China changed its top representative to Hong Kong in the first major leadership reshuffle since anti-government protests broke out in the city seven months ago
, replacing Wang Zhimin with a surprising candidate.Luo Huining, the former party leader of Shanxi province, has been named as the new director of the central government’s liaison office in the city, Xinhua reported.It is understood that Wang, who is blamed in some quarters for the unrest, will be given a dignified exit.
But the soft-speaking politician is known as a capable administrator. He served for more than a decade in China’s far-flung western province Qinghai – one of the poorest regions populated by ethnic minorities. He will be the first Hong Kong liaison director with such rich local experience. Most of his predecessors were specialist bureaucrats who worked in the central government before taking up the Hong Kong assignment.
Li Xiaobing, an expert on Beijing’s policies on Hong Kong at Nankai University in Tianjin, said the choice highlighted Beijing’s will to break the deadlock in Hong Kong. Political commentator Johnny Lau Yui-siu believed the appointment also showed Beijing’s approach to promote stronger economic cooperation between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese cities.
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