Xi Jinping rolls out the security to mark Hong Kong anniversary

All up the Chinese President spent less than 10 hours in the city during what was billed as a two-day visit — his first since 2017.

Xi Jinping, right, and John Lee after the Hong Kong Chief Executive was sworn in on Friday. Picture: AFP

It was as if Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting a city under attack.

A 50-strong motorcade of bulletproof vehicles surrounded Mr Xi as he travelled in Hong Kong. Some kept their doors slightly open so armed officers could jump out and eliminate any threats to China’s leader as he celebrated the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return from Britain.

Beijing’s most elite protection unit – armed with bulletproof briefcases and, according to one report, disguised machine guns – flanked Mr Xi as he met a group of vetted children.

“After the wind and rain, Hong Kong has risen from the ashes, and showed strong vibrancy,” Mr Xi said in a short address on Thursday afternoon to the welcoming party that had been in quarantine for weeks before their brief, masked encounter with China’s leader.

A planned banquet was cancelled. Hong Kong’s Covid situation – with less than 3000 new cases on Thursday – was deemed too risky for Mr Xi, who has not left China since January 2020.

Helicopters fly past with the Hong Kong and Chinese flags on Friday. Picture: AFP

Instead, he had a private dinner with outgoing Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, 65, and her successor John Lee, 64.

An overnight stay in Hong Kong was also judged too dangerous. Instead, Mr Xi spent Thursday night in a secure leadership compound back on the mainland, a safe distance from the “anti- China forces” that obsess Beijing.

“It’s more feasible to provide a watertight security blanket for the President in the government’s guesthouses in Shenzhen,” explained Ip Kwok-him, a member of Hong Kong’s de facto cabinet.

On Friday morning, Mr Xi returned for another few hours. All up he spent less than 10 hours in the city during what was billed as a two-day visit, the first since his 2017 trip for the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover.

In his keynote speech after swearing in Mr Lee as Hong Kong’s new chief executive, China’s leader tried to strike a positive note. “Youngsters have a future. Hong Kong has a future,” Mr Xi told Friday’s carefully ­curated crowd.

Two years ago, a Beijing-authored sweeping National Security Law was used to stamp out Hong Kong’s democracy movement, which had led more than two million people in months of protests in 2019. Mr Xi on Friday said the crackdown was necessary to keep Hong Kong in the control of Chinese “patriots”. “There’s no one in the world who would allow outsiders, betrayers or even traitors to get hold of political power,” the 69-year-old leader said.

Mr Xi said his government had protected Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model, which China’s former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping formulated in the 1980s during negotiations with the UK. “There is no reason to change such a good system, and it must be supported for a long time,” Mr Xi said. “Whatever the central government does, it’s for the good of the nation, Hong Kong and Macau.”

A young Hong Konger is lifted into the spirit of things on Friday. Picture: AFP

Mr Lee, Beijing’s choice to run the city for the next five years, agreed. Speaking in Mandarin instead of Cantonese, Mr Lee said it was thanks to Beijing that Hong Kong was able to overcome the political and economic challenges that had marked its recent history. “Fortunately with support from the central government and with Hong Kong people’s resilience, the city has overcome these challenges one after another,” said Mr Lee, who was previously Hong Kong’s top security official.

Many are less enthusiastic about Beijing’s recent involvement. Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers have left the city in the two years since the security law was imposed in June 2020.

One of those is Joseph Cheng, a senior figure in the Hong Kong democracy movement, who said that Mr Xi had overseen the end of the “one country, two systems” model. “It no longer exists,” Professor Cheng told The Weekend Australian from his new home in New Zealand.

He said increasing numbers of teachers, doctors and nurses had left the city, as civic life had been curtailed and Beijing had forced a new “patriotic” syllabus on the city’s schools. “Hong Kong people have voted with their feet,” he said.

Professor Cheng said much of the security presence in Hong Kong for the anniversary was to make sure the city looked under control during Mr Xi’s visit. “I think there is a distinct awareness on the part of Hong Kong officials to avoid any scene of protest … so these scenes do not appear in the international media.”

Professor Cheng is writing a history of the democracy movement. Many of the former City University of Hong Kong professor’s subjects are in prison, including 74-year-old media tycoon Jimmy Lai and 25-year-old Joshua Wong, whose family quietly fled for sanctuary in Australia.