Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has deployed a top Xinjiang police official to command the nation’s army post in Hong Kong, raising fears that Beijing is taking an increasingly hard line on security in the territory.
Major General Peng Jingtang (彭京堂) is to become commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Hong Kong garrison at the request of Xi, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
Peng was previously deputy chief of staff for the armed police force in China’s Xinjiang region, where the US government has accused China of repressive polices against Uighur Muslims, saying the policies amount to genocide. Beijing strongly denies the charge.
Photo: Bloomberg
China has in the past few years installed officials with experience heading crackdowns in key Hong Kong roles.
In early 2020, Luo Huining (駱惠寧), a Chinese Communist Party stalwart known for executing Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, became head of the central government’s powerful Liaison Office in the territory.
Xia Baolong (夏寶龍), known for prosecuting a campaign against Christian churches in Zhejiang Province, was named director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office that same year.
Hong Kong has also put former career police officers in key government roles in the wake of the territory’s large anti-government protests in 2019.
Former secretary for security John Lee (李家超) in June last year rose to the territory’s No. 2 government position — chief secretary for administration — while former police commissioner Chris Tang (鄧炳強) became security secretary.
The defense ministry said in a statement that Peng would work to “resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, and firmly safeguard” the stability of Hong Kong.
Last week, the Hong Kong garrison of the PLA conducted a high-profile drill to “demonstrate its confidence and determination to defend” the territory after Xi called on the military to adopt the latest technology to win future conflicts, the South China Morning Post reported.
REACHING OUT: President Tsai expressed condolences to the deceased man’s family and wished a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in the shooting The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) on Monday called on the US to label organizations associated with the suspect in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church shooting as domestic terrorists, following accusations that he was a member of a group backing unification with ties to the Chinese government. David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, was arrested on Sunday and is being held in lieu of US$1 million bail at the Orange County Intake Release Center over a mass shooting at the California church that left one dead and five wounded. Local police suspect the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in
LIVING WITH COVID-19: Close contacts with a booster shot would no longer follow the ‘3+4’ policy, instead practicing ‘0+7,’ or self-disease prevention for seven days Close contacts of COVID-19 cases who have received a booster shot no longer need to isolate at home, but should practice seven days of “self-disease prevention,” effective today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that starting at 12am today, close contacts — people living in the same household — of those confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 are exempt from home isolation if they have received a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Data from other countries show that people who have received a booster shot are
‘TOO RESTRICTIVE’: Ending US sales of weapons that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric’ would hamper Taiwan’s defense against China, two business groups said Taiwan’s weapons procurement decisions are made based on its needs, and are not influenced by individual arms dealers, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday after two US business groups questioned a US official’s comment on arms sales to Taiwan. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security Mira Resnick told the business groups via video link on Saturday that Washington would adjust the types of weapons sold to Taiwan and end “most arms sales to Taiwan that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric.’” The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan and the US-Taiwan Business Council on Monday
MANY VOICES: The Formosa Club, 94 Mexican lawmakers, 70 Brazilian lawmakers and others signed a letter recommending Taiwan’s inclusion to the WHO director-general A WHO official on Monday said the organization would begin discussing a motion to restore Taiwan’s observer status in six days’ time, after confirming the receipt of a request from 13 member states to deliberate the matter. Steven Solomon, the WHO principal legal officer, made the comment at a news briefing ahead of the 75th meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the organization’s decisionmaking body in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHA Executive Board would meet in a closed-door session on Sunday evening to advise the member states, which would then meet the next day to determine whether the motion would be entered