As expected, Xi Jinping expressed his satisfaction with the situation in Hong Kong two years after the protest movement there was crushed.

“Hong Kong has endured severe trials, overcoming challenge after challenge.

After wind and rain, Hong Kong has risen from the ashes," he said after arriving on a bullet train at Hong Kong Station.

China's head of state and party leader traveled together with his wife Peng Liyuan to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the return of the former British crown colony to China this Friday.

For a long time it seemed uncertain whether Xi Jinping would come to Hong Kong given the comparatively high corona incidence.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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It is the first time he has left mainland China in more than two years.

However, a cancellation could have been interpreted as a sign of weakness.

His predecessors had traveled to Hong Kong every five years for the return anniversary on July 1st.

Xi Jinping last visited the city five years ago for precisely this reason.

Since then, he has never stopped "caring for and missing Hong Kong," he said.

This time his program is narrower because of the Corona situation.

In the evening, the head of state attended a farewell reception given by outgoing Hong Kong Prime Minister Carrie Lam.

According to state media, he said the central government fully recognizes their work over the past five years.

Lam has performed her duties "in a loyal manner," striving to "stop violence and chaos, fight the pandemic with full force" and ensure national security.

That didn't sound like an exuberant appreciation.

In Beijing, among other things, Lam's crisis management during the pandemic is viewed critically.

She did not apply for a second term.

Integration with the rest of China

The head of state also visited a technology park and a center for medical technology, probably in an effort to present Hong Kong as a location for innovation.

There have long been plans to combine Hong Kong and the neighboring city of Shenzhen into a technology cluster.

However, this is currently failing because the inner-Chinese border between Hong Kong and the mainland is largely closed due to Corona.

Only a thousand people are allowed to cross the border per day.

In the long term, Hong Kong is to be merged with other cities in the Pearl River Delta to form a “Greater Bay Area”.

The integration is also intended to overcome the social differences between the former British colony and the rest of China.

The outgoing Prime Minister Lam is said to own an apartment in Shenzhen.

Xi's program included meetings with around 200 local politicians and business leaders.

They had to undergo a one-day quarantine and restrictions lasting several days in advance to ensure that they were not infected with Corona.

Selected students who greeted the head of state at the train station with flags and shouts of "Welcome" had to spend a week in a hotel for the same reason.

Media barred from ceremony

It was expected that Xi Jinping would also visit the Hong Kong People's Liberation Army garrison.

According to a report by the South China Morning Post, he was to spend the night in Shenzhen, a few kilometers away, before returning to Hong Kong on Friday morning to inaugurate the new Prime Minister, John Lee.

It remained unclear whether safety considerations or the corona situation were the reason for the nightly change of location.

Hong Kong police cordoned off the places Xi visited and blocked the airspace for drones.

Numerous international and local media were denied coverage of the ceremony, including Reuters, AFP and Bloomberg news agencies, the South China Morning Post and Ming Pao newspapers, and local public broadcaster RTHK.

A spokesman told Reuters news agency that the government was trying to "balance" security and reporting.

New Prime Minister John Lee has spent most of his career in the police force and is on a US sanctions list for his role in cracking down on the protest movement.

His appointment is seen as an indication that two years after the end of the protest movement, the central government still sees the need to crack down on critics.

So far, around 190 activists and politicians have been arrested under the National Security Law, along with thousands more for other alleged crimes related to the protests.

No protests were reported on Thursday.

The pro-democracy group League of Social Democrats said the National Security Police Unit had searched the homes of six members.