In central Hong Kong, massive walls have been erected around the convention center, producing a restricted, two-tiered, no-access zone. Hundreds of Hong Kong's signature red cabs, decked with red Chinese flags and red celebratory banners, stopped in the shape of the number 25 in the city's Central district on Wednesday. Across the harbor in Kowloon, tens of thousands of Chinese and Hong Kong flags flapped from the balcony railings of two housing estates, each dozen of stories tall.

On Friday, Hong Kong will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the handover of the territory from Britain to China. Authorities are taking no chances, ensuring that the day is packed with pomp and spectacle, with no indication of opposition. President Xi Jinping will attend a ceremony commemorating the anniversary, marking his first trip outside of mainland China since the pandemic outbreak.

On 1 July 1997, the area was granted 50 years of autonomy and freedoms of assembly, speech, and the press that are not permitted on the Chinese mainland, administered by the Communist Party. As the city of 7.4 million people celebrates a quarter-century of Beijing's authority, these promises have nearly vanished.

Local metro stations and bus routes will be altered, and there will be temporary restricted flying zones over the harbor and other regions to guarantee that the day goes off without a hitch.

It will be impossible to criticize Xi or the Hong Kong government-backed Beijing. After police summoned many members, one of the few remaining pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong announced it would not conduct a protest.

Authorities have refused access to Friday's event to local and international media outlets, citing the pandemic. On Tuesday, some authorized news sites reported that specific journalists had been denied admission as it was too late for a substitute to secure the required number of days of negative tests.

Since the implementation of the national security law in 2020, Hong Kong's media have been hampered. Editors and executives have been arrested following the closure of newspapers and websites.

This is one way Beijing has strengthened its power and authority in recent years. As a result of police suppression of pro-democracy gatherings, protest is effectively prohibited. Schools are now required to teach lessons on patriotism and national security, and some newly published textbooks deny that Hong Kong was ever a British colony. Electoral reforms have assured that only "patriots" designated by Beijing to be "patriots" serve in the city's legislature.

"New chapter" for Hong Kong

John Lee, the former security chief who led the crackdown on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, will be inaugurated as the new chief executive of the territory on Friday. Lee will succeed Carrie Lam, the face of the crackdown that has been vilified since it began in earnest in 2019. When asked this month by Bloomberg if she wanted to apologize for anything during her reign, she responded that she was only sorry for the sacrifices her family made "to support my mission."

Lee has committed to uniting the city for "a new chapter" and promised an even more vigorous response to "fearmongering and slander" by critics.

Ching Cheong, a prominent Hong Kong journalist, imprisoned by Chinese officials for three years who covered the handover, asserts that Lee has demonstrated his allegiance to Beijing and will "at most be a figurehead implementing Beijing's plan."

John Lee's entire career has been in security, and he has no experience in other fields, according to Ching.

Xi has stated that he expects Lee and his new government to "bring revitalizing changes to Hong Kong's governance."

Wednesday, Xinhua, the official state news agency of the Chinese Communist Party, said that Hong Kong's growth has "advanced by leaps and bounds" under "one country, two systems," with the national security law providing much-needed stability. In the interim, an unprecedented number of individuals depart the city permanently.

Absent faces

Usually, the anniversary would feature well-known figures from the handover, such as Martin Lee. For decades, Lee was influential in the Sino-British declaration and a significant figure in the pro-democracy movement, earning him the moniker "father of democracy." As Prince Charles left Hong Kong, he recorded his apprehensions in his diary: "Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate, with the hope that Martin Lee, the Democratic Party leader, would not be arrested."

In one of the 2019 pro-democracy marches, 82-year-old Lee was detained and handed a 12-month suspended sentence for organizing and participating in an unlawful assembly.

Dozens of his fellow activists and politicians have also been detained or imprisoned. Those who are not incarcerated, like Lee, seldom speak in public and spend their days visiting and caring for friends and coworkers who are incarcerated. Under the national security law enacted in 2020, the risk of crossing vaguely defined red lines is deemed too great. At least two individuals, including the widely admired legislator Claudia Mo, were denied bail after their WhatsApp conversations with foreign journalists were presented as evidence.

For many former Hongkongers, the anniversary will be a painful reminder of the city's once-promising potential and subsequent rapid decline.

Valerie was 17 years old during her return to Hong Kong. That day in 1997, she viewed the ceremony on television "without any joy." "I couldn't stop crying during the final scenes of [former British governor Chris] Patten's family boarding the ship," she tells the Guardian from her new life abroad.

"At the time, I did not comprehend politics very well, but I did not believe Hong Kong would improve. Now I fear that the Hong Kong culture may eventually disappear."