Analysis: China’s Xi Jinping brought Hong Kong to heel. Now he’s coming back to a city transformed

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Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

Chinese language and Hong Kong flags flutter above streets and crimson celebratory banners line the harbor entrance, as 1000’s of Hong Kong police guard town’s high-speed rail terminus, awaiting the arrival of Chinese language chief Xi Jinping.

In his first journey outdoors mainland China for the reason that begin of the pandemic, Xi is coming to Hong Kong to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of its return to Chinese language rule – a extremely symbolic occasion at a pivotal time for each town, and Xi himself.

The previous British colony is halfway by way of the 50-year promise of “a excessive diploma of autonomy,” given by Beijing underneath a framework generally known as “one nation, two methods.” It is usually swearing in its newly appointed chief, hardline former police officer John Lee.

Xi, in the meantime, is barely months away from ending his first decade in energy – and is broadly anticipated to hunt an unprecedented third time period at a key assembly of the ruling Communist Celebration this fall.

The 2-day journey is a well timed declaration of political victory for Xi, who has introduced Hong Kong to heel with a sweeping nationwide safety regulation following the 2019 anti-government protests. In simply two years, critics say, the regulation has been used to crush town’s opposition motion, overhaul its electoral system, silence its outspoken media and cripple its once-vibrant civil society.

The Hong Kong authorities has repeatedly denied the nationwide safety regulation is suppressing freedoms. As a substitute, it insists the regulation has ended chaos and restored stability to town.

People wave Chinese and Hong Kong flags as fishing boats carrying banners celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China sail through the Victoria Harbour.

For an authoritarian chief obsessive about stability, Hong Kong might now really feel extra like dwelling than ever. Not like his earlier visits to town, Xi now not wants to fret about any public expression of dissent – be it vital headlines on native newspaper entrance pages, protest slogans on billboards or mass rallies within the streets.

As a substitute, he’s set to be surrounded by solely “patriotic” officers, loyal tycoons and a blanket of heavy safety measures – together with intensive roadblocks and a citywide ban on drones. He will probably be separated from the general public by a meticulously maintained “closed loop” system – put in place to guard him in opposition to town’s rising Covid-19 infections.

In an indication of the heightened safety, journalists from no less than seven media organizations, together with CNN, have been blocked from overlaying the ceremony days earlier than the occasion, after initially receiving accreditation.

Beijing’s supporters say Hong Kong has ushered in a “new period of stability, prosperity and alternative.”

“This is a vital milestone for our nation and Hong Kong,” town’s authorities mentioned in an announcement marking the anniversary. “(It) not solely captures Hong Kong’s spectacular achievements over the previous two and a half many years, it additionally underscores our keen anticipation for and confidence in a brighter future.”

However critics worry Hong Kong is being more and more reshaped in China’s picture. To some, the “one nation, two methods” experiment is already useless – 25 years forward of schedule.

In 2019, a proposed bill that would allow the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China from Hong Kong plunged the city into months of social unrest.

Proposed by late paramount chief Deng Xiaoping, “one nation, two methods” is a political formulation initially meant to assist China obtain unification with Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy with a capitalist economic system. Nevertheless it ended up being first utilized to Hong Kong, with the hope that it will set a fascinating instance for Taiwan to observe later.

The governance mannequin permits a capitalist bubble to coexist inside a socialist nation, with a pledge that Hong Kong’s capitalist system and way-of-life will stay unchanged for 50 years.

When Margaret Thatcher visited Beijing in 1984 to signal the Sino-British Joint Declaration for the handover of Hong Kong, Deng assured the British Prime Minister that “China will all the time preserve its guarantees.”

“Once we gave the determine of fifty years, we weren’t talking casually or on impulse, however in consideration of the realities in China and of our want for growth,” he advised Thatcher.

However critics, together with Hong Kong’s final British governor Chris Patten, have accused Beijing of breaching these guarantees lately because it tightened its grip on Hong Kong.

“It’s truthful to say for 10 years after 1997, possibly a bit longer, issues didn’t go too badly unsuitable, however they’ve gone downhill since, partly as a result of Xi Jinping and his colleagues are afraid of what Hong Kong truly stands for,” Patten mentioned at a press convention final week.

Since coming to energy, Xi has waged an ideological battle in opposition to the affect of “Western values” equivalent to constitutional democracy, press freedom, judicial independence and common human rights – notions which have lengthy been cherished in Hong Kong and shaped an integral a part of its id.

The town’s pursuit of full democracy, particularly finally electing its chief by common suffrage – a aim written into its mini-constitution, the Primary Regulation – is particularly considered with suspicion by Beijing, which is nervous {that a} freely elected chief may pose a problem to its authority.

As Beijing dragged its toes on electoral reforms, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy advocates misplaced persistence. In 2014, 1000’s of younger protesters occupied key roads within the metropolis’s monetary middle to demand “true common suffrage” – rejecting a proposal by China’s parliament to have the candidates vetted prematurely by a pro-Beijing committee. The peaceable protests, generally known as the “Umbrella Motion,” ended after 79 days, with none of their calls for met.

Since then, Beijing has sought to exert extra management over Hong Kong. Throughout his first go to to town as China’s chief in 2017, Xi warned that any efforts to “problem the ability” of the central authorities have been “completely impermissible.”

“Any try and endanger China’s sovereignty and safety…or use Hong Kong to hold out infiltration and sabotage actions in opposition to the mainland is an act that crosses the crimson line,” he mentioned in a speech on Hong Kong’s twentieth handover anniversary.

However Beijing’s tightening grip solely intensified discontent within the metropolis, particularly amongst its youthful technology – lots of whom worry they’re operating out of time to struggle for democracy earlier than the 2047 deadline.

Some tried to push for change by becoming a member of town’s legislature, however that failed too underneath rising strain from Beijing. A slew of pro-democracy lawmakers have been disqualified over an oath-taking controversy, whereas different candidates have been barred from standing for workplace.

Lengthy-running tensions finally erupted in 2019. Over that summer season, peaceable marches in opposition to a proposed invoice that will enable the extradition of legal suspects to mainland China quickly snowballed into generally violent anti-Beijing protests, plunging town into months of social unrest and its most tumultuous interval for the reason that handover.

A yr later, throughout a lull within the protests introduced by the pandemic, Beijing bypassed town’s legislature to impose a nationwide safety regulation, which took impact the day earlier than the July 1 handover anniversary. In vaguely outlined phrases, the regulation criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with overseas forces – and permits for max sentences of life imprisonment.

Since then, crackdown measures that will have been beforehand unthinkable have arrived at a dizzying velocity, drastically remodeling Hong Kong’s political and social panorama.

Almost all the metropolis’s main pro-democracy figures, together with activists and politicians, have both been jailed or compelled into exile. No opposition lawmakers are left within the legislature, which now permits solely “patriots” to run for workplace.

The town’s most outspoken newspaper, Apple Every day, has been shuttered, adopted by quite a few smaller pro-democracy retailers, whereas dozens of civil society teams, from unions and church buildings to activist teams, have disbanded. Recollections of the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath, from statues to annual commemoration vigils, are being erased from public areas.

Tens of 1000’s of residents are voting with their toes, emigrating to democratic nations equivalent to the UK, Canada and Australia.

Responding to CNN’s request for touch upon town’s diminishing freedoms, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong authorities mentioned: “Many freedoms and rights are usually not absolute, and might be restricted for causes together with safety of nationwide safety and public security.”

However Xi’s transformation of Hong Kong is just not solely about chipping away the freedoms it as soon as had – it additionally seeks to reshape town in China’s picture and join it extra deeply with the motherland.

Ranging from this yr, faculties, together with some kindergartens, are required to carry a ceremony to lift the nationwide flag no less than as soon as every week, the place the nationwide anthem should be performed and sung.

In lecture rooms, nationwide safety schooling has been launched to the curriculum to “develop in college students a way of belonging to the nation, an affection for the Chinese language folks, a way of nationwide id,” whereas books by pro-democracy figures, or others which can be deemed politically delicate, have been faraway from the cabinets of public libraries.

Hong Kong police at the moment are adopting the goose-stepping marching type of the Chinese language military, abandoning the British type they’ve used for the reason that colonial space.

Hong Kong police officers perform a new goose-stepping march, the same style used by the Chinese military, to mark the National Security Education Day in Hong Kong on April 15, 2021.

Days forward of the twenty fifth handover ceremony, the Wong Tai Sin temple, a Taoist shrine widespread with native worshipers, turned the primary non secular premise to carry a flag-raising ceremony in Hong Kong, after constructing a everlasting platform for the Chinese language and Hong Kong flags. Underneath Xi, Chinese language flags have change into ubiquitous at temples, church buildings and mosques throughout mainland China.

Hong Kong officers converse proudly of efforts to embed Hong Kong deeper into China’s nationwide financial grasp plans, together with growing the Larger Bay Space – a area Beijing hopes will sooner or later rival the bay areas of San Francisco, New York and Tokyo.

In 2018, Xi officiated the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the longest sea-crossing bridge ever constructed. The identical yr, the West Kowloon Station opened, connecting Hong Kong with the mainland by high-speed rail.

For the reason that pandemic, nonetheless, each tasks have lain largely idle, attributable to strict border controls between Hong Kong and mainland China – the final locations on this planet nonetheless adhering to a stringent zero-Covid technique.

In accordance with native media reviews, Xi is anticipated to cross that border no less than thrice in his two-day journey, as he plans to spend the evening in Shenzhen – with out being topic to centralized quarantine like extraordinary vacationers.

In the meantime, throughout the border in Hong Kong, 1000’s of officers, friends and employees have begun quarantining within the metropolis’s lodges since Wednesday, merely to attend the ceremony.

Xi’s go to could also be historic on many fronts, however for a lot of Hong Kongers, his presence will solely affirm how a lot has modified in so little time.

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