Xi to attend Hong Kong anniversary event, Lee’s swearing-in

PRESIDENT Xi Jinping will visit Hong Kong to mark the city’s 25th anniversary of Chinese rule, in his first trip to the former British colony since overseeing a sweeping crackdown on its pro-democracy opposition.

The Chinese president will also attend the swearing-in ceremony of Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday (Jun 25), without providing further details on the visit.

The trip will be Xi’s first outside mainland China since January 2020, after his Covid Zero policy closed the country’s borders and limited him to virtual attendance of international events. Xi’s decision to visit Hong Kong even as it records more than 1,000 daily Covid cases signals his determination to stamp Beijing’s mark of control of the former British colony. 

Lee, a former top police official who Beijing installed in May to run the city for the next 5 years, will be sworn in on Jul 1, the halfway point in Hong Kong’s 50-year transition from British to Chinese rule under the “one country, two systems” arrangement.

Xi last visited Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he’s dismantled many of the freedoms that once distinguished the former British colony from mainland China in the wake of mass anti-government protests in 2019. A national security law Beijing imposed in June 2020 has ended street protests, purged the democratic opposition, shut critical media outlets and silenced other forms of dissent in the once free-wheeling city. 

That interference in Hong Kong’s legal system has drawn sharp international criticism from the US and many of its democratic allies for contravening China’s pledge to allow the city a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years after British rule. The US has sanctioned 11 Chinese officials - including Lee - over their hand in crushing political freedoms in the city.

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The pandemic has muddied Beijing’s efforts to bring Hong Kong closer into its orbit. Xi’s flagship Covid Zero policy shut their shared border, and in recent months the financial hub has cut incoming hotel quarantine and eased social curbs despite rising cases, prompting speculation that the city is adopting a Western approach of living with the virus. BLOOMBERG