The Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong was spray-painted
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been wreaking havoc on “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong, by stripping the democratic camp of its membership, passing the National Security Law and amending Hong Kong’s electoral system to narrow the democratic camp’s room for political participation, and ensuring that the Legislative Council and the Election Committee are all “patriots”. “. The Xi Jinping administration’s campaign against Hong Kong is seen by outsiders as a way to pave the way for the 20th National Congress and minimize political risks in Hong Kong. And with a number of officials in the Communist Party’s Hong Kong and Macau system now approaching or having reached retirement age, concerns have been raised about how the Communist Party will arrange the relevant personnel.
According to a March 31 article in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao, the leadership of the CPC Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau is generally older. The other deputy head of the group, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), who is also the director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, Xia Baolong, is close to 70 years old.
As for the directors of the Liaison Office in Hong Kong and Macau, Luo Huining will be 68 years old and Fu Ziyin will be 65, both reaching the retirement age of 65 at the full ministerial level.
Among the other deputy directors and party members of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, Song Zhe is 62 and Deng Zhonghua is 61, both past the 60-year retirement age for deputy ministry officials.
According to the article, these officials may not necessarily retire when they are old or over-age, and some may extend their terms for two more years to continue the current policy. But after all, they are old, so their retirement is a probable event.
Officials in the Communist Party’s Hong Kong and Macau system have seen several major changes in recent years. In January 2020, Wang Zhimin, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, was removed from his post and replaced by Luo Huining, then deputy director of the Finance and Economy Committee of the National People’s Congress. Wang assumed the position of director of the Liaison Office in 2017, the shortest tenure of any director of the Liaison Office. The biggest political crisis in Hong Kong after the transfer of sovereignty erupted during his tenure: the campaign against the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Bill broke out in Hong Kong from June 2019 until the outbreak of the Epidemic, and the clashes between the police and the public in the anti-sending campaign and the tough attitude of the Hong Kong government in handling the incident led to a big victory for the democratic camp in the 2019 District Council elections.
In February 2020, Zhang Xiaoming, director of the HKMAO, was demoted to executive deputy director of the HKMAO, with Xi Jinping’s former “deputy” and then vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Xia Baolong, taking on the role.
In April of the same year, Yang Jian, who was deputy director of the Liaison Office, was removed from his post.
In the report, the BBC analyzed that the protracted anti-China campaign and the defeat of the pro-establishment camp in the District Council elections were the key reasons for Beijing‘s decision to replace him. And the change in the Liaison Office shows that Beijing has been slow to grasp the timing of the Hong Kong issue.
Liang Wentao, a Hong Kong academic and current professor of political science at Taiwan‘s National Cheng Kung University, has said that he was not surprised by Wang’s replacement, as rumors had been circulating at the beginning of the anti-China campaign in June. According to Liang, Wang’s dismissal was related to his misjudgment of the situation in Hong Kong. It is understood that Wang’s reports to Beijing on the anti-China situation in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong District Council elections were “good news but not bad news”, which fell too far short of reality and made Xi Jinping quite unhappy.
Hong Kong has long been dominated by the former Politburo Standing Committee member Zeng Qinghong, and Wang Zhimin and Zhang Xiaoming have been accused of being Zeng Qinghong’s men and women, suspected of being involved in Jiang’s stirring up trouble in Hong Kong. Some analysts say that the Beijing authorities transferred Luo Huining, who has no experience in Hong Kong and Macau, to the Hong Kong and Macau system in order to break the system held by Zeng Qinghong, and may even start a liquidation of Zeng’s turf in the future.
In addition to removing the influence of political rivals, an analysis published by Radio Free Asia said that in March this year, Yin Zonghua, a former member of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Director Xia Baolong, became deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong, in charge of Chinese institutions, economic and trade exchanges and other matters. This means that the functions of the Liaison Office have now been expanded to oversee Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong. “This means that whichever faction has the “fat job” of deputy director of the Liaison Office, which faction will have a lot of money.
According to information from the Liaison Office, by the end of 2013, there were more than 3,200 Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong, with total assets of nearly HK$14 trillion. Among them, there are 27 Chinese enterprises with assets of more than HK$100 billion. According to the HKEx, by the end of 2013, there were 797 mainland H-share, red-chip and non-H-share private enterprises listed in Hong Kong, accounting for 48.5% of the total number of companies listed on the HKEx; their market value reached HK$13.69 trillion, accounting for 56.9% of the total market value of the Hong Kong stock market. This shows that “this piece of ‘fat pork’ is a must-have place for soldiers”.
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