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Exclusive | Will defining role of Beijing’s liaison office in the Basic Law ease society’s fears or ‘legitimise meddling’ in Hong Kong affairs?
Critics have heaped scorn on political heavyweight Jasper Tsang’s suggestion for the powers of Beijing’s representative here to be defined in the city’s mini-constitution. But is there any merit to the idea at all?
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For a long time, pro-democracy marches in the city finished at the Hong Kong government’s headquarters.
More recently they have been making their way to Sai Wan, where the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government is located.
Here, protesters regularly hit out at what they see as increasing interference by Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
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Indeed, the liaison office has made its presence felt to such an extent in the political, social and even educational arenas that critics claim Hong Kong is now run from Sai Wan, not Admiralty, where Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her cabinet are based.
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Wang Zhimin, the Beijing official who took over as director of the liaison office a year ago, raised hackles in January when he said “many friends” had told him they were pleased to see his office and the Hong Kong government “working together” more than before.
His remarks sparked debate over the presence of the office, its expanding staff, involvement in local elections and growing influence, and whether it was increasingly overstepping what it was supposed to do in Hong Kong.
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