A senior Fujian province official has been appointed as a new deputy head of the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong, the Chinese State Council has announced on Tuesday.
Chen Dong, 53, is currently secretary of the Committee of Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party in Fujian. He was born in the province and has worked there for the whole of his career. He will be the youngest deputy appointed to the office.
The Liaison Office – Beijing’s organ in Hong Kong – originally only had six deputies. Chen’s appointment as the eighth deputy came after that of Tan Tieniu, a science scholar – he became the seventh deputy at the end of last year.
Chen graduated from the Xiamen University after studying finance. He began his political career as a secretary in the Fujian provincial government. From 1997, he spent ten years as an official of the Fujian province Communist Youth League.
In 2008, he became the deputy mayor of Zhangzhou city, before being promoted to mayor in 2010. In 2013, he became the provincial deputy, until 2015 when he was appointed to his current position.
Last December, the State Council also announced personnel changes at the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO). Song Zhe and Huang Liuquan were promoted to become deputy directors and Zhou Bo was removed from his post as deputy director.
On Monday evening, news site HK01 cited sources as saying that Zhang Xiaoming, the incumbent director of the China Liaison Office, may be appointed as the director of the HKMAO, replacing incumbent Wang Guangya who will soon retire.
Before Zhang moved to Hong Kong in 2012 as the head of the official Chinese organ in the city, he worked at the HKMAO as a deputy director.
The news site previously reported that incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying may be appointed a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. His appointment as a member of the body was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon, paving the way for him to possibly be appointed as a vice-chairman next month.
