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Choi Chi-yuk

Kimmy Chung

Tony Cheung

Li Gang, former deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, has been removed from his post and is under investigation for “severe violations of party discipline”, a euphemism for corruption.
It was unclear whether he had been detained, and no further details of the case were given in a statement on the official website of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, on Friday.
Li was suddenly removed from his position as deputy head of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council on August 22. He had been in the job since July last year. The 62-year-old had yet to reach the retirement age of 65 for officials at the ministerial level.
Corrupt officials holding back China’s drive to eliminate poverty
The investigation came to light just ahead of the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade national congress in October, when a key leadership reshuffle is expected.
But veteran China watcher Johnny Lau Yui-siu said Li’s case had little to do with the party congress.
“It just shows that [President] Xi Jinping is persisting with his campaign to clean out the filth among Chinese bureaucrats ... It also shows that Beijing insists on doing the right thing, even when it relates to Hong Kong and Macau,” he said.

Li cultivated his career in the Communist Youth League for about 15 years from 1978. For decades, it has served as a cradle for future leaders of the party – Hu Yaobang and Hu Jintao were both former heads of the youth league.
But that might have changed since the last party congress five years ago, after a number of high-profile members of the faction – including Ling Jihua, former top aide to Hu Jintao – were investigated and jailed for corruption.
Li is well known in Hong Kong, having served for nine years as deputy head of the central government’s liaison office in the city from 2003.
He became the top official overseeing the central government’s liaison office in Macau in early 2014, two years after he was transferred to the Portuguese enclave to take up the deputy role.
Macau liaison office director Li Gang moved out, to be replaced by Wang Zhiming
Hong Kong-based China-watcher Ching Cheong said he had learned that the central government had been ordering investigations of numerous top officials with the city’s liaison office for some time.
But Lau Siu-kai, a vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official mainland think tank, said it was not clear whether the investigation was related to Li’s work in Hong Kong.
“We do not know if any alleged wrongdoing happened when he worked in Hong Kong. It is too early to say if the liaison offices in Hong Kong and Macau were involved,” he said.
Tam Yiu-chung, the former chairman of Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said he was shocked by Li’s case.
“Li is a good person, he’s frank and generous ... and he did a good job in Hong Kong,” Tam said. “He had a good relationship with the media. I don’t know why this happened.”


Overseas Chinese Affairs Office deputy Li Gang removed from his post

Li Gang was the deputy head of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong for nine years from 2003. Photo: Dickson Lee

File picture of Li Gang meet the media after boat colliding with a HKKF ferry near Lamma Island. Picture Left second is Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. 01OCT12 SCMP Pictures (MING PAO)

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China

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Former deputy of HK’s central government liaison office is under investigation for ‘severe violations of party discipline’, a euphemism for corruption


Overseas Chinese Affairs Office deputy Li Gang removed from his post

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Former deputy of HK’s central government liaison office is under investigation for ‘severe violations of party discipline’, a euphemism for corruption

Former deputy of HK’s central government liaison office is under investigation for ‘severe violations of party discipline’, a euphemism for corruption