“ACCORDING to China’s tradition, a man enters adulthood at the age of 20.” So Xi Jinping, China’s president, told grandees at a ceremony in Hong Kong marking the anniversary of the handover of the territory by Britain to China in 1997. In the past two…
“ACCORDING to China’s tradition, a man enters adulthood at the age of 20.” So Xi Jinping, China’s president, told grandees at a ceremony in Hong Kong marking the anniversary of the handover of the territory by Britain to China in 1997. In the past two decades, he said, Hong Kong had grown “exuberant like a bamboo or a pine tree”. Yet however much Hong Kong has matured under Chinese rule, it is clear that the motherland does not yet trust it to behave.
When China took over Hong Kong, it promised that the territory would enjoy a “high degree of autonomy” under the principle of “one country, two systems”. But in his speech Mr Xi made clear that China’s support for Hong Kong’s liberal way of life had limits. “Any attempt, ” he warned, “to endanger China’s sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government…or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible.”
Mr Xi’s audience included Carrie Lam, whom he had just anointed as the territory’s new leader—the fourth person to hold the post of chief executive since China took control. It is clear that he wants Ms Lam to take a hard stance towards an emerging political force in Hong Kong whose members advocate self-determination for the territory or even its independence from China. Such “localists”, as they describe themselves, as well as others who simply want more democracy, have staged scattered protests since shortly before Mr Xi’s arrival in Hong Kong on June 29th—his first visit to the territory as China’s leader.
