Rational approach can ease tensions, liaison chief Zhang Xiaoming says
Zhang Xiaoming, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, said he hoped that the chief executive elected by universal suffrage in 2017 would be patriotic and have both the central government's trust and Hong Kong people's backing.
Beijing's top representative in Hong Kong yesterday called on Hongkongers to adopt a broader strategic view and a rational attitude in tackling the problems arising from integration between the city and the mainland.
Zhang Xiaoming, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, said he hoped that the chief executive elected by universal suffrage in 2017 would be patriotic and have both the central government's trust and Hong Kong people's backing.
These criteria - in line with Beijing's expectations of the city's leader - were given two days after Yu Zhengsheng, a Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member, emphasised the importance of ensuring that Hong Kong was ruled by patriotic forces.
Zhang was speaking at a closed-door meeting with local deputies to the National People's Congress in Beijing.
His remarks were made amid heated debate on whether a limit introduced by the Hong Kong government - banning travellers from taking more than two tins of infant formula out of the city each day - was appropriate.
Zhang is the third senior mainland official to raise the topic of the milk-powder conflict between Hong Kong and the mainland this week.
Yu and another Politburo Standing Committee member, Zhang Dejiang , who is tipped to head the Communist Party's leading group on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, had earlier stressed the importance of handling the conflicts rationally.