With just a day to go before the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty on July 1, it is widely rumoured that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Hong Kong for two days on June 30 and July 1 to administer the oath and swear-in of the new government officials. The trip will include visiting the Science Park.
Several media outlets recently reported that the Home Affairs Bureau’s Celebration Coordination Office did not use the “blind carbon copy” function when sending out an email on June 26 to the guests attending the event about the pandemic prevention measures, thus “leaking” the personal emails of more than 400 guests. Those include the Chief Secretary for Administration-designate (and current Director of the Chief Executive Office), Eric Chan Kwok-ki; Executive Council member-designate, Eliza Chan Ching-har; and a host of Legislative Councillors.
CCP Media Did Not Mention “Going to Hong Kong”
On June 25, the mouthpiece of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xinhua News Agency announced that Xi Jinping, the leader of CCP, will attend the “celebration of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s sovereignty handover and the inauguration ceremony of the sixth government of the Hong Kong government.”Compared with five years ago, this year’s CCP media press release lacks the specific date of Xi’s visit to Hong Kong, the words “going to Hong Kong” and “inspection” are also missing.
The recent rebound of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, with nearly 2,000 daily confirmed new cases, aroused lots of people within Hong Kong’s political circles to speculate whether Xi would only attend the event by video.
Visit Hong Kong For 2 Days
Based on multiple media sources, Xi is expected to take the high-speed rail to Hong Kong for the event on June 30 and July 1, but will return to Shenzhen on the same day and will not stay overnight in Hong Kong.On the evening of June 30, Chief Executive Carrie Lam initially scheduled a banquet at the Government House to entertain Xi, the current and incoming key officials would also be present.
On July 1, Xi will attend the celebration to swear in the 6th Chief Executive and key government officials.
In addition, it is rumoured that Xi will visit the Shatin Science Park. The Science Park Facilities Management Office issued a notice stating that an “Innovation and Technology Event” will be held in the Science Park on June 30, and many companies in the Science Park have arranged for their employees to work from home on that day.
In order to strengthen the prevention of the pandemic, some government officials have been in hotels for so called “closed-loop” management since June 27. The outgoing Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, already started to stay at the Wanchai Grand Hyatt Hotel on June 27. The other officials also stayed at the Wanchai Renaissance Harbour View Hotel and the Grand Hyatt Hotel. They can continue to use the “point-to-point” mechanism to return to the office for work, but they can only attend the meetings by video and have to dine “in office only.”
Commentator: Innovation and Technology Zone promotion
Some predict Xi may take this chance to propose plans for the Nansha Innovation and Technology Zone.Current affairs commentator Stephen Shiu Yeuk-yuen said that Xi plans to visit the Science Park to express the importance that he attaches to innovation and technology. He will also make a “keynote speech,” intended to drive and hope to boost the confidence of Hong Kong from the outside world. The key message is likely to be, “Look, Hong Kong has been managed well, and it has a bright future!”
Shiu estimates that Xi’s speech may also refer to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau cooperation plan, which intends to combine Guangzhou Nansha, Hong Kong and Macau into an innovation and technology zone. However, he predicts such a plan will be another “unfinished” project and suffer the same fate as Xi’s “Xiongan New Town” programme in Beijing: started fervently, stopped halfway, and remained unfinished until “you know when.”
All the above predictions notwithstanding, on June 14, Raymond Siu Chak-yee, current Commissioner of Police, revealed that the police had started planning the security work for the 2022 July 1st event since the beginning of 2021. To ensure a foolproof event, his force will be in full mobilisation mode and are always in full alert. Special commando units, support staff, auxiliary police and the likes are deployed. Additional civilian staff members will also be on duty to look out for suspicious persons or objects.
According to the previous, when Hu Jintao visited Hong Kong in 2012, the force dispatched nearly 3,000 police; when Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong in 2017, they dispatched nearly 10,000.
Stephen Shiu’s analysis: According to Raymond Siu’s “general mobilization” statement, if Xi visits Hong Kong on July 1, 2022, there will be nearly 30,000 police officers deployed, a tenfold increase.
