Xi Jinping will make his first journey exterior of the Chinese language mainland because the begin of the pandemic greater than two years in the past to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Hong Kong chief govt John Lee.
The Chinese language president might be at Lee’s facet when the previous safety minister and policeman takes over the helm of the Hong Kong authorities from Carrie Lam on July 1.
On Saturday, state media company Xinhua confirmed Xi’s attendance after hypothesis that he would skip Lee’s signing-in ceremony due to an uptick in coronavirus instances within the metropolis.
Xi has averted any journey that would put him susceptible to contracting the virus. He has not left China since January 2020, when he went to Myanmar for a state journey simply days earlier than Wuhan, the place the virus was first detected, went into lockdown.
China is the one large international economic system that has resolutely maintained a strict zero-Covid stance, leaving the nation more and more remoted as the remainder of the world adapts to residing with the virus. Xi has joined essential world summits, together with the COP26 local weather convention in Glasgow final September, through video hyperlink.
That Xi has chosen Lee’s swearing-in ceremony to mark his first journey exterior of the Chinese language mainland underscores the political significance of the event, which additionally falls on the twenty fifth anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China.
This yr marks the midway level of the 50 years of “one nation, two programs” autonomy that Beijing assured to Hong Kong, which critics say has been undermined by way of China’s mounting political interference within the metropolis.
The July 1 anniversary in 2019 was marked by mass protests when demonstrators broke into the town’s legislature to rally towards China’s affect over Hong Kong.
The town has modified dramatically because the summer time of protests rocked the monetary hub, sparking a harsh crackdown on civic and political life in Hong Kong. Professional-democracy politicians, activists and journalists have been rounded up by authorities and prosecuted underneath a imprecise nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing two years in the past.
Xi’s go to will mark his first go to to Hong Kong because the outbreak of the protests.
The announcement coincided with an increase in coronavirus instances within the Chinese language territory following the emergence of the Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1. The town reported 1,860 infections on Friday.
Metropolis authorities have reintroduced the controversial measure of forcing Covid sufferers and their shut contacts into centralised quarantine to curb the unfold of the virus.
Hong Kong officers and lawmakers attending the ceremony will quarantine forward of the swearing-in ceremony to protect the Chinese language president from an infection.