Hua Liebing to lead discipline inspection group in Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office

Hua Liebing, a former director of China's Public Security Ministry's economic crime investigation bureau, has been appointed to lead the discipline inspection and supervision group within Beijing's Hong Kong affairs office. The appointment was confirmed on Tuesday, following the resignation of Geng Changyou last year, and follows the appointment of Zhang Dongmei as a deputy director in March.

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) now has seven senior members, including Xia Baolong, who has served as the office's director since 2020, and deputy director Zhou Ji.

Born in Jiangsu province in 1967, Hua has a background in history from Shandong University. He was appointed as the deputy head of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau in 2020 and took over as the head of the bureau's economic crime investigation department in 2023. Prior to that, he led the bureau's legal affairs corps and established the country's first law enforcement and case management centre in Beijing.

Hua has also contributed to the development of smart policing in the capital. In May of this year, he participated in the "Fox Hunt" operation, which resulted in the arrest of over 880 fugitives and the resolution of 128,000 economic crime cases, recovering 37.5 billion renminbi in losses. Despite having no prior experience in Hong Kong affairs, Hua's selection adds to the senior leadership of the HKMAO.