before we go, let's take a quick look at our top story. at this hour. ukraine says at least 20 people have been killed in russian missile strikes outside the port city of odessa. it's the latest in a series of intensified russian attacks across ukraine. the team's update at the sour stay tuned for date of the news asia coming up next with my colleague rush, banner g, he's going to have more on that historic cong anniversary and upgrade is always more on our website in the t to loop dot com. and player richards, and thanks so much for joining us. what secrets lie behind these will discover new adventures in 360 degrees and explore fascinating world heritage sites with d. w world heritage. 360. get out now. the

resurrection of jesus christ in obama. go bavaria, the world's largest passion, play is back. every 10 years, visitors come from all over the world to see the staging of the biblical story. and this time, it's more up to date than ever. obama go village and it's passion. matters starts july 3rd on d, w. this is the, the other news at asia coming up to date 25 years after you mean control of hong kong from the british. china takes a victory lap president huge and big visits, the city to oversee celebrations. and the integration of his chosen men as lead up, and he leaves no doubt as to how china sees the cities future. today,

i would like to stress again that one country to systems has been repeatedly tested in practice, fine fall off. there's no reason to change such a good system and it must be maintained for a long time hung sheet and that's what beijing says. alaska respected former hong kong lawmaker what she thinks. and later in the program, we meet the hong kong john list fighting to keep the facts of hong kong, fast alive before beijing changes them as well. ah, i british manager, welcome to d w. news asia. glad you could join us 25 years ago today, hong kong returned to chinese control. the british colony was handed over with a special promise political autonomy and freedoms guaranteed under a set up gold, one country, 2 systems, chinese president,

she jin bing on his 1st visit outside the mainland in 2 years. said the system was working as well. other draconian laws, 2 things younger, one far the enactment of the national security law for hong kong, busy and she established in the hong kong special administrative region. we were rules and regulations to safeguard national security and got shinji to the revision and improvement of hong kong electoral system has ensured the implementation of the principle of patriots administering hong kong, younger herb issue. and she, the mean jewel jewel, the democratic system of the hong kong special administrative region is in accordance with the principle of one country to systems. and the constitutional status of hong kong, which is conducive to safeguarding the democratic rights of hong kong residents.

democratic rights on beijing's terms, which meant hong kong new chief executive, john lee was elected by a closed committee of hand picked electors nor direct vote for hong kong residence . and to day she didn't bring precise or least inauguration a former policeman. he was the sole candidate for the top job and secured 99 percent of the election committee's vote. a landslide when which convinced she jin pink to remark lee's rule would deliver. got a new chapter for hong kong. and it is quite literally new books with new chapters are safe to be introduced in the fall this year to hong kong schools. the lesson, hong kong was never a british colony because britain assumed control illegally. it's historical revisionism like this, as prompted a group of hong kong journalists into action there once worked in some of the

city's most venerated organizations. before they were shut down, these journalists are determined to preserve a true record of hong kong past. the journalists who run this bookstore can't write about hong kong present any more. so they've decided to said an accurate record of the cities passed alongside the books for sale. they've put up newspaper clippings like from july, 1st 19971 of the oldest english language papers here, the south china morning post ran the chinese characters for handover on the date, shyness hume control of hong kong from britain. there's also a press kit given to reporters who covered the hand over 25 years ago. proof of key events in hong kong past. now, under official dispute, you close head or why they tell you that one might have to and said them, what will be changed after the handover say yet the thought the answer is very

little. it is a historic document. now when you say we want to share these histories and values them all on high, since they can hardly be found elsewhere in hong kong at all, not much from the holiday. that's because paging is changing. the narrative of hong kong past, which was under british colonial rule for a 150 years. now the government is amending middle school textbook saying hong kong was never a british colony because beijing didn't recognize the treaties. it signed authorities, every move, news clippings and book, steam does political dissent from public libraries. people fear this could be part of a plan to reshape public memory. chinese and hong kong flags now fly everywhere as officials deck out the city for a festive celebration of the hand over anniversary. but many hong kong. as view the state with mixed emotions, the number of citizens identifying as chinese reached an all time low in recent

years. observer say, although beijing already controlled hong kong politically, the handover of people's hearts remains a challenge. is road difficult to up? what are the core beliefs of the hong kong people? they will see themselves not as seen, poll or narrow a sense of nationalistic or sentiment as a hong kong chinese, the order to force everyone give up what they have been the leaving of hostile it might be. our goal for the highs afford used to do so by very hard lie approaches. so it is very obvious that now one country, it will systems become a model for china. that they only expect hong kong to be at economic city without any political gravity. and with the cities future out of their control, many hong kong is a voting with their feet. and mass exodus is underway since mid 2020, when the new national security law came into effect. more than

a 100000 people have chosen to leave the city. rather than live under beijing's rule, but others have remained. emily lauer is of the democratic party and annex lawmaker . she covered the hand over negotiation between the u. k. and china before 1997 and has witnessed hong kong changes since then result in 1984 you asked to then the u. k. prime minister, margaret petra, if it was morally defensible to hand over hong kong to a communist dictatorship. those were your words, did you imagine then that hong kong would turn into what it is now? well, not exactly, but of course i was very, very concern. and of course, i wasn't the only one because many hong kong people had fled from mainland china to come to hong kong. were they as political or economic refugees?

so to hand them back to mainland china, of course, some people were alarmed and concern. but you know, i did not foresee things happening in exactly in the current ways. you would ask me about the sino british joint declaration of 1984 that guaranteed hong kong autonomy for 50 years beginning in 1997. do you think britain dropped the ball as it became clear? china wasn't respecting this agreement? well, i think britain's role was quite terrible because britain had run hong kong for one and a half centuries. although that government now in hong home said, hong kong had never been a colony. well, whatever you call it, they ran the place for so long. and when they pulled out, and they did not offer the people much. and there was, you know, they were over 3000000 british subjects living in hong kong at the time. but

britain just said, no, all we give you is the joint declaration, which of course, was not enough. i wasn't asking britain to fight a war with china like britain for the war with argentina over the full gland islands. but at least britain should tell the people, at least the british subjects that, okay, now we're gonna hand you back to china. but if things go wrong, which they said would not, because the joint declaration was so good. but if things go wrong, you will have a place to go to. but of course, britain didn't say it then and only started saying so after the national security law was imposed on us. and it was very, very late. and the joint declaration that you're talking about also promised the one country to systems arrangement. and today we heard president, she jan being saying that this arrangement works and will stay for the long time in

hong kong. how do you respond to that? well, one country to system means that in hong kong, and we will have a different system from mainland china and as fast, many of us are concerned. it will be about human rights, freedom person know, safety, rule of law, independent judiciary. and we hope, of course, china will develop and then all those things will also happen over there. but right now, as we speak, we have thousands of people. active is young people languishing in jail. some of them are my party members and some have not yet had a trial, but they've been locked up close to 88600 days. so we are very, very distressed, and we don't, of course we $11.00 country to system to continue. but that would mean that people

would have personal safety. people would not be lock up with such a long time without trial. so it's not enough to say, oh, you can have one country to system for another 200 years. but we need to see the essence, people need to have the freedoms, the human rights, the rule of law, the person oh safety. and then of course, try to develop democracy. ms. law, do you think we have seen the full extent of political changes the beijing wants to see and hong kong, or do you think a bit more to come? i have no crystal ball, my friend. neither have you. but i mean can, would, can things get worse? of course. i mean, hong kong is better than ukraine. we're better than afghanistan. iraq, mia mama, all ends up in some cases that mean mainland china because they're activists who

are locked up in mainland china and tortured. so what we want to do is to urge presidency, jim ping and the main line authorities to ensure that we will be free, we will be safe. hong kong can continue to be economically prosperous and stable. these are all the things promise in the joint declaration and a basic law. and we hope that we can go back to that lifestyle. but i will not tell you that the game is over. we're finished because we're not. we still have over 7000000 people living here and we want, you know, to go back to that lifestyle and of course, to have the ability to fight for democracy and which is something we've never had really low. we leave it there for the time being. but it's been such a pleasure talking to you. thank you so much bye. and

that's it for today will leave you with some more pictures of the hand over of hong kong from british to chinese rule. 25 years ago. prince, you back here on monday, a back tooth . every day, counts for us and for our planet. golden ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities greater? how can we protect habits?

we can make a difference. global ideas, the environmental series in global 3000 on d, w, and online. as you've got any issues or thoughts, they will grade, he will be able to do a pakistan, former prime minister. enron khan isn't going quietly off to being kicked out of office in a parliamentary vote in april. he's been making extraordinary claims of a foreign conspiracy against him and making it clear that he wants to fight his way back. we spoke to him.