Beijing has used its aircraft carrier's maiden voyage to tighten its grip over Hong Kong. Concerns about democracy have been raised on the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Bahar
Advertisement
Hong Kong has traditionally been more used to hosting US warships, but on Friday morning Beijing's first operational aircraft carrier, known as the Liaoning, cruised into the city's harbor.
The Liaoning's maiden voyage into Hong Kong was part of a series of celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China, but it also served as marked display of China's military might in a region where political dissent was once overlooked by Beijing.
Thousands of Hong Kong residents queued to witness the Liaoning - with jet fighters and helicopters parked on its deck and hundreds of crew members clad in pristine white uniforms - steam through the city's East Lamma Channel.
Hong Kong's 20-year history since handover
Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty twenty years ago, after 156 years of British rule. The territory's history during this time has been marked by numerous protests against mainland China and the SARS pandemic.
Image: Reuters/B. Yip
1997: Historic moment
The handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China took place on July 1, 1997. The territory on China's Pearl River Delta became a British colony in 1842 and was occupied by Japan during World War II. After Hong Kong's return to China, the political situation was described as "one country, two systems."
Image: Reuters/D. Martinez
1999: No family reunions
Divided families, who had been split by the Hong Kong border, had hoped to be reunited after the territory's return to China. But with a daily quota of only 150 mainland Chinese allowed to settle in Hong Kong, many were left disapointed. This photo from 1999 shows mainland Chinese visitors protesting outside Hong Kong's Legal Aid Department after they were denied residency permits.
Image: Reuters/B. Yip
2002: Dashed hopes
The residency issue flared up again in April 2002 when Hong Kong began deporting some 4,000 mainland Chinese who had lost legal battles to stay in the territory. These desperate families were evicted from a central park where they had been protesting.
Image: Reuters/K. Cheung
2003: The SARS pandemic hits
In 2003, the highly contagious SARS virus spread through Hong Kong. The territory was hard hit by the flu-like virus and in March, the WHO declared it a pandemic. This man attended Doctor Tse Yuen-man's funeral in May. Dr. Tse had volunteered to care for SARS patients and had contracted the virus herself. Hong Kong was declared SARS-free in June 2003. Almost 300 people had died of the disease.
Image: Reuters/B. Yip
2004: Rally for democracy
China's policy of "one country, two systems" has often created tension. In 2004, on the seventh anniversary of the handover, hundreds of thousands of people protested in Hong Kong, demanding political reform. They were calling for democracy and direct elections for Hong Kong's next leader.
Image: Reuters/B. Yip
2008: No place to live
Soaring property prices in Hong Kong forced rents higher. By 2008, it wasn't unusual to see people like Kong Siu-kau living in so-called "cage homes," 15-square-foot (1.4 square meters) wire mesh cubicles, eight of which were usually crammed into one room. Today an estimated 200,000 people call a wire cage, or a single bed in a shared apartment, home.
Image: Reuters/V. Fraile
2009: Remembering Tiananmen Square
On the twentieth anniversary of the government's brutal crackdown in Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong residents gathered for a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park. It showed how different Hong Kong is from China, where the massacre of pro-democracy supporters and students on June 4, 1989, is usually only referred to as the June Fourth Incident.
Image: Reuters/A. Tam
2014: Occupy Central
Starting in September 2014, large-scale protests demanding more autonomy rocked Hong Kong for over two months. Beijing had announced that China would decide on the candidates for the 2017 election of Hong Kong's chief executive. The protests were referred to as the Umbrella Revolution, because protesters used umbrellas to fend off pepper spray and tear gas used by police.
Image: Reuters/T. Siu
2015: Sport becomes political
Less than a year after the Occupy Central protests ended, China played against Hong Kong in a soccer World Cup qualifiying match on November 17, 2015. The guests did not receive a friendly welcome in Hong Kong. Fans booed when the Chinese national anthem was played and held up posters saying "Hong Kong is not China." The match ended 0-0.
Image: Reuters/B. Yip
2016: Another bout of violence
In February 2016, Hong Kong's rough police tactics made headlines again. Authorities tried to remove illegal street vendors from a working-class Hong Kong neighborhood. They sent riot police, who used batons and pepper spray against protesters, and also fired live warning shots into the air. The street clashes were the worst since the Umbrella Revolution in 2014.
Image: Reuters/B. Yip
10 images1 | 10
"I think Liaoning's visit definitely gives the central government a chance to display its military power," Sean Moran, a tourist from the US, said. "It's quite a positive and smart strategy to step up publicity overall."
The 305 meter-long carrier, once a Soviet-era navy ship, has attracted a significant degree of fanfare, with hundreds of people queuing overnight in a bid to snatch up one of the just 2,000 tickets available for a public tour of the ship.
However, those who did manage to grab a ticket have been ordered not to bring any cameras onboard, while the event is also closed to any foreign press.
Meanwhile, US consulate officials told the Reuters news agency that they had yet to be invited onto the carrier.
The Liaoning's most recent drill the previous weekend saw it carry out operations in the Taiwan Strait, heightening tensions with Taiwan. The island traditionally sees itself as autonomous – a concept that does not chime well with Beijing.
One country. Two systems?
The Liaoning's voyage into Hong Kong is Beijing's latest display of might over the semi-autonomous island, and comes less than a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a heated 30-minute speech on his first visit to the island as leader. He warned that any challenge to Beijing's authority would cross a "red line."
The city also played host to a grandiose military parade, where arrays of helicopters and armored vehicles were all on display.
In what's know as the "one country, two systems" guarantee, Hong Kong was guaranteed to keep its political and economic independence for a further 50 years following the 1997 handover agreement. However, Beijing has appeared in recent years to be casting aside those assurances by cracking down on independence protests and forcing local leaders to pledge their allegiance to China's Communist Party.
