Xi offers HK workable solutions to its problems

The highlight of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China was the three-day visit by President Xi Jinping. The president visited the construction site of the West Kowloon Cultural District and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, officiated at the military parade at the garrison and inaugurated the new chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region.

The most noteworthy part of Xi's visit was his speech at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on July 1, after the SAR administration led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was sworn into office. Many key points of the speech were long-standing policies. And I believe the central part of Xi's speech was about implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle, specifically his four main points.

First, he referred to the "one country" principle as the roots of a tree which must run deep and strong to hold the tree stable. This reference is clearly in response to the repeated provocation by the opposition to challenge the central government's authority over the SAR. Opposition parties have long been trying to use "two systems" to resist "one country". In recent years, the opposition camp has stepped up its rhetoric and used terms like localism, self-determination and even "independence". The Basic Law has already guaranteed Hong Kong a very high degree of autonomy and the repeated use of these inflammatory slogans can only be interpreted as an attack on China's sovereignty. Therefore, Xi had to be very straightforward with his points when he drew a "red line" for those impermissible behaviors.