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In Hong Kong, Communist Party Officials Stride Out of the Shadows
Source: New York Times
In Hong Kong, Communist Party Officials Stride Out of the Shadows
The growing power and profile of the Chinese government’s liaison office has brought the party’s playbook into the open.
By Austin Ramzy, Vivian Wang and Chris Buckley
Oct. 16, 2020
HONG KONG — It was a classic scene from the Chinese Communist Party’s repertoire: A high-ranking official descended on the home of a poor, patriotic worker, bearing gifts and wishes for a happy National Day, receiving declarations of gratitude and loyalty in return.
But the visit this month did not take place in a hardscrabble village in mainland China, where officials often make such scripted trips to show their bond with the masses. It played out in Hong Kong, the semiautonomous territory where such overt displays by the Communist Party apparatus were once rare.
The much-publicized meeting carried a clear message, made all the more potent since China imposed a new national security law in Hong Kong this summer. The days of the central government exercising its will behind the scenes are over. Now, it will rule Hong Kong increasingly in the open.
“Hong Kong’s responsibility to the nation should be emphasized more than ever,” Luo Huining, Beijing’s top official in Hong Kong, who leads the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, said in a speech a day before his visit. “Loving our country is an obligation and a righteous path rather than a choice.”
For Hong Kong, the shift to more direct management by Beijing is a drastic change. The Communist Party for decades allowed the former British colony to be steered by its proxies in the civil service and the business elite.
-snip-
The growing power and profile of the Chinese government’s liaison office has brought the party’s playbook into the open.
By Austin Ramzy, Vivian Wang and Chris Buckley
Oct. 16, 2020
HONG KONG — It was a classic scene from the Chinese Communist Party’s repertoire: A high-ranking official descended on the home of a poor, patriotic worker, bearing gifts and wishes for a happy National Day, receiving declarations of gratitude and loyalty in return.
But the visit this month did not take place in a hardscrabble village in mainland China, where officials often make such scripted trips to show their bond with the masses. It played out in Hong Kong, the semiautonomous territory where such overt displays by the Communist Party apparatus were once rare.
The much-publicized meeting carried a clear message, made all the more potent since China imposed a new national security law in Hong Kong this summer. The days of the central government exercising its will behind the scenes are over. Now, it will rule Hong Kong increasingly in the open.
“Hong Kong’s responsibility to the nation should be emphasized more than ever,” Luo Huining, Beijing’s top official in Hong Kong, who leads the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, said in a speech a day before his visit. “Loving our country is an obligation and a righteous path rather than a choice.”
For Hong Kong, the shift to more direct management by Beijing is a drastic change. The Communist Party for decades allowed the former British colony to be steered by its proxies in the civil service and the business elite.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/world/asia/hong-kong-china-national-security-law.html
