Hong Kong tightens security ahead of Xi visit for 25th anniversary of handover

In downtown Hong Kong huge barriers have gone up around the convention centre, establishing a tight, two-level securitised zone with no civilian access. On Wednesday hundreds of Hong Kong’s distinctive red taxis, adorned with red Chinese flags, and red celebratory banners, parked in the shape of the number “25” in the city’s Central district. Across the harbour in Kowloon, hundreds of Chinese and Hong Kong flags fluttered from balcony railings of two housing estates, each dozens of storeys high.

On Friday, Hong Kong will mark 25 years since the territory was returned from Britain to China, and authorities are taking no chances, ensuring the day is filled with pomp and pageantry – and no sign of dissent. China’s president, Xi Jinping, will attend a ceremony marking the anniversary, his first trip outside mainland China since the pandemic began.

On 1 July 1997, the territory was promised 50 years of self-government and freedoms of assembly, speech and press that are not allowed on the Communist-ruled Chinese mainland. As the city of 7.4 million people marks a quarter of a century under Beijing’s rule, those promises have all but evaporated.

Under a plan to ensure the day goes without a hitch, nearby metro stations will be closed and buses rerouted, while the harbour and other areas will be subject to temporary restricted flying zones.

Students walk in front of a television screen displaying the footage of Xi Jinping’s previous visit at a handover exhibition ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover
Students walk in front of a television screen displaying the footage of Xi Jinping’s previous visit at a handover exhibition ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Opportunity for criticism of Xi, or the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government, will be stifled. One of Hong Kong’s few remaining pro-democracy groups has said it would not stage a protest, after several members were summoned by police.

Outlets both local and foreign have been denied access to Friday’s event by authorities, citing the pandemic. On Tuesday some approved outlets said individual journalists had since been denied access, too late to have a replacement obtain the requisite several days of negative tests.

Hong Kong’s media have been hobbled since the introduction of the national security law in 2020. Papers and websites have been forced to close, editors and executives have been arrested.

It is one way Beijing has in recent years expanded its influence and control. Protest is in effect outlawed following pro-democracy rallies that were crushed by police. Schools must now provide lessons on patriotism and national security, and some new textbooks deny Hong Kong was ever a British colony. Electoral reforms have ensured that no opposition lawmakers, only those deemed to be “patriots” by Beijing, are in the city’s legislature.

Hong Kong’s ‘new chapter’

Friday will also see the inauguration of John Lee, the former security head who oversaw the crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, as the next chief executive of the territory. Lee will replace Carrie Lam, the maligned face of the crackdown which began in earnest in 2019. Asked by Bloomberg this month if she wanted to apologise for anything at all during her term, she said no, that she was only sorry for the sacrifices made by her family “to support my mission”.

Lee has pledged to unite the city for “a new chapter”, while also promising an even more aggressive approach to counter “fearmongering and badmouthing” by critics.

Prominent Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, who was jailed by Chinese authorities for three years and covered the handover, says Lee has shown his loyalty to Beijing and will be “at most a figurehead implementing Beijing’s idea”.

“The lifelong career of John Lee is security and he has no experience in other sectors,” Ching says.

Xi has said he expects Lee and his new government to “bring refreshing changes to the governance of Hong Kong”.

On Wednesday Xinhua, the official state news agency of the Chinese Communist party, said Hong Kong’s development had “come along in leaps and bounds” under “one country, two systems”, with much-needed stability brought by the national security law. In the meantime, record numbers of people are leaving the city for good.

Policemen close an access barrier to Bauhinia Square and hotels used by handover anniversary guests in Wanchai district, Hong Kong
Policemen close an access barrier to Bauhinia Square and hotels used by handover anniversary guests in Wanchai district, Hong Kong. Photograph: Jérôme Favre/EPA

Missing faces

In normal times, the anniversary would include familiar faces from the handover, like Martin Lee. Nicknamed the “father of democracy”, Lee was instrumental in the Sino-British joint declaration and a prominent face of the pro-democracy movement for decades. As Britain’s Prince Charles left Hong Kong, he diarised his fears: “Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate, and the hope that Martin Lee, leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested”.

Lee, now 82, was arrested last year and given a 12-month suspended sentence for organising and participating in an unauthorised assembly – one of the 2019 pro democracy rallies.

Dozens of his fellow activists and politicians have also been arrested or jailed. Those not incarcerated, like Lee, rarely speak publicly, and spend their days visiting and caring for friends and colleagues in prison. Under the national security law introduced in 2020, the risk of crossing vaguely defined red lines is too great and at least two people – including the widely respected legislator Claudia Mo – were denied bail after their WhatsApp conversations with foreign journalists were submitted as evidence.

For many former Hongkongers, the anniversary will be a painful reminder of the promise the city once had, and its swift collapse.

Valerie was 17 years old when Hong Kong was handed back. On that day in 1997 she watched the ceremony on TV, but “without any happiness”. “In the last scenes of [former British governor Chris] Patten’s family getting on the ship, I couldn’t stop my tears,” she tells the Guardian from her new home overseas.

“I didn’t understand politics much in those days, but I couldn’t believe Hong Kong would get better. Now I’m afraid the Hong Kong culture will eventually fade away.”

source: theguardian.com