China appoints Zheng Yanxiong as new Hong Kong liaison office chief

China has appointed Zheng Yanxiong, head of the national security office in Hong Kong, as director of its Liaison Office in the city, the State Council said in a notice on Saturday. 

Zheng, who replaces Luo Huining, 68, as head of Beijing's top representative office in Hong Kong, is among the 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials sanctioned by the U.S. in August 2020 following the city's pro-democracy protests the year before. 

The 59-year-old Zheng will also succeed Luo as the national security advisor to Hong Kong’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security. 

He came to prominence during a clampdown on land rights protests in the south Chinese Wukan village in 2011, and was appointed in July 2020 director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security newly set up in Hong Kong. 

The agency was established under a national security law China imposed that year on Hong Kong. 

It prescribes terms of up to life in prison for crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, heralding a more authoritarian era for China's freest city. 

Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the law was needed to restore stability after the 2019 protests. 

Zheng was born in 1963 in Shantou, Guangdong. He graduated from the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine in 1984 and joined the ruling Chinese Communist Party two years later. 

He had worked for the state-run People’s Daily for four years until 2002, when he was posted to the Central Policy Research Office for the Guangdong province as the deputy director. Later in his career, Zheng had also taken a number of principal administrative posts for the Guangdong province. 

Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu issued a statement hours after the announcement was made, saying he and the SAR government welcome the new appointment. 

He also extended gratitude towards outgoing Luo for his contributions over the past years. 

(Reuters and staff reporter)