7月11日，國務院港澳辦網站披露，中央港澳辦召開會議，主任夏寶龍及5名副主任出席。新舊港澳辦領導層的結合，對香港和澳門都具有重要的政治影響。
中央繼續倚仗夏寶龍
新的中央港澳辦領導都是港澳民眾熟悉的面孔。70歲的夏寶龍是中央港澳工作領導小組副組長、中央港澳辦主任。他雖然已經70歲了，但出任中央級港澳辦主任，意味着中央希望倚仗他的豐富經驗，以增強港澳辦工作的穩定性和延續性。不過，夏寶龍最終可能會辭職，他的職位可能會由一名副主任接替。
夏寶龍在天津出生，曾任天津市副市長、市委常委、浙江省委副書記、政法委黨組書記。 夏先生於2020年出任國務院港澳事務辦公室主任。當他被任命為國務院港澳辦主任時，中央領導層對前港澳辦主任張曉明的表現很不滿意。張曉明最終因2019年香港的反修例風波而被降職為港澳辦副主任。
中聯辦主任 兼任港澳辦副主任
5名副主任中，鄭雁雄和鄭新聰分別來自香港中聯辦和澳門中聯辦。鄭雁雄1963年8月出生於廣東汕頭，曾任汕尾市委書記、廣東省委秘書長。2023年1月被任命為香港中聯辦主任，重點負責國家安全工作。鄭雁雄是香港特別行政區維護國家安全委員會的國家安全事務顧問。顯然，鄭雁雄在維護香港國家安全方面發揮着至關重要的作用。
鄭新聰是另一位來自澳門中聯辦的中央港澳辦副主任。一直被港澳傳媒忽視的鄭新聰，1963年11月出生於福建，與鄭雁雄同齡。鄭新聰曾任泉州市委書記、福建省副省長。他於2021年7月被任命為澳門中聯辦副主任，並於2022年5月晉升為主任。憑藉在與台灣隔海相望的福建省的豐富經驗，鄭新聰可能在港澳加強與台灣的社會經濟聯繫中發揮關鍵作用。
周霽經歷豐富 政途值得關注
另外三位副主任分別是楊萬明、王靈桂和周霽。
楊萬明曾任外交部拉美司司長、中國駐智利、阿根廷和巴西大使。他也是華僑委員會的成員。楊萬明豐富的外交官經歷意味着中央港澳辦領導層需要一位有外交經驗和專業知識的成員。
王靈桂1967年出生於山東，曾任中國社會科學院副院長、澳門基本法委員會委員、社科院亞太與全球戰略研究院黨委書記、副院長。王靈桂從事信息與情報研究。2022年，他被任命為國務院港澳辦副主任。王靈桂在涉澳門事務、研究和情報方面擁有豐富的經驗，可以為中央港澳辦的工作作出重大貢獻。
應該引起注意的是，周霽現年59歲，正部級，職位較高，值得關注。周霽負責中央港澳辦的日常運作，他於2021年被任命為河南省副省長，後來被任命為河南省政法委書記。周霽曾任河南省委副書記，在河南省的經歷豐富，年紀不大，在中央港澳辦的政治前途值得關注。 7月初，周霽陪同夏寶龍訪問深圳會見香港官員，這表明當夏寶龍選擇退休時，周霽可能會接替夏寶龍。
施克輝擔任把關人角色
施克輝是中央港澳辦紀檢監察組組長，是代表國家監察委員會的中央級官員。1961年在浙江省出生的施克輝，曾任浙江省委副秘書長、廣東省紀委書記。他從浙江省的一名教師開始在政治上迅速崛起，這表明他對中國共產黨高度的政治忠誠。曾在中共總書記習近平2002年至2007年在浙江工作期間任職，2012年至2017年在浙江工作，時任浙江省委書記夏寶龍是上司。2014年時任中央紀委副秘書長兼辦公廳主任。兩年後，他被派往廣東工作，任省紀委書記。2021年1月，施克輝擔任中紀委國家監委駐國務院港澳辦紀檢監察組組長。因為他的新任命，傳媒報道他可能負責清理香港和澳門的國有企業。
施克輝目前擔任紀檢監察組組長，表明他作為港澳國有企業紀律和績效把關人的重要角色。
除了施克輝負責紀律事務外，向斌是中央港澳辦室務會成員，秘書行政司司長。他曾在國務院港澳辦工作，負責政治研究、交流和綜合事務。
港澳工作集中 改善混亂局面
新設立的中央港澳辦最重要的政治意義，在於它是一個制定和落實中共對港澳一國兩制政策的高層機構。
將港澳工作集中到中央港澳辦，改變了此前國務院港澳辦與港澳兩個中聯辦關係錯綜複雜的混亂局面。新華社香港分社社長、已故的許家屯在回憶錄中透露，他不同意已故魯平領導港澳辦的意見。
為理順國務院港澳辦與中聯辦的關係，中央領導層於2012年任命曾任國務院港澳辦黨組書記的張曉明擔任中聯辦主任，直至2017年，接任國務院港澳辦主任。然而，由於2019年下半年香港政局動盪，張曉明於2020年2月被降職為國務院港澳辦副主任。然而，單靠人事調整和任命並不能解決港澳辦缺乏有力領導的問題。
因此，中央決定將港澳辦的工作集中到中央港澳辦是有道理的，這一來，既明確了上級領導，又從制度、組織、制度等方面保證了「全面管治權」的有效落實。
中央港澳辦與兩個中聯辦之間的層級關係比以往任何時候都更加清晰。
維護國安、改善民生為政策重點
香港和澳門的政策重點非常明確：首先是國家安全，其次是通過改善住房政策來改善民生，最後是兩個城市需要融入大灣區的國家戰略。
新的層級結構意味着，正如鄭雁雄7月11日公開表示那樣，中聯辦的重點是協調和執行工作。 鄭補充說，香港立法會議員應該對政府進行監察，批評必須是建設性的。港澳中聯辦在加強與社會各界協調溝通工作的同時，也希望立法會議員發揮「忠誠反對派」的作用，向兩地行政主導的政府提出批評和建設性建議。
總的來說，新一屆中央港澳辦將新老領導人合而為一，一方面保證中央對港澳政策制定和實施的連續性和穩定性，另一方面也為領導班子的接班做準備。中央港澳辦與駐港澳兩個中聯辦的層級關係比以往更加清晰，中央政策特別是國家安全、民生改善、國家安全等方面的政策能夠更加有效執行。香港、澳門社會經濟融入大灣區。中央港澳辦領導層的年輕化，體現了經驗豐富的官員與強大的外交、紀律、研究和秘書支持的良好結合。因此，可以預期，今後中央港澳辦和兩個中聯辦的人事變動，將繼續按照中共對港澳一國兩制的既定政策和方向進行。
An Analysis of the New Central-Level HKMAO Leadership
On July 11, the website of the Hong Kong Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) revealed that the central-level HKMAO convened a meeting in which its director Xia Baolong attended together with five deputy directors. The combination of old and new HKMAO leadership has important political implications for both Hong Kong and Macau.
The new central-level HKMAO is led by faces familiar to the people of Hong Kong and Macau. The 70-year-old Xia Baolong, who is a deputy group convenor of the central-level Hong Kong and Macau Work Leading Small Group, is the director of the central-level HKMAO. His appointment as the central-level HKMAO director, even though reaching 70 years old, means that the central government wants to retain his rich experiences to enhance the stability and continuity of the HKMAO work. However, Xia may step down eventually and his position would likely be taken up by one of the deputy directors.
Xia was born in Tianjin where he was a former deputy mayor and a member of the city’s standing committee. He worked in Zhejiang province as a deputy party secretary and a party secretary of the Political and Legal Committee. Xia assumed the position of the director of the State Council’s Hong Kong Macau Affairs Office in 2020. When he was appointed as the director of the State Council’s HKMAO, it was obvious that the central leadership was unhappy with the performance of the former HKMAO director Zhang Xiaoming, who was eventually demoted as the deputy HKMAO director because of the 2019 turbulences in Hong Kong.
Of the five deputy directors, two of them are from the Hong Kong Liaison Office and Macau Liaison Office, namely Zheng Yanxiong and Zheng Xincong, respectively. Zheng Yanxiong was born in August 1963 in Shantou, Guangdong. Zheng was a party secretary of Shanwei city and a secretary of the Guangdong provincial committee. He was appointed as the director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office in January 2023, focusing on the work of national security. Zheng is a national security adviser of the HKSAR Committee in Protection of National Security. Obviously, Zheng plays a crucial role in safeguarding national security in Hong Kong.
Zheng Xincong is another deputy director who comes from the Macau Liaison Office. What has been neglected by the media in both Hong Kong and Macau is that Zheng was born in Fujian in November 1963, with the same age as Zheng Yanxiong. Zheng Xincong worked as the former party secretary of Quanzhou city and a former deputy governor of the Fujian province. He was appointed as the deputy director of the Macau Liaison Office in July 2021, and promoted to director in May 2022. With his rich experiences in Fujian, a province opposite Taiwan, Zheng will likely play a crucial role in how Hong Kong and Macau would enhance their socio-economic relations with Taiwan.
The other three deputy directors are Yang Wanming, Wang Linggui and Zhou Ji.
Yang Wanming was a former diplomat dealing with Latin American affairs and he was a former ambassador of the PRC to Chile, Argentina and Brazil. He was also a member of the Overseas Chinese Committee. Yang’s rich experiences as a former diplomat meant that the central-level HKMAO leadership needs a person with diplomatic experiences and expertise.
Born in Shandong in 1967, Wang Linggui was a former deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was a former member of the Macau Basic Law Committee. He was also a party secretary and deputy director of the Study Institute of Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy. Wang conducted research on information and intelligence. In 2022, he was appointed as the deputy director of the State Council’s HKMAO. Endowed with rich experiences in Macau, research and intelligence, Wang can contribute to the work of the central-level HKMAO significantly.
It is noteworthy that Zhou Ji is 59 years old and is at the level of full minister – a higher position that deserves our attention. Zhou oversees the daily operation of the central-level HKMAO, He was named the deputy governor of Henan in 2021 and later was appointed as the head of the party commission that oversaw law enforcement in Henan. Zhou was a former deputy party secretary of Henan province. With rich experiences in the Henan province and with his younger age, Zhou’s political future in the central-level HKMAO will deserve our attention. In early July, Zhou accompanied Xia Baolong to visit Shenzhen to meet officials from Hong Kong – an indication that Zhou would perhaps succeed Xia later when the latter opts for retirement.
Shi Kehui is a team leader of the central-level HKMAO Discipline and Inspection Supervision, and he represents a central-level official from the National Supervision Committee. Born in Zhejiang province in 1961, Shi was a former deputy secretary of the Zhejiang province and a former secretary of the Guangdong province’s discipline and inspection committee. He climbed up politically and quickly from being a teacher in Zhejiang province – an indication of Shi’s high degree of political loyalty to the Communist Party of China (CPC). Formerly serving under CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping when Xi worked in Zhejiang from 2002 to 2007, and under HKMAO director Xia Bolong when Xia worked in Zhejiang from 2012 to 2017, Shi was appointed as a team leader dealing with discipline and inspection under the State Council’s HKMAO in January 2021. In 2014, Shi was promoted to work at the central-level Discipline and Inspection Committee under the leadership of Wang Qishan. Two years later, Shi was sent to work in Guangdong to deal with disciplinary issues. His new appointment in January 2021 led to media reports saying that he might be responsible for cleaning up the state-owned enterprises in Hong Kong and Macau.
The current position of Shi as the team leader dealing with discipline and inspection points to his vital role as a gatekeeper overseeing the discipline and performance of state-owned enterprises in both Hong Kong and Macau.
Apart from Shi who is responsible for disciplinary matters, Xiang Bin is a member of the central-level HKMAO, and he copes with secretarial work. He formerly worked in the State Council’s HKMAO to deal with political study, exchange and comprehensive affairs.
The most important political significance of the new set-up of the central-level HKMAO is that it is a high-level body dealing with the policy formulation and implementation of the CPC policy on Hong Kong and Macau’s “one country, two systems.”
The centralization of Hong Kong and Macau work in the hands of the central-level HKMAO changes the previous chaotic situation in which the HKMAO at the State Council level had strange relationships with the two Liaison Offices in Hong Kong and Macau. The former director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, the late Xu Jiatun, revealed in his memoirs that he disagreed with the opinions of the HKMAO led by the late Lu Ping.
To smoothen the relations between the State Council’s HKMAO and the Hong Kong Liaison Office, the central leadership in 2012 appointed Zhang Xiaoming, who had worked as a secretary in the State Council HKMAO, to head the Hong Kong Liaison Office until 2017, when Zhang was promoted as the director of the State Council’s HKMAO. However, due to the political turbulence in Hong Kong during the latter half of 2019, Zhang was demoted to the deputy director of the State Council HKMAO in February 2020. However, personnel reshuffle and appointments alone could not solve the problem of a lack of forceful leadership of the HKMAO.
As such, the central decision of centralizing the work of HKMAO into the hands of the central-level HKMAO makes sense. It not only clarifies the leadership at the top but also ensures the effective implementation of “comprehensive jurisdictions” in the aspects of the system, organization, coordination and communication.
The hierarchical relations between the central-level HKMAO and the two Liaison Offices in Hong Kong and Macau are now much clearer than ever before.
The policy priorities over Hong Kong and Macau are noticeably clear: national security as the top priority, followed by effective policies of improving the people’s livelihood through better housing policies, and by the need for the two cities to integrate into the Greater Bay Area as part of the national strategy.
The new hierarchical structure means that, as Zheng Yanxiong admitted on July 11 openly, the Hong Kong Liaison Office focuses on coordination and implementation work. Zheng added that legislators in Hong Kong should scrutinize the government, and that criticisms need to be constructive. While the Liaison Offices in Hong Kong and Macau enhances all kinds of coordination and communication work with the elites and masses, they expect the legislators to play the role of loyal opposition with criticisms and constructive suggestions to the executive-led government in both cities.
In conclusion, the new central-level HKMAO combines old and new leaders, ensuring continuity and stability of the formulation and implementation of the central government’s policies on Hong Kong and Macau on the one hand, and preparing for leadership succession on the other hand. The hierarchical relations between the central-level HKMAO and the two Liaison Offices in Hong Kong and Macau are much clearer than ever before, leading to a more effective implementation of central policies, especially on national security, the improvement of the people’s livelihood, and the socio-economic integration of Hong Kong and Macau into the Greater Bay Area. The rejuvenation of the leaders at the central-level HKMAO demonstrates a nice combination of experienced officials with strong diplomatic, disciplinary, research and secretarial support. It can therefore be anticipated from now on that any personnel changes at the central-level HKMAO and the two Liaison Offices would continue with the established policies and directions of the CPC on the “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong and Macau.
原刊於澳門新聞通訊社（MNA）網站，本社獲作者授權轉載。原文網址：https://www.macaubusiness.com/opinion-an-analysis-of-the-new-central-level-hkmao-leadership/
趙靈敏
尹瑞麟
張翠容
黃錦輝
李志強
周光蓁
周萱
常霖法師
蔡國光
黃珍妮
譚新強
車品覺