China’s President Xi Jinping, has arrived in Hong Kong on the eve of celebrations marking 25 years since Britain handed the former colony back to China in 1997.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, travelled to Hong Kong by high-speed train under strict security measures, marking the Chinese leader’s first journey outside mainland China in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, was designated under the agreement that was supposed to grant the city some degree of autonomy.
The autonomy, 50 years after the British handover, was ruled for a long time according to the One Country, Two Systems principle.
However, in 2020 Beijing introduced a controversial new national security law, putting an end to mass pro-democracy protests.
Many civil rights activists, protest leaders and politicians ended up in jail, while others fled abroad to avoid persecution by the authorities.
Xi is scheduled to meet economic representatives and local politicians on Thursday, the South China Morning Post reported.
After a visit to a science park, Xi will attend an official dinner with Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s outgoing chief executive.
On Friday, the Chinese president would attend the anniversary festivities with hardline former security minister John Lee to be sworn in as Lee’s successor that day.
According to the report, Xi will not spend the night in Hong Kong, but will return to the nearby city of Shenzhen before travelling to Hong Kong again in the morning.
Some 3,000 guests invited to the ceremony had to self-isolate ahead of the event due to Coronavirus restrictions. (dpa/NAN)
