Luo says “one country, two systems” is Hong Kong’s biggest advantage. The newly appointed head of the Hong Kong Liaison Office said yesterday “one country, two systems” was Hong Kong’s biggest advantage and hopes the city will be back on track soon.
Luo Huining was appointed the director of the central government’s liaison office in the city last Saturday amid the ongoing pro-democracy protests. He replaced the previous head, Wang Zhimin, who had held the post since 2017.
“I will do my job well with my sincerity and genuine sentiments towards Hong Kong,” Luo told the press on his first day at work. “Over the past six months, Hong Kong’s situation has been worrying. Everyone hopes that Hong Kong can get back on track.”
He then quoted what President Xi Jinping had said in his New Year address: “If there weren’t a stable society, how could there be a peaceful home?”
He also said that Hong Kong had made an important contribution to the opening up and modernisation of China, “and the motherland has always been Hong Kong’s greatest backup force”.
He added that “one country, two systems” was the city’s biggest advantage and firmly believed that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the Hong Kong government and various sectors in society would work together to uphold the constitution and the Basic Law.
Opinion: China never intended to honour 'One country, two systems' in Hong Kong
Luo arrived about 45 minutes late for the press conference, where he spoke to reporters for about five minutes without taking questions.
The 65-year-old is a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party. Before taking up his position at the Hong Kong Liaison Office, Luo was the party secretary of the northern province of Shanxi from 2016 until November last year. There, he was tasked with weeding out corruption and overhauling the provincial government.
Shanxi benefited from “all-out efforts to enforce party discipline”, according to a piece Luo wrote in the official Communist Party newspaper, People’s Daily, in 2017. The people of Shanxi felt the efforts were “like spring rain washing away the smog”, he once said.
Before Shanxi, Luo used to be the governor, then party secretary of Qinghai, a province that spreads across the Tibetan Plateau.