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City Beat | Is Beijing tightening its control over Hong Kong? State Council office’s evolving role tells a lot
- Under ‘one country, two systems’, central government sets different priorities depending on what’s happening in city
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Why you can trust SCMP
Is Beijing tightening its control over Hong Kong?
This is a haunting question, but the answer depends on who is talking. Even more so recently after the government banned a pro-independence party and refused to renew a veteran British journalist’s work visa after he chaired a controversial talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club by the founder of the party.
Beijing’s answer is definitely “no”, although that cannot clear all the doubts in Hong Kong and among the international community, especially when China is being portrayed as the villain on the global stage by the US during its unprecedented trade war.
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As the Chinese saying goes, “With history as a mirror, one can understand the rise and fall of a nation” – or how and why Beijing treats Hong Kong the way it does, in this context.
So let’s look at the history of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) under the State Council. It is a key department overseeing the city’s affairs with a history of 40 years, spanning the same period as the country’s reform and opening up initiated by the late paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping.
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