Top Beijing leader will take charge of China’s ambitious bay area integration plan

Vice-Premier Han Zheng, ranked No 7 in party hierarchy, is lined up for key role, sources say

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Sources told the Post that Vice-Premier Han Zheng, ranked number seven in the Communist Party hierarchy, would be the man in charge of the bay area project. Photo: AP

Choi Chi-yuk,Daniel Renin ShanghaiandTony Cheungin Hong Kong

Published: 8:01am, 28 Mar 2018Updated: 8:01am, 28 Mar 2018

A top Beijing leader will take charge of China’s ambitious Greater Bay Area project, with an aim to foster social and economic integration between Hong Kong, Macau and cities in the Pearl River Delta, it was revealed on Tuesday.

Yang Jianping, a deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, said it was “likely” that a member of the Politburo Standing Committee – the nation’s highest decision-making body – would lead the drive to forge an economic powerhouse across Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities.

According to Susie Chiang Su-hui, honorary chairwoman of the Taiwan Business Association in Hong Kong, Yang did not mention names while addressing a gathering of Taiwan groups, but he told them the project had been elevated to a national strategy and was designed to help Hong Kong and Macau better fit into China’s overall development.

Xi Jinping vows to strengthen national identity and patriotism in Hong Kong and Macau

This came as Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced on Tuesday that she would visit three Guangdong cities included in the project – Shenzhen, Zhongshan and Zhuhai – from Thursday to Friday.

Sources told the Post that Vice-Premier Han Zheng, ranked number seven in the Communist Party hierarchy, would be the man in charge of the bay area project.

(Left to right) Deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong Yang Jianping; former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, former Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun; former Deputy Director of Hong Kong Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Zhou Bo in a photo from 2013. Photo: Simon Song

Han, 63, was also likely to be Beijing’s point man in the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee to oversee Hong Kong and Macau, one source said.

But it remains unclear whether Han will head the central coordination group for Hong Kong and Macau affairs, replacing former National People’s Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang, who retired earlier this month.