Photo: CFP

Zheng Yanxiong has been appointed as director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), replacing Luo Huining, according to an official announcement published on Saturday.

Zheng, 59 years old, previously served as director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR.

Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee welcomed Zheng in taking the new role, and said he believes Zheng was highly capable of leading the liaison office to support the HKSAR government in rolling out policies. Lee also expressed gratitude to Luo for playing an important role in transforming Hong Kong from governance to prosperity .

Zheng has spent decades working in government in South China's Guangdong Province, and started working as director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR in early 2020, months after Hong Kong had suffered from unrests in 2019.

During his tenure, the highly anticipated national security law for Hong Kong took effect in June 2020, and Hong Kong's election system was improved with the principle of "patriots governing Hong Kong."

In a seminar in 2021, Zheng said that there was still plenty of work to do to perfect the national security law for Hong Kong and to implement necessary legal practices. He vowed to push further implementation of the law; further guide and supervise Hong Kong to perfect its local law and accelerate the pace of pushing Article 23 legislation for national security.

Global Times