Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Hong Kong

Chinese President Xi Jinping (photo by AFP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Hong Kong to attend a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the city’s return to China from British rule and to swear in a new chief executive.

Xi’s visit will start on Wednesday, June 29, and end on Saturday, July 1.

During the visit, he will attend the inauguration ceremony of a new chief executive for the city, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

Hong Kong’s chief executive-elect, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (C), poses with her cabinet members at a press conference in Hong Kong. Lam will be officially sworn in as Hong Kong’s next leader on July 1, also the 20th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain to China. (Photo by AFP)

A former senior government official, Lam has been elected by a 1,200-person committee to run the fifth administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The 55-year-old former chief secretary won 777 votes from the Election Committee to become the city’s first female leader in the Chinese-ruled financial hub of 7.3 million people.

Lam will be taking over from current leader Leung Chun-ying.

The visit by Xi will be his first to Hong Kong since becoming China’s president in 2013.

Special security measures have been set up for the visit.

Since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, Beijing has been walking a fine line regarding the administration of the city under the formula of “one country, two systems,” a constitutional principle formulated for the reunification of China during the early 1980s.