Beijing last weekend appointed former Shanxi CCP chief Luo Huining to replace Wang Zhimin as the head of the China liaison office<\/a> in Hong Kong. The abrupt replacement comes as the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement enters its seventh month<\/a> of protest, and after 400 of the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated on New Year’s Day<\/a> were arrested, bringing the total arrests in the city to 7,000 since protests began in June<\/a>. In a brief public statement on Monday, Luo expressed his hope that Hong Kong could “return to the right path.”<\/strong><\/a> The AFP reports:<\/p>\n
[…] Luo previously served as governor of Qinghai province, and was also appointed to senior Communist Party positions in Qinghai and Shanxi provinces, according to state-run China<\/a> Daily. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At Reuters, Clare Jim and Noah Sin provide further information on Luo and what his appointment to the liaison office could imply about Beijing’s approach<\/strong><\/a> to the situation in Hong Kong:<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly Wang is being dismissed given the Hong Kong chaos. He either didn\u2019t see it coming nor could he stop or limit it, either way he is gone,\u201d said Fraser Howie, Director of Newedge Financial in Singapore. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At The New York Times, Keith Bradsher reports further on Luo’s Party career, noting that he has a record of “difficult assignments”<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n
\nMr. Wang\u2019s successor, Mr. Luo, has served as the top official, Communist Party secretary, in two provinces. Xi Jinping, China\u2019s top leader, has found in him a representative whose main qualification appears to be political loyalty and experience in tough security measures, but who has little familiarity with Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
From 2003 to 2016, Mr. Luo rose through the ranks in Qinghai Province, in western China, where Beijing has pursued increasingly stringent policies toward a large Tibetan minority. Mr. Luo became governor there in 2010 and then Communist Party secretary in 2013, according to his official biography.<\/p>\n
[…] In 2016, Mr. Xi put Mr. Luo in charge of cleaning up Shanxi Province, a northern coal-mining area plagued by corruption scandals. Mr. Luo oversaw a purge of the party\u2019s senior ranks there, as a series of investigations documented broad misconduct.<\/p>\n
Mr. Luo is an unexpected choice to run the Central Liaison Office because of his relatively advanced age, 65, and because he has already worked as a provincial-level leader in mainland China. He was also only a month into his latest job, in China\u2019s national legislature, suggesting that the decision to send him to Hong Kong came together fast. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In an opinion essay at the South China Morning Post, Alex Lo predicts an imminent PRC policy shift towards Hong Kong, and explains why Beijing decided to replace Wang and not Chief Executive Carrie Lam<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n
Lam, however, is still useful in willingly painting herself as the initiator of the ill-fated extradition bill that triggered the crisis. More importantly, she seems willing to defend the local police to the last. Any viable candidates to replace her would distance themselves from the force as far as possible. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
See also an opinion essay from Bloomberg’s Noah Smith, who warns that the global wave of youth protests that has swept Hong Kong, India, Chile, and other countries may spread to mainland China as economic growth continues to slow, inequality continues to grow, and Xi Jinping enacts more authoritarian policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"