New mainland posting for Lu Xinning

Michael Shum

Lu Xinning, deputy director of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong, has been transferred to the Chinese Communist Party Standing Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China.

The central government approved the transfer in an official announcement of Lu, 57, who has been a deputy director at the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong since March 2019 in charge of education, communication and promotion.

She was previously an editorial board member of state media People's Daily as well as its op-ed director before being promoted to deputy editor-in-chief and chair of the newspaper's online outlet, People.cn.

Pro-Beijing heavyweight Tam Yiu-chung, vice president of Beijing's semi-official think tank Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, told The Standard there is nothing abnormal with Lu's transfer.

"It is not strange at all as it is the central government's usual practice to transfer mainland officials back to the mainland after working in Hong Kong for some time," said Tam, a former delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

He added that former director of the liaison office Peng Qinghua was also transferred to Guangxi after working for around a decade here, as Beijing assigns officials to other positions based on their rankings.

"I believe the central government will assign someone to fill Lu's shoes. It is also a normal arrangement to transfer out personnel before filling the vacancy," Tam said.

Meanwhile, Beijing's head of the United Front Work Department under the CCP Central Committee, Shi Taifeng, will be attending a conference promoting China's peaceful reunification at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre today.

After visiting Macau for two days over the weekend, Shi arrived in Hong Kong yesterday and met with Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu at Government House to "exchange views on issues of mutual interest."

In a statement, Lee expressed his gratitude to Shi for visiting Hong Kong to inspect the city's latest development.

That showed "Shi's care and concern for HK," he added.

"The SAR government will continue to fully and accurately implement the one country, two systems principle, with a focus on creating strong impetus for growth, improving the SAR's governance system, resolutely implementing the principle of patriots administering HK and strengthening HK's patriotic forces with a love for the city," Lee said.

"The SAR will continue to actively promote efforts from different sectors of the community in leveraging HK's strengths to serve the country's needs, in a bid to contribute to the building of a great country in all respects and advancing toward national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization."

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com