‘Gutless’ pan-democrats and ‘insincere’ officials – missed opportunity to meet Beijing’s No 2 man in Hong Kong highlights lasting divide between both sides

Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office deputy director Huang Liuquan recently spent two days with a Legislative Council delegation on mainland

Opposition lawmakers boycotted the trip, as they could not get assurance they would get to meet Beijing officials

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Huang Liuquan spent an informal 45 minutes chatting over tea with Hong Kong lawmakers in Hangzhou. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 7:05pm, 5 May 2019Updated: 11:04am, 6 May 2019

At a teahouse beside Hangzhou’s scenic West Lake, Beijing official Huang Liuquan sat down to dim sum with a group of Hong Kong reporters, lawmakers and officials.

It was a rare occasion for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office’s deputy director – Beijing’s Number 2 official in the city – to sit in a relaxed atmosphere for 45 minutes, sharing his views on a variety of issues.

Present were 22 Hong Kong pro-establishment lawmakers and officials who were in a Legislative Council delegation on a four-day visit to Shanghai and Hangzhou from April 21 to 24. Huang spent two full days with the group.

Missing from the informal gathering were seven pan-democrat lawmakers who pulled out two weeks before the visit, after they could not get an assurance that they would get to meet Beijing officials to express their opposition to Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill.

Pro-establishment lawmakers and officials pose for a picture before heading on their trip. Photo: Handout

“If the pan-democrats did not boycott the trip but dared to join us, they could have sat down here and raised their views directly with Huang,” a Hong Kong government official said after the dim sum gathering on April 23. “They just don’t have the guts.”

The pan-democrats retorted that they had asked long before the trip if Beijing officials would meet them, but could not get clear answers. “The mysterious arrangements show Beijing’s insincerity in communication,” said lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan, one of those who dropped out.