Xia Baolong – from toppling church crosses to overseeing Hong Kong affairs

The new head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office has a reputation as a hardliner and a man with Xi Jinping’s trust

Xia worked with Xi in Zhejiang and has the task of tackling Hong Kong’s biggest political crisis in decades

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Xia Baolong will have to tackle the biggest political crisis that has embroiled Hong Kong in decades. Illustration: Henry Wong

Published: 10:41pm, 13 Feb 2020Updated: 11:21am, 14 Feb 2020

Rumours that heads would roll at China’s top body overseeing Hong Kong have been rife for months since mass protests erupted in the city, but it still came as quite a surprise to many when Beijing finally named its pick for the job on Thursday.

Former Zhejiang Communist Party chief Xia Baolong, who gained a reputation as a hardliner overseeing the suppression of Christian churches in the eastern province five years ago, has been named head of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), according to state news agency Xinhua.

The announcement shows the 67-year-old who has little experience dealing with Hong Kong, still has President Xi Jinping’s full trust, despite approaching retirement age for senior leaders in China and his rather tarnished reputation, according to observers.

In his new role, Xia will have to tackle the biggest political crisis that has embroiled Hong Kong in decades, for which his predecessor Zhang Xiaoming, 56, has been widely blamed.

Gu Su, a political scientist at Nanjing University, said Xia owed much of his political fortune over the years to his close links to Xi.

Xi’s ties with Xia – who rose from semi-retirement to take up a leadership role at the country’s top political advisory body two years ago, making him a state leader – date back nearly two decades when the pair worked closely in Zhejiang.