China removes Hong Kong affairs veteran Zhang Xiaoming from senior role at top advisory body

He remains a member of the CPPCC and the party, a source told the South China Morning Post.

Zhang, 60, was a minister-level official and is below the usual retirement age of 65.

He began working at the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) in 1989 after graduating from Renmin University of China’s law school, serving as the agency’s deputy director from 2004 to 2012.

He was then promoted to director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, and became director of the HKMAO in 2017.

But Zhang’s term was rocked by anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019, which were triggered by a now-withdrawn extradition bill.

In February 2020, the central government appointed Xia Baolong, the CPPCC’s vice-chairman and secretary general, to take over as director, while Zhang was made executive deputy director.

In 2022, Zhang was appointed to the deputy role in the nation’s top advisory body.

He was replaced at the HKMAO last year by Zhou Ji, the former deputy secretary and security chief of Henan province.

“[I] respect and trust the central government’s personnel arrangements,” Starry Lee Wai-king, the city’s sole representative on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, told the Post.

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