The Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs () is an internal policy coordination group of the

Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is currently composed of 205 fu ...

(CCP) and the

State Council of the People's Republic of China The State Council, constitutionally synonymous with the Central People's Government since 1954 (particularly in relation to local governments), is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the p ...

, reporting to the

CCP Politburo The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ...

, in charge of supervising and coordinating Beijing's policy towards the Special Administrative Regions of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. The Group is the highest ''de facto'' body for China's policy towards Hong Kong and Macau. The

General Office A General Office (also known as "administrative office") is an important administrative political organ in the communist party organizations and communist countries (such as China, Laos and Vietnam for instance). Generally speaking, the General Offi ...

for the group is also known as the

Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council is an administrative agency of the State Council of the People's Republic of China responsible for promoting cooperation and coordination of political, economic and cultural ties betwe ...

History

The Group was established as the Central Coordination Group for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs on 17 August 1978 though an informal Hong Kong-Macau affairs group had formed much earlier. Its founding memo described the group's aim as "

seek truth from facts "Seek truth from facts" is a historically established idiomatic expression (''chengyu'') in the Chinese language that first appeared in the ''Book of Han''. Originally, it described an attitude toward study and research. In modern Chinese cult ...

, approach things appropriately according to the situation, do not assume what works in the mainland will work elsewhere, be flexible." In order to deal with increasingly serious

July 1 marches The Hong Kong 1 July protests was an annual protest rally originally held by the Civil Human Rights Front from the day of handover in 1997 on the HKSAR establishment day. However, it was not until 2003 that the march drew large public attentio ...

in Hong Kong in 2003, then

Politburo Standing Committee The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Histori ...

(PSC) member and Vice President

Zeng Qinghong Zeng Qinghong (born 30 July 1939) is a retired Chinese politician. He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, China's highest leadership council, and top-ranked member of the Secretariat of the Central ...

became leader of the group that year, and China's policy towards the SARs underwent significant reforms. Most notably, the group enacted the

Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement The Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) for short, is an economic agreement between the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central People ...

(CEPA) and the Mainland and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, preferential trade agreements, and the

Individual Visit Scheme The Individual Visit Scheme begun on 28 July 2003 allowing travelers from Mainland China to visit Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis; prior to the Scheme, Mainland residents could only visit on business visas or on group tours. The outb ...

, which allowed mainlanders to visit Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis without having to apply for group visas or go through officially approved tour groups. Since 2003, the group has always been led by a member of the PSC. In 2020, in the context of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the group was upgraded from a Central Coordination Group to a Central Leading Group.

List of Leaders

(2003–2007) #

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

(2007–2012) #

Zhang Dejiang Zhang Dejiang (; born 4 November 1946) is a Chinese retired politician. He served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress, roughly the equivalent of a speaker of parliament in other countries between ...

(2012–2018) #

Han Zheng Han Zheng (; born 22 April 1954) is a Chinese politician serving as the Senior Vice Premier of the State Council. He has also been leader of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs since April 2018. From 2017 to 2022, he serve ...

(2018–present)

Current composition

; Leader *

, CCP Politburo Standing Committee member, First

Vice-Premier of the State Council The vice premiers of the State Council of the People's Republic of China () are high-ranking officials under the premier and above the state councillors and ministers. Generally, the title is held by multiple individuals at any given time, wit ...

; Deputy Leaders #

Xia Baolong Xia Baolong (; born 2 December 1952) is a Chinese politician. Originally from Tianjin, Xia began his political career in the Communist Youth League. He served as the vice mayor of Tianjin, governor and Communist Party Secretary of Zhejiang provi ...

, Director of the

Zhao Kezhi Zhao Kezhi (; born 28 December 1953) is a Chinese politician who currently serves as a State Councilor of the People’s Republic of China and the former Minister and Party Committee Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security, with the top p ...

, Minister of Public Security ; Members #

Yang Jiechi Yang Jiechi (; born 1 May 1950) is a high-ranking Chinese politician and diplomat, who served as a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party between 2017 and 2022. Yang spent much of his professional life in the United States, wh ...

, CCP Politburo member, Director of the

Central Foreign Affairs Commission The Central Foreign Affairs Commission is a commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that exercises general oversight on matters related to foreign affairs. It is currently chaired by CCP General Secretary and P ...

Office # Li Xi, CCP Politburo member, Party Secretary of

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Zhang Xiaoming Zhang Xiaoming (; born 3 September 1963) is a Chinese politician. He was the director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong and then of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, before being demoted to deputy direc ...

, deputy director of the

You Quan You Quan (; born January 1954) is a Chinese politician who is the former director of the United Front Work Department and a former secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party. He previously served as Communist Party Secretary of F ...

, CCP Secretariat member, Head of the CCP

United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (UFWD; ) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is officially tasked with "united front work". For this endeavo ...

Luo Huining Luo Huining (; born 5 October 1954) is a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party who is Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong. A native of Yiwu, Zhejiang, he was previously the Governor, then Party S ...

, Director of the Central Government Liaison Office in Hong Kong #

Fu Ziying Fu Ziying (; born September 1957) is a Chinese politician currently serving as director of the Macau Liaison Office. He was a delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He is an alternate member of the 19th Central C ...

, Director of the Central Government Liaison Office in Macau

References

{{Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Leading groups of the Chinese Communist Party 1978 establishments in China Organizations established in 1978

History

List of Leaders

Current composition

See also

References