In Hong Kong, Xi Jinping Presented Himself As the Third Man of Contemporary Chinese Imperialism.

He wants to be considered the worthy successor of Mao and Deng Xiaoping.

After 900 days without travel for fear of COVID, Xi Jinping made his first long official trip on June 30 and July 1, 2022. He did not travel abroad but symbolically to a Chinese territory that was long dominated by foreigners.

The island of Hong Kong was granted to the British Crown in 1842 by the “unequal treaty” of Nanking after the Middle Kingdom lost the first Opium War. It was a war that London waged against the Chinese to force them to let the drugs produced in India, which was at the time the jewel of Queen Victoria's empire, enter their market. The colony was expanded in 1898, with a 99-year lease on the New Territories.

The Chinese president went to Hong Kong to attend the 25th-anniversary festivities of the handover of this former British colony to China, as well as the inauguration of John Lee, the new governor, appointed by Beijing for his firmness in leading the police in the repression of the pro-democracy movement of 2019.

Curiously enough, the Chinese president in his speech hailed the success of the “one country, two systems” principle, which is supposed to govern the territory for fifty years after the handover.

The British believe that the new security law introduced in Hong Kong by China in 2020 - which suppresses the expression of any opinion hostile to the CCP's policies - is a clear violation of the handover treaty.

Xi Jinping indirectly responded to them by stating:

“No nation in any part of the world would accept that a territory belonging to it could fall into the hands of forces or individuals hostile to it.”

The CCP does not want a democratically elected autonomous government in Hong Kong, for fear of being confronted by a body that would not follow its directives. In power since 2012, Xi Jinping has significantly strengthened the CCP's grip on Chinese society. He has restored discipline to the party, purging it of its most visibly corrupt elements. Thanks to China's spectacular progress in digital technology, he has instituted a permanent social control of the population, which allows nipping in the bud any popular movement that would challenge the CCP's prerogatives.

The ambition of Xi Jinping, who will be granted a third five-year term as general secretary and president of the country (theoretically renewable indefinitely) by the 20th CCP Congress in the fall, is to be a worthy member of the contemporary Chinese imperial trinity.

Xi Jinping wants to be the third man of the Chinese imperial trinity

Mao is the leader who re-established the independence of the Middle Kingdom and gave it back its pride after a century of foreign humiliations. The great mass of Chinese people do not remember the terrible human consequences of the Maoist ideological follies that were the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976); they only remember Mao's victory over the Japanese occupier and the dialogue of equals established with the great powers, illustrated by the visit of the American president Nixon to Beijing in 1972.

The second trinity figure is Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), the wise man who knew how to develop the country economically by releasing the entrepreneurial talents of the Chinese, under the principle "it doesn't matter if the cat is grey or black, as long as it catches the mouse". Deng is credited with seducing the West, bringing his technology to China, and preparing for the handover of Hong Kong, and the country's admission to the World Trade Organization. He will go down in history as the great modernizer of the country.

Born in 1953 into a family that was a victim of the Cultural Revolution without ever disowning the Party, Xi Jinping sees himself as the great consolidator. Of Chinese independence and economic success. Naïve, the West helped China's industry and trade to develop, thinking that it would then naturally follow them politically. Xi Jinping has set the record straight: yes to your capitalism, no to your democracy.

Drawing lessons from the 2008 American financial crisis - where the Chinese were rinsed - Xi Jinping invented the Belt and Road Initiative. China was now going to invest primarily in its near abroad, in territories it could control.

But, to be sure to go down in history as one of the three contemporary emperors, Xi Jinping wants to be the man to return Taiwan to the motherland. A military landing? The current resistance of the Ukrainians makes him cautious. For the moment, he is trying to revive the “one country, two systems” framework. Until when? Only the future will tell us ...