Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a historic visit to Hong Kong, confirms importance of principle “a country

The leader went to the special administrative region of China to mark the 25th anniversary of the retrocession of the former British colony to the People’s Republic of China, and induct the sixth government.

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To welcome the emissaries of Continental China, all the partitions of the Kowloon west station, north of Hongkong, had been lined, Thursday, June, from posters predominantly red and gold, celebrating 25 E anniversary of the retrocession of the former British colony to China. The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, who came out of continental China for the first time since the start of the pandemic, assured the inhabitants that the “real democracy” had finally started for them.

“After reunification with the motherland, the inhabitants of Hong Kong became the masters of their own city,” he said. An assertion that will not fail to make defenders of democracy grimacate, after three years of a takeover of the territory by the Chinese authorities, who severely reduced civil freedoms.

The Chinese number one left on Friday, around noon, after having inspected the Chinese troops posted in Hong Kong and having induced the 6 e government of Hongkong, led by John Lee, policeman by profession, who had led the repression of demonstrations in 2019. In his final speech, he expressed his attachment to the principle “a country, two systems”, “a system that has been tested over the years, multiple times and that it ‘There is no reason to change and which must be preserved in the long term “. Words that confirm what many analysts and observers already thought: namely that the 2047 deadline will undoubtedly or no longer mark the end of this principle summarizing the spirit of relations between Beijing and Hongkong.

And for good reason: the communist regime did not wait for the fifty -year period promised upstream of the 1997 retrocession to impose on the old British colony of drastic changes. Xi Jinping also recalled the role played by Hong Kong in the development of the “motherland” and praised “her strength drawn from her great freedom and his compatibility with international rules”. In other words, Hongkong must continue to assume its function as an international financial center. Developed by Deng Xiaoping, the concept “a country, two systems” had been described as “a stroke of genius” by the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, in the early 1980s, during the negotiations between the United Kingdom and The People’s Republic of China, with a view to the Hong Kong retrocession.

The special administrative region is halfway through the fifty years during which Deng Xiaoping had promised that “nothing would change, neither the horse races nor the dancing evenings”. But the specificity of Hong Kong went beyond entertainment. In three years, the territory has cashed a virulent reconfiguration of its institutions, by Chinese unilateral decision. With the entry into force of the national security law, exactly two years ago, civil society was “purified” with all potentially critical or protesting forces (press, unions, NGOs, etc.). The new electoral code imposed in the spring of 2021 served the political scene of any pro -democracy opposition. Its most popular representatives are currently in prison. The Parliament (Legco, Legco) is only composed of patriots loyal to Beijing.

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