Beijing promotes Macau liaison office deputy director to head less than year after his arrival
- State Council announces appointment of Zheng Xincong as director of Beijing’s liaison office in Macau, who only arrived in city last July
- Political scientist Eilo Yu says promotion could be part of policy by Beijing to prevent agency from developing close relations with local authorities
The State Council has announced that a mainland Chinese official who was posted to Macau last July as a deputy director of Beijing’s liaison office has been appointed as the new head of the agency.
In a notice posted on its website on Monday, the nation’s cabinet said it had promoted Zheng Xincong to the role of director of the central government’s liaison office in Macau, succeeding Fu Ziying, who had served in the position since late 2018.
Zheng, 58, will also replace Fu as the adviser to Macau’s national security commission, which functions in a similar role to Hong Kong’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security.
The mainland official will now be required to “supervise, guide, coordinate and support” Macau’s efforts in safeguarding national security as part of his new advisory role.
In contrast to Hong Kong, which did not have a national security law until it was imposed by Beijing in 2020, Macau enacted its own legislation in 2009 and later established the high-level commission in 2018 to oversee such matters.
Due to his recent promotion, Zheng will also no longer serve as a national security technical adviser to the commission, a post to which he was appointed in March.