Cooperation with new liaison office chief key in challenging times
Zhou is the third Beijing envoy in five years. The former executive deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) has replaced Zheng Yanxiong, who succeeded Luo Huining after the former provincial party leader of Shanxi finished his three-year stint at the liaison office in 2023.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he was confident the new director would lead the liaison office in its continued cooperation with the Hong Kong government on promoting the city's proactive alignment with national strategies, creating fresh momentum and advantages for economic development, encouraging transition from stability to prosperity through innovation and invention, and making a further contribution to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Lee also praised Zheng for upholding the one country, two systems principle in safeguarding national security and maintaining constitutional order.
Zhou wasted no time in his new role, having met Lee twice and reached out to local groups and residents over the past few days. Lee said the district visits underlined the importance attached to people's livelihoods and the revamped district administration. His exchange with Zhou had also helped maintain good communication with Beijing and formulate good policies.
For his part, Zhou stressed the chief executive and his team bear primary responsibility for the city's governance, in a welcome assurance over its 'high degree of autonomy' and the principle of 'Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong'. Zhou had rich experience in handling economic and livelihood issues when he served in Hubei and Henan. His connections with the HKMAO and knowledge of city affairs also make him an ideal choice.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
26 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
HKMA defends Hong Kong currency as higher US rates threaten trading band
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) intervened twice in the foreign exchange market overnight as gaping interest-rate differentials encouraged carry trades and pressured the local currency to the weak side of its trading band. The authority sold a total of US$3.775 billion during New York trading hours on Thursday, and bought the equivalent of HK$29.634 billion at HK$7.85 per dollar, it said in a statement on Friday. The moves would reduce the aggregate balance – a measure of the banking sector's liquidity – by the same amount to HK$114.541 billion on July 7, it added. The local currency traded at HK$7.8488 after the market intervention. The HKMA had earlier sold US$2.55 billion on July 1 and US$1.2 billion on June 26 in New York to defend the currency peg. Hong Kong pegged its currency to the US dollar in 1983 at HK$7.80 per dollar. In 2005, the HKMA introduced a narrow trading band, allowing its value to fluctuate between HK$7.75 and HK$7.85. Under the linked exchange rate system, the HKMA is obliged to intervene to preserve the trading band. The depreciation pressure came from carry trades, in which investors borrow in a low-interest-rate currency to invest in assets denominated in a higher-yielding currency. The overnight interbank rate in Hong Kong stood at 0.02 per cent, versus 4.3 per cent in the US. Local three-month bills currently yield about 0.58 per cent, while similar US Treasury bills pay 4.35 per cent. The gap is 'mouth-watering' for traders looking for profit from the rate differentials, according to Ryan Lam Chun-wang, head of Research for Hong Kong at Shanghai Commercial Bank.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
North Korea, China and Russia's ‘blood-forged' ties: real or rhetoric?
China and North Korea often hail their friendships with each other and with Russia as being 'forged in blood'. But while these statements help generate fraternal sentiments, such ties often fall prey to domestic politics, geopolitics and evolving national interests. This week, North Korea's state media showed its leader Kim Jong-un draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine In a series of photographs, Kim, who appeared to be overcome with emotion, was seen by rows of half a dozen coffins in Pyongyang, covering them with flags. The scene took place on Sunday amid the visit by a delegation led by Russia's Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova to mark the first anniversary of the strategic partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow. Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova (left) shakes hands with Kim during their meeting at the headquarters of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang on Sunday. Photo: KCNA/EPA-EFE Soldiers from the two countries were seen waving their national flags, a gesture described by the Korean Central News Agency as affirming the 'ties of friendship and the genuine internationalist obligation between the peoples and armies of the two countries that were forged at the cost of blood'.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
As China vows once again to tackle solar panel oversupply, will this time be different?
China has vowed to reduce excessive competition and oversupply in its solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, which is continuing to explore global markets. Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Lecheng told 14 representatives from solar PV manufacturers and industry associations on Thursday that the 'industry must be governed in accordance with laws and regulations, and disorderly low-price competition should be comprehensively addressed', the ministry said in a statement released after their meeting in Beijing. 'Companies should be guided to improve product quality, promote the orderly phase-out of outdated production capacity, and achieve healthy and sustainable development,' Li said. On Tuesday, at a meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, the country's top economic decision-making body, President Xi Jinping took aim at 'disorderly low-price competition' and ordered the removal of excess industrial capacity. At Thursday's meeting with Li, PV industry representatives talked about the difficulties they faced in production, innovation and competition, and offered suggestions for possible policy support, the ministry said. Li urged those present to have a 'comprehensive and objective view of the development landscape of the photovoltaic industry' to 'further consolidate and enhance' China's advantages in the industry.
