A massive deployment of police blocked roads and prevented protesters from getting to the harbour-front venue close to where two decades earlier, the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, tearfully handed back Hong Kong to Beijing at a rain-soaked ceremony.
"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government ... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," Mr Xi said.
His sweeping speech touched upon the "humiliation and sorrow" China suffered during the first Opium War in the early 1840s that led to the ceding of Hong Kong to the British.
Hong Kong has been racked by demands for full democracy and, more recently, by calls by some pockets of protesters for independence, a subject that is anathema to China.
Mr Xi's words were his strongest yet to the city at a time of heightened social and political tensions and concerns over what some in Hong Kong perceive as increased meddling by China in the city's affairs.
[rte.ie]
1/7/17
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