Beijing’s office overseeing Hong Kong affairs has called on the city to improve its systems for nurturing, appointing and managing governance talent as a way to bring in more personnel with integrity and competence into the governing team.
In a commentary, the theoretical study group of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) stressed that the city would only enjoy more room to open up and develop when national security was firmly safeguarded. It urged greater attention to security in areas including finance, shipping, trade and the protection of overseas interests.
The article – “Uphold the correct course of ‘one country, two systems’, advance Hong Kong and Macau towards the great journey of national rejuvenation” – was published in the state-run People’s Daily on Monday, four days after the government released the independent committee report on last year’s deadly Tai Po fire. The day before the report was published, housing chief Winnie Ho Wing-yin resigned, assuming political accountability.