HONG KONG, July 1 (Reuters) – Authorities deployed a massive security force around Hong Kong on Friday as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to swear in the new city leader and attend celebrations to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the delivery of the former British colony to Beijing.
Red lanterns and signs declaring a “new era” of stability decorated the main roads and walkways near the convention center where the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, handed Hong Kong tears to China in a ceremony. bathed in rain in 1997.
At 8 a.m. (0000 GMT), a group of officers gathered next to Victoria Harbor for a flag-raising ceremony in stormy conditions as the city experienced its first typhoon this year. Helicopters flew over the port hanging the flags of China and Hong Kong.
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Xi did not attend the flag-raising ceremony, and the media reported that he spent the night on the other side of the border in Shenzhen after arriving in Hong Kong on Thursday. He is due to return to the financial center early Friday to swear in the city’s new leader, John Lee.
Some analysts see Xi’s visit as a victory tour after Beijing tightened control of Hong Kong with a comprehensive national security law, following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
After arriving in Hong Kong on Thursday, Xi said the city had overcome its challenges and “risen from the ashes.” Read more
Former Hong Kong security chief John Lee, sanctioned by the United States for his role in implementing the new national security law, takes charge at a time when the global financial center is facing an exodus of people and talent amid some of the toughest COVID. -19 restrictions in the world.
Xi’s trip to Hong Kong is his first since 2017, when he swore in the city’s first female leader, Carrie Lam, who oversaw some of the territory’s most tumultuous moments marked by anti-government protests in 2019 and the epidemic. of COVID.
Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees broad autonomy and judicial independence that is not observed in mainland China.
Critics of the government, including Western nations, accuse the authorities of trampling on these freedoms, which Beijing and Hong Kong reject.
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Report by Anne Marie Roantree; Lincoln Feast Edition.
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