On March 16, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council released a plan on reforming Party and State institutions. Grabbing everyone’s attention, a new Hong Kong and Macao work office will be formed on the basis of the existing Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council (HKMAO).
The new office, the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, as a working body of the CPC Central Committee, will coordinate and supervise the implementation of “one country, two systems”, and become the central authorities’ new brain for Hong Kong and Macao-related affairs.
The move could be one of the biggest institutional changes involving the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao since their return to China. The significance can be read in three dimensions:
First, it signals that the central authorities’ attach greater importance to Hong Kong affairs.
Anyone who knows China’s political system well enough will understand that as the CPC is the country’s ruling party, any institution under the direct leadership of the CPC Central Committee always carries significant weight.
For example, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee is responsible for the selection of cadres and manages human resources within the Party. The United Front Work Department “makes friends” with people and organizations with different political ideological and religious beliefs. They are the equivalent of the human resources and marketing departments — two pillar divisions for any private company’s development.
The new work office will take on a supervisory role over the liaison offices in the two SARs, establishing a clear-cut superior-subordinate relationship. This will work for better decision-making and implementation. In future, all policies on the two SARs will be released from a unified source, and all levels of institutions will fully follow and implement them
Taiwan affairs are among the CPC’s top-priority tasks. All people on the Chinese mainland care about Taiwan. Therefore, the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee is also led by the CPC Central Committee. The new arrangement for work on Hong Kong and Macao affairs suggests that the central Party leadership thinks Hong Kong and Macao affairs have the same level of importance as Taiwan affairs.
Hong Kong is indeed important for China. The city runs a totally different social, economic and legal system from the rest of the country, but still manages to work together well with the Chinese mainland in various fields. That alone is a key competitiveness factor for the nation’s future development.
It is widely believed that worsening geopolitics and the SARs’ increasing importance to national development are behind the move to upgrade the HKMAO to an agency directly under the CPC Central Committee, instead of one under the State Council. The new work office is expected to be in a better position to formulate policies that will better include the Hong Kong and Macao SARs in national development strategies.
Second, it pulls the nation’s top leadership and people of Hong Kong closer.
China is a big country, and the central government has innumerable issues to deal with daily. Theoretically, a city with 7 million-plus residents normally does not rank high on the priority list of a 1.4 billion-people country. However, the central government attaches great importance to Hong Kong for its uniqueness and significance to national development. By that, Hong Kong people’s needs and concerns will be put on the table in the country’s top boardroom. With that direct link, the top Party leadership will know better about what’s going on in the two SARs and allocate national resources to solve the SARs’ problems.
Third, it streamlines the organizational structure governing the work on Hong Kong and Macao affairs.
For historical and organizational reasons, the HKMAO and the liaison offices of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR and in the Macao SAR have shared the work on Hong Kong and Macao affairs in the past. Both being ministry-level institutions, they could fall into the typical organizational trap of “unclear powers and responsibilities” when new issues emerge.
The new work office will take on a supervisory role over the liaison offices in the two SARs, establishing a clear-cut superior-subordinate relationship. This will work for better decision-making and implementation. In future, all policies on the two SARs will be released from a unified source, and all levels of institutions will fully follow and implement them.
It is understood that some in Hong Kong and the international community have expressed “concerns” over the reform, suggesting future “Beijing interventions” in Hong Kong affairs, or even “a Party chief administering the city”. Actually, those who are familiar with China’s politics should understand that the People’s Republic of China has been led by the CPC from day one, and the central government under the CPC leadership has comprehensive jurisdiction over Hong Kong — a fact that won’t change after the completion of this round of institutional reform. So scaremongering stories such as “the CPC was not in charge of Hong Kong before, but they will come to the city later” won’t sell.
Moreover, one of the top tasks for the new work office is to uphold “one country, two systems” and oversee Hong Kong and Macao-related policies, which is the same as that of its predecessor. The change will only raise the status of Hong Kong affairs, in the Chinese political landscape, and nothing more than that.
The author is a member of the Hunan Province Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Y. Elites Association.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.