July 1st 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. The silver jubilee of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China was celebrated in various ways, including light shows, movie screenings, a flag-raising ceremony, and boat parades.
For the occasion, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong for two days – although he did not spend the night there – and spoke at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, praising “one country, two systems” and stressing that there is “no reason to change such a good system” and that “it must be adhered to in the long run.” During the ceremony, ex-police officer John Lee was sworn in as Hong Kong’s new chief executive.
While Chinese state media described the 25th anniversary as “festive” and “joyous,” Hong Kong Free Press wrote about “muted celebrations” and the event being overshadowed by the security blanket, media restrictions, Covid-19 concerns, and a typhoon.
On Chinese social media site Weibo, the event was completely dominated by the official narrative, and Chinese state media propagated the 25th anniversary through various hashtags and online posters.
The hashtag “Blessed Hong Kong, Blessed Motherland” (#祝福香港祝福祖国#) was initiated by CCTV and received over 189 million views. CCTV also published an online poster showing the Hong Kong skyline in the number 25.
One post by CCTV including the online poster received over 716,000 likes and more than 95,000 comments – most of them included hearts and well wishes to Hong Kong.
The hashtag “25th Annniversary of Hong Kong’s Return to the Motherland” (#香港回归祖国25周年#) received over 280 million views.
China Youth Daily initiated the “Hong Kong 25th Year Since Returning to Motherland” hashtag (#香港回归祖国25载#), while People’s Daily released a song video in cooperation with China Mobile to celebrate the event (#香港回归25周年纪念曲祝福#) featuring singer Zhou Shen (周深).
State media outlet Xinhua also released a song dedicated to the 25th anniversary. Titled “Hello Hong Kong” (你好香港), the song features the super popular mainland singer Wang Yibo (王一博). The video was reposted over a million times.
People’s Daily also published another post on July 1st, at 0:00 exactly, writing: “If Hong Kong is [doing] well, the nation is [doing] well; when the nation is good, Hong Kong is even better” (“香港好，国家好；国家好，香港更好”).
The hashtag “Ensuring That ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Is Always Heading in the Right Direction” (#确保一国两制事业始终朝着正确的方向行稳致远#) was promoted by the People’s Daily Commentary account – and even pushed to the top of the Weibo hot search lists – stressing the historical and future role of Hong Kong in ‘the great rejuvenation’ of the Chinese nation.
Meanwhile, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian (赵立坚) posted a lengthy Ministry statement on Weibo condemning some of the international responses to Hong Kong’s handover anniversary, such as that by the White House about Beijingh eliminating “any meaningful political opposition in Hong Kong and stifling dissent.”
According to the statement posted by Zhao, these kind of responses were just attempts to “smear” China’s “one country, two systems” policy and merely are meant to meddle in China internal affairs, disregarding “the basic norms of international relations.”
There was also some online controversy after Hong Kong singer and actor Jacky Cheung (张学友) cheered on Hong Kong by saying “Go Hong Kong!” [“香港加油!”] in a video celebrating the anniversary. Cheung was criticized on Chinese social media for not mentioning the “motherland” and only cheering on “Hong Kong”, with people accusing him of not being patriotic enough. The video was later taken offline.
Jacky Cheung issued a statement on July 3rd, clarifying that he is patriotic and loves Hong-Kong, and above all, is “proud to be Chinese.” That statement also went trending on Weibo (#张学友声明#), where many people also said they found the online storm over Cheung’s ‘Go Hong Kong’ comment exaggerated and unnecessary.
Some commenters wondered if all pop stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan would need to repeat “I am Chinese” all the time in order to be politically correct, avoid controversy, and avoid being accused of being a traitor. “It is a bit lamentable to force Jacky Cheung to prove his innocence like this,” one blogger wrote.
According to FreeWeibo.com, a website monitoring what gets censored on Weibo, many comments relating to ‘Hong Kong’ were censored these past few days.
For more articles about Hong Kong on What’s on Weibo, see our previous articles here.
By Manya Koetse
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