Beijing announced on Thursday that its top office overseeing Hong Kong affairs will be restructured to report directly to the Communist Party’s central leadership instead of the State Council.
Observers said the office’s elevation had underscored Hong Kong’s importance to the country’s overall development plans and the leadership’s intention to secure the city from national security threats amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
Asked by the media, Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu said he was confident the new office would enhance both the city’s high degree of autonomy and the central government’s comprehensive jurisdiction.
Here is what you need to know about the restructuring plan and what it means for Hong Kong.
1. When was Beijing’s office on Hong Kong and Macau affairs formed and how did it evolve over the years?
In 1978, a working group on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, which had existed within the party machinery since the mid-1950s, was put under the direct leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. It was tasked with supervising the establishment of a separate office under the State Council to serve as the executive arm responsible for implementation and coordination of policies concerning Hong Kong and Macau.
That year, the third plenary session of the 11th party Central Committee was held during which the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping launched China on a path of reform.
The State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) was set up with the goal of handling the future of Hong Kong, then a British colony, which Beijing believed would assist the country’s modernisation with its unique role and international standing.
This new office and the Chinese foreign ministry, under the direction of the Communist Party’s central leadership, were heavily involved in the multiple rounds of Sino-British negotiations over the return of Hong Kong to China and subsequent bilateral talks on the 1997 handover.
The office played a critical role in ensuring a smooth transition while also not stoking fears the city would be absorbed by the mainland while it was embarking on the novel “one country, two systems” governing system.
In 2003, another change was made after half a million people took to the streets to protest against the enactment of a local national security law. Beijing then decided to reform the working group to become the “central coordination group” on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, clearly seeing the need for better oversight of the city.
The coordination group – the highest de facto body for Beijing’s policy towards the two special administrative regions – was further elevated to become a “leading group” in 2020, a year after anti-government protests sparked by the ill-fated extradition bill erupted.
Traditionally, the high-level coordination and the subsequent leading groups have always been chaired by state leaders who are at the core of the party leadership. The coordination group was first headed by then vice-president Zeng Qinghong, a Politburo Standing Committee member who was a trusted aide of the late president Jiang Zemin.
President Xi Jinping had once chaired the coordination group between 2007 and 2012, when he was then a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee and later the nation’s vice-president, followed by Zhang Dejiang, former chairman of the National People’s Congress, who was also in this same core group of the party leadership.
Zhang in 2018 was succeeded by Han Zheng, who completed his vice-premiership recently and was appointed vice-president. Han stepped down from the Politburo Standing Committee last October as part of the change in leadership.
The new head of the leading group overseeing Hong Kong and Macau affairs has yet to be made known publicly but, as in the past, he will also be drawn from the Politburo Standing Committee.
2. What are the changes under the latest structural overhaul?
According to the Party and State Institution Reform Plan published on Thursday, a new overarching body officially named the “Hong Kong and Macau Work Office of the Communist Party Central Committee” would be formed on the basis of the existing HKMAO.
Answering directly to the party’s Central Committee instead of the State Council, the office would be tasked to “investigate, research, coordinate and supervise” the implementation of “one country, two systems”, the comprehensive jurisdiction of Beijing and governance of Hong Kong and Macau.
It would also “safeguard national security, guarantee people’s livelihoods and well-being, as well as support Hong Kong and Macau to integrate into the national development plan”, according to the report.
The greater importance of Hong Kong to the country is also seen in the new hierarchy of the revamped ministerial-level office.
In the organisational structure, it would have the same status as other key “offices” reporting directly to the central party leadership, including the “Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party Central Committee”. This comparison explained the significance of the elevation, analysts said.
3. What will happen to the existing office and what is its relationship with the Central Leading Group?
The central government said a separate Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office would not be run under the State Council, though its name would still be retained.
Tam Yiu-chung, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think tank, said it was a common practice on the mainland to keep two names for the same organ.
He said he expected Beijing to use the name of HKMAO under the State Council when handling issues involving other governments, given the Communist Party would not directly handle external issues. “It is for convenience in work,” Tam explained.
It is expected that the new office under the restructuring will serve as a de facto secretariat for the party’s leading group on Hong Kong affairs.
Tam said the central government might not openly announce the relation or difference between the upgraded office and the party’s leading group on Hong Kong affairs.
“But one thing I can be sure of is that the central government would not have two organs performing similar functions,” he said.
4. What is the implication of the office’s elevation?
The overhaul was seen as an illustration of the central government’s strong determination to uphold the one country, two systems model and prevent Hong Kong from becoming a pawn under the context of rising geopolitical tensions, according to analysts.
The reform also streamlined the chain of command which made it very clear that it was the party that came up with the policies over the city, they said, something that was understood but rarely spoken about openly before.
Calling it a step to “centralise” the party’s leadership in Hong Kong under Xi’s tenure, political observer Lau Siu-kai said the enhancement could prevent the city from “becoming a weak link in national security, and be conducive to seamless integration of development strategies”.
He added with the elevation of status, the new office would find it easier to mobilise other departments and pour in resources over Hong Kong affairs, such as fostering the city’s economic development.
Political heavyweight Tam also expected the city to receive more direct help from Beijing with the overhaul given one of the new office’s missions would be to improve people’s livelihoods.
Hong Kong leader John Lee on Friday said the revamp would lead to a “more effective implementation of policies” in the city and better communications among different ministries.
At the closing ceremony of the annual “two sessions” in Beijing earlier this month and in his first speech since being elected to a third term, Xi stressed that Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability were “inseparable” from the creation of a strong country as he vowed to “firmly advance” the one country, two systems principle.
Xi’s mention of Hong Kong’s continued importance to the country’s development was seen as part of his own vision for the rejuvenation of the nation and a key reason prompting the elevated status of the office.
5. Who will oversee the new overarching body?
No word yet. Sources familiar with the matter told the Post that Xia Baolong, director of the current HKMAO, would stay on as head of the new office – which would remain as a ministerial-level organ – to continue to supervise and implement the restructuring during the transitional period.
Politburo Standing Committee member and newly appointed Executive Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, meanwhile, has been tipped to succeed Han Zheng to be the top official overseeing Hong Kong and Macau affairs.
Asked if Xia would lead the new office, Hong Kong leader John Lee, who was in the capital for a week-long visit, said on Friday he would leave it to Beijing to announce that, adding that he had met Xia earlier this week during the nation’s annual parliamentary meeting.
On Friday, Xia attended the first meeting of the new cabinet, the State Council, chaired by freshly-minted premier Li Qiang who was formally appointed to the post after a resounding vote by the country’s top legislature at its recent annual meeting.
Analysts said Xia’s continuation at the helm was a “special arrangement” showing flexibility but eventually a decision would be made whether to retain him for the long-term or a replacement would be found. In all likelihood, the candidate would still need to be a ministerial-level official but now reporting to the central party leadership directly.