China: Xi Jinping wants to transform the island of Hainan into a new Hong Kong

With its alignment of luxury hotels, Haitang bay is one of the jewels of the island of Hainan, some 3.000 kilometers south of Beijing.But the tropical nonchalance of this seaside resort has given way to a shopping frenzy.This is indeed where the last slice of what is now the largest duty free in the world: 120.000 square meters of luxury shops where watches, bags, jewelry sells 20% cheaper than on the continent.

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It didn't take more to attract millions of Chinese tourists.""We have never received as many visitors, explains a manager of the Hainan tourism office.Hotels are more than 80% full this summer.""Unable to go to Europe, the United States or Hong Kong since the beginning of the year due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the shopping addicts have set their sights on this island as large as Belgium, electedNew Eldorado of Good Deals.

New shopping guy

""I just landed from Beijing,"" explains a young man in a flower shirt and straw hat.His suitcase still in hand, he seriously scrutinizes the windows.""I'm going to buy a handbag for my fiancée, jewelry for my mother.It's cheaper than Hongkong! ""

An hour's theft from there, Hong Kong never ceases to pay the bill for pro -democracy demonstrations.Chinese tourists, who represented 80% of visitors, deserted the shopping centers of the caseway bay and the borders are closed due to COVVI-19.Hainan could take a severe blow to his economy and thus serve the plans of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who wants to absorb Hong Kong in a vast regional ensemble.

""I used to do my shopping in Hong Kong but it's even simpler here, we don't need passport and there are never any demonstrations,"" added the young man, going up the linewaiting for an Italian brand.

Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia have signed cooperation agreements with the province

Since the start of summer, tourists have spent 10 million euros per day in this duty free.A windfall that also escapes France, where the average basket of a Chinese tourist before the epidemic was 3.Euros.Twenty million Chinese went to Europe last year, they should be five times more this year in Hainan!""Anyway, we can no longer have a visa for Europe,"" laments a young woman.

""Hainan is the business card of China,"" trusted the Chinese president, who sees one of his major projects imagined in 2013 to finally take shape: make the island the symbol of his disproportionate ambitions.Shopping is not the only card in Hainan's game.The presidential project provides for the creation of the largest free trade area on the continent and the construction of a free port within five years.Forests of cranes now hide some of the most beautiful bays in China and the palm trees give way to advanced industries: health, education, sport, internet, culture or even finances ... generous subsidies accompany these projects as well as the promise of visas ofwork for expatriates ready to try the adventure.Companies taxes are capped at 15%… as in Hong Kong.

Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia have already signed cooperation agreements with the province, which is now presented as a credible alternative to Hong Kong.""It's worrying, explains the editorialist of the daily South China Morning Post.Beijing wants to make the island a regional base and integrate the countries of Southeast Asia.Of course, there is no independent justice or free movement of capital as in Hong Kong, but see how in us things evolve in the wrong direction.It is a competition that should not be overlooked.""

One of the HQ of the Chinese fleet

This project in one of the poorest regions of China, populated by the last nomadic fishermen with the mouth blushed by the Bétel nuts, may seem at first sight incongruous.But Hainan is not just a consumerist showcase, she is also a long time the HQ of the third fleet of the People's Army.

At the very heart of this new Mecca of shopping, the Chinese army maintains one of its most strategic military bases, LongPo, where nuclear submarines are wet.Military-radar planes are constantly patrolling at low altitude along the coasts of Hainan, and further north, the base of Tanmen is responsible for the protection of the archipelagos also claimed by neighboring countries.We are in one of the most dangerous areas in the world, where the American, Japanese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Philippin destroyers rub shoulders..Each with claims on the area.

These island waters are the field of exercise in the Chinese army, guardian of the country's ambitions. ""L'un des objectifs essentiels de la Chine est de consolider sa capacité de seconde frappe en cas d'attaque nucléaire"", explique Jean-Pierre Cabestan, de l'université baptiste de Hongkong.And nothing stops Xi Jinping, who made Hainan, still she, the launch base of his conquest of the planet Mars.The long march 5 rocket took off Thursday from the tropical island, causing a new influx of patriotic tourists in the region.