, a line of six police officers with shields and walkie-talkies passed by.
But just because the heavily guarded streets were empty of protests didn’t mean that political discontent did not exist.
At least one long-standing activist group, the League of Social Democrats, planned to hold a small protest Friday — group gatherings are still limited by coronavirus restrictions — but announced this week they would be canceling it, following warnings from police .
Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers have emigrated since the security law came into effect. Ted Hui, a former opposition lawmaker who fled abroad while facing several criminal charges for protesting, said the security restrictions on Mr Xi’s trip left him with little understanding of what the city’s residents are thinking.
“He doesn’t see the general public at all,” said Mr Hui, who now lives in Australia. “What is promoted as affluent and glamorous is only on the surface. Beneath the surface, anger rages among the population.”
Hours after Mr. Xi had delivered his speech, he was back on the train and leaving Hong Kong when a tropical storm approached and rain poured down on the city. He came to celebrate a win, but his quick departure cast doubt on its certainty, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.
“Essentially, he sees Hong Kong as rebel territory, where you can claim victory, but not quite sure if the victory is complete,” he said. “It sounds like George Bush is claiming ‘Mission Accomplished’ on that aircraft carrier.”
Vivian Wang reported from Beijing. Alexandra Stevenson† Joy Dong and Zixu Wang reporting contributed.