A Tale of Two Cities, as Xi Jinping Visits Hong Kong | Taiwan News

“Manhattan meets Hawaii.” This is how I described Hong Kong to foreigners when I first moved here 7 years ago, dazzled by the glittering skyscrapers ringing from the verdant mountains by the sea.

It was a modern, efficient city where the real estate agent looked puzzled when I asked about the risk of blackouts, a chronic problem in my former place of residence, Istanbul. “But we need electricity,” she explained. “For elevators and air conditioners.”

Locals looked at me with the same incomprehension when I asked about Hong Kong’s unusual political system. I was surprised to learn that elected lawmakers could show up on the floor of the city legislature and ridicule the Chinese national government. How was it possible that in this corner of Communist-ruled China open dissent could be tolerated?

Like ubiquitous electricity, Hong Kong’s remarkable freedoms have been accepted as part of the fabric of the city. Religions, political views and forms of artistic expression banned on the Continent not only endured but were celebrated in this former British colony.

The Great Internet Firewall, which blocked Gmail, Twitter and Instagram, ended at the internal border between mainland China and Hong Kong. This unusual arrangement was protected by international treaties dating from before Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from British to Chinese rule, as well as Beijing’s commitment to respect the city’s autonomy, in the words ” one country, two systems”.

Many say the commitment collapsed in 2020, when the Beijing-appointed administration in Hong Kong pushed through a national security law after a year of increasingly violent street protests.

Before long, police began arresting opposition lawmakers and pro-democracy activists on various charges, while targeting and shutting down independent newspapers. Statues that had commemorated the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing have been quietly removed from university campuses.

Today, few Hong Kongers dare to criticize the government in public – except when it comes to the administration’s embrace of China’s “zero-COVID” policy.

Since 2020, this government-led effort to eradicate the virus from Chinese shores has virtually closed the borders of Hong Kong and China to the outside world. It has also subjected residents to lockdowns and social distancing measures that have devastated both economies.

Signs still greet the few new arrivals at Hong Kong airport with the slogan “Asia’s World City”, but the once bustling terminal is largely empty. Strict anti-COVID measures, part of the government’s zero-COVID approach, have also triggered an exodus of people and talent from this now incredibly isolated city.

My wife and I met and married in Hong Kong and started a family here. But since our daughter was born, we have lived in fear that if any of us test positive for COVID, the authorities might separate us from our 13-month-old and lock us in a COVID isolation camp. managed by the government.

Even Beijing loyalists admit zero-COVID has damaged Hong Kong’s reputation as a safe and reliable international hub. “We have lost some of the advantages we enjoyed in the past,” former Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung told me this month. “But we will find him as soon as we have COVID under control,” he insisted.

I anticipated some of the elaborate COVID prevention measures I would have to undergo as a reporter to cover the ceremonies commemorating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s July 1 handover, which Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend.

Journalists had to take daily PCR tests the week before the event. A government email said journalists must also check into a hotel designated for strict closed-loop management two days before Xi’s visit. There they would be confined to their rooms, before being tested again three hours before the event.

But three days after my PCR tests started, I received a phone call from the same government information services department. “Your application to cover the 25th anniversary was rejected by the police,” a polite woman named Chris told me.

She was unable to justify the refusal. Local media report that at least ten news agencies have had their journalists similarly rejected, allegedly for security reasons.

These days, I started referring to Hong Kong as “the tale of two cities”. On the one hand, parts of the government bureaucracy are still trying to promote Hong Kong as a business-friendly center for international trade. This is the kind of place that quickly and efficiently granted me “permanent resident” status after living and working here for 7 years. But at the same time, an obsession with state control and the stifling of dissent that is the hallmark of President Xi’s China has also taken root here.

These competing and contradictory impulses often give the city a schizophrenic air. As the months pass, there is less and less reason to doubt the trend that will dominate Hong Kong in the years to come.

Follow CNN coverage on the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong on television and digitally.