CHINA announced yesterday that President Jiang Zemin would attend the ceremony marking the transfer of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty at midnight on June 30th. He will be the first Chinese Communist leader to set foot in Hong Kong.
Accompanied by the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, and other senior figures. Mr Jiang will lead the Chinese delegation at a SinoBritish ceremony attended by 4,000 dignitaries in the final minutes of 156 years of British colonial rule.
They will also attend the swearing in of a new provisional legislature, which many western leaders are expected to boycott.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, will be at the handover ceremony but not the portion devoted to the nonelected provisional legislature. The US has backed Britain's objections to the Chinese decision to scrap the present Legislative Council which was elected on a partly democratic basis in 1995.
The outgoing British Governor, Mr Chris Patten, and his Chief Executive, Mr Tung Cheehwa, separately welcomed the decision by Chinese leaders to attend. Mr Tung said it demonstrated how much importance Beijing attached to Hong Kong's reunification with the motherland.
Mr Jiang's decision to attend had been widely expected, but China routinely refuses to give advance schedules for its leaders' travel plans.
Mr Patten expressed regret over China's decision to swear in the new Hong Kong executive, legislative and judicial officials right after the hand over, cancelling at a stroke the reforms he introduced as the 2 8th and last British governor without consultation with Beijing.
Britain will be represented at the handover ceremony by Prince Charles, who will accompany Mr Patten off the island for the last time to the royal yacht Britannia at midnight after a huge fireworks display.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has not said if he will attend the ceremonies but he too, would almost certainly boycott the swearing in of the provisional legislature.
The Irish minister for foreign affairs has been invited to attend along with the representatives to over 40 countries, but Dublin has been unable to respond officially with a name due to the general election.
The Chinese President will return after a few hours to Beijing for major celebrations in the Chinese capital of the hand over, including a state banquet attended by 3,500 guests at the Great Hall of the People.
The Chinese government yesterday declared a national holiday on July 1st to enable its 1.2 billion people to celebrate.
Hong Kong has declared a five day holiday for the handover.
Two thousand of the 6.000 troops of the People's Liberation Army which China plans to station in Hong Kong will arrive at the stroke of midnight, Hong Kong's independent Chinese language Ming Pao newspaper said. The remainder of the garrison would arrive in the early hours of July 1st.
Authorities in Hong Kong have banned a pro democracy rally in Victoria Park in the city centre on July 1st by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China. The alliance, which was formed to protest against the 1989 crackdown on a student led pro democracy movement in Beijing, plans a march on the same day.