HONG KONG – On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to travel outside mainland China for the first time since the pandemic began to mark the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s surrender of British rule to Chinese rule. For Xi, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, who is expected to run for a third term earlier this year, the process is an opportunity to consolidate personal power in the Chinese Communist Party, saying the nation has become stronger and more united under his rule. But for many in Hong Kong, in the middle of a 50-year period where the city was guaranteed a “high degree of autonomy” by a mechanism known as “one country, two systems” it is time to mourn the erosion of freedoms and the hopes for a more democratic future. Beijing’s nominee for Hong Kong signals tighter control “After the 2019 and 2020 uprisings and protests, the Beijing government wants to show that everything is under control – the opposition and the revolutionary elements have been eliminated,” said Ho-Fung Hong, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University. . “It’s a winning streak and Xi Jinping will try to portray him as the one who achieved this so-called ‘second return’ to Hong Kong.” The crackdown on pro-democracy protests has shattered Beijing’s relationship with the city’s youth and with many Western governments. But for the Chinese Communist Party, which values its political control and the nation’s territorial integrity more than anything else, breaking decades of inactivity and pushing for national security legislation for Hong Kong is a major achievement. Chinese scholars have begun talking about the “second return” of Hong Kong. Zheng Yongnian, an influential political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told state media that the first years of Chinese rule after 1997 were “rule without governing power.” But Xi changed that. The national security law, Zeng said, was a good start, but only the beginning of the “reconstruction” that the Hong Kong political system must undergo as it “moves from a radical democracy to a more culturally appropriate form of democracy.” and the class and society of Hong Kong. structure.” The main topic of this agenda for incoming CEO John Lee, the chief policy officer overseeing the crackdown on protests, will be the fulfillment of Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, which requires it to enact laws that prohibit betrayal, secession, rebellion and overthrow. Such legislation came into force in 2003 following mass demonstrations. But Xi’s ambitions go beyond policing and legal revisions to sweeping changes in education and society designed to build support for CCP sovereignty. Accepting a future planned by Beijing may be more difficult among the generation born around tradition, which awaited greater democratic freedoms, and introduced into local politics through protests against Beijing’s impositions. 25 years since the occupation of Hong Kong by China, in photos “When I was young, I did not know what universal suffrage was, but later, after experiencing the Umbrella Revolution, I changed my mind,” said Coco Au, a 25-year-old law graduate student, referring to the 2014 protests aimed at change in Hong Kong. Kong’s electoral system that allowed Beijing to examine political candidates in advance. Many born around 1997 feel betrayed. Jeff Yau, 25, grew up with the feeling that tradition was a happy event, but more recently he fears for the future of the city. “I feel a little suffocated and I feel that Hong Kong is less open than Western countries,” he said. Despite the enthusiastic tone of the Chinese state media in the run-up to Friday’s ceremonies, there are indications that Xi remains concerned about Beijing’s dominance in Hong Kong. Local media, citing anonymous government sources, said Xi would not stay overnight in the city and travel across the mainland to Shenzhen after a dinner with outgoing CEO Kari Lam, returning to Hong Kong on Friday morning. for the inauguration ceremony of Lee, the former police chief who will take her place. Much of Hong Kong has been closed to ensure a smooth visit. High, water-filled roadblocks line the streets near the exhibition center where celebrations will take place. The Legislative Council canceled its weekly meeting so that lawmakers could be quarantined and comply with strict coronavirus restrictions on ceremonies. Police banned drones throughout Hong Kong during the visit. At least 10 journalists from local and foreign media were banned from covering the proceedings, according to the South China Morning Post. The League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy political group, said on Tuesday it would not protest on July 1 after national security police called in its volunteers. “The situation is very difficult, please understand,” the group said in a statement to supporters. For the older generation in Hong Kong, 1997 was also a time of deep uncertainty. Claudia Tang, 59, left the city for Australia at the time, expecting to immigrate, but later returned. She is now generally optimistic about Hong Kong’s future, despite Beijing’s dominance. “I feel that national education is a good thing. “Many young people do not understand what ‘one country, two systems’ means,” he said. This confusion may be due in part to the fact that China’s explanations have changed over time. Gone are the harsh promises of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping before 1997 that “Hong Kong horses will continue to race and dances will be danced” after the surrender. They replace Xi’s views, as stated on the 20th anniversary of tradition, that “a country” forms the deep roots of a system of government “advanced, first and foremost, to realize and uphold national unity.” Hong Kong churches no longer out of bounds as Beijing tightens grip on controversy The creation of the “one country, two systems” formula that supported the Hong Kong tradition in 1997 is considered one of the defining achievements of Deng’s leadership. Even today, Chinese state media regularly show Deng’s waving his finger at then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, saying Hong Kong rule was out of the question. Many questions about Deng Hong Kong’s future that Deng left unanswered were strongly answered by Xi, often imposing interpretations of the Chinese Communist Party’s history in the territory. Recently, Hong Kong officials reviewed high school textbooks to teach the party’s position that the area was never actually a British colony. illegally occupied. At a rally Monday, Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last British governor, argued that the UK could do little before 1997 to avoid the recent repression in Hong Kong, “because the real story of “Hong Kong today is about electing Xi Jinping as China’s leader.” At the time, Patten added, the Hong Kong tradition was considered a “canary under the mine” to test whether the Chinese regime would prove brutally selfish or credible in international affairs, but that question has now been answered. “The canary has drowned, to the extent that they could have managed it,” he said. Even in 1997, Ken Lam, 50, who works in logistics, guessed that more repression was coming, but he could not leave at that time and has resigned from the fate of the city. “I have the opportunity to leave now, but some of me also want to stay and observe how much worse Hong Kong can become. “After all, this is where I grew up,” he said. Shepherd reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.
