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President Xi Jinping led a swearing-in ceremony as China marked the twenty fifth anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from British rule
Chinese language President Xi Jinping has sworn in Hong Kong’s new Chief Government, John Lee, making his first journey outdoors the mainland for the reason that begin of the coronavirus pandemic.
Lee, a former safety official, delivered his inaugural handle on Friday, setting out his imaginative and prescient for the territory.
The brand new authorities “will improve Hong Kong’s competitiveness and develop the economic system,” he mentioned, including that “emphasis shall be placed on the event of Hong Kong into a global innovation and know-how hub, leveraging and mixing the respective strengths of Hong Kong and the Mainland.”
Although Xi didn’t attend a conventional flag-raising occasion to mark the event, he officiated the swearing-in ceremony after arriving in Hong Kong in the future prior. The president had not left mainland China since 2019, and his final journey to Hong Kong got here in 2017, when he swore within the metropolis’s earlier chief, Carrie Lam.
Talking after Lee formally took workplace, Xi touted Beijing’s ‘one nation, two techniques’ coverage, and pledged to permit some autonomy for the previous British colony whereas holding it a part of China.
“For this type of good system, there isn’t any cause in any respect to vary it. It have to be maintained over the long run,” he mentioned.
Friday additionally marked the twenty fifth anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese language governance, after greater than 150 years of British rule. Although Beijing vowed that Hong Kong would have a type of self-rule and judicial independence for a minimum of 50 years following the handover in 1997, Western leaders have accused China of curbing that autonomy, notably with a 2020 nationwide safety legislation handed within the wake of mass protests and rioting.
A former chief of police, Lee is amongst a number of senior Hong Kong officers underneath US sanctions over the legislation, which he helped to implement. China has rejected criticisms of the laws, nevertheless, with Xi insisting it “restored order from chaos” whereas preserving residents’ “democratic rights.”
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