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New thinking needed from Hong Kong’s next cabinet, top Beijing official says

Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Wang Guangya expresses confidence in Carrie Lam’s team, while president praises ‘one country, two systems’ as best way to ensure city’s prosperity

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Wang Guangya, director of the Hong Kong and Macau's Affairs Office, says he has full confidence in the city for the next five years. Photo: Sam Tsang

The head of the Beijing government department that handles Hong Kong matters has called for “new thinking” from all members of incoming chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s cabinet.

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But Wang Guangya, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, sidestepped questions on whether it had turned down some of Lam’s original picks for ministerial posts, saying only that here had been “two-way communication” in vetting the list.

Attending the opening of a National Museum exhibition in the capital on the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China, Wang talked to the media about Lam’s new governing team.

“In order to push the city towards better development, all members of the cabinet need to have new thinking,” he said.

At a later event that was closed to the Hong Kong media, President Xi Jinping praised “one country, two systems” as the best way to ensure the city’s long-term prosperity and stability, “not just the best proposal to resolve an historical question”.

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