To watch the official coverage of Xi Jinping’s visit to Hong Kong, you would think he had been greeted by adoring citizens everywhere he went. From the moment his high-speed train pulled into the West Kowloon station in the city on 30 June, crowds of schoolchildren cheered and waved flowers, along with Chinese and Hong Kong flags. “Welcome, welcome,” they chanted in unison. “We warmly welcome you!”
As the Chinese leader strolled along the red carpet in front of the cameras, occasionally waving to his apparently awestruck fans, a brass band played and a traditional lion dance troupe leaped and swayed in front of him. It was the first time he had left the Chinese mainland since the start of the pandemic, more than two years earlier, and the first time he had set foot in Hong Kong in five years. But throughout those years, he said in his speech, “I never stopped caring about and missing Hong Kong. My heart, the central government’s heart, is with the people of Hong Kong.”
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