Zhang Xiaoming Warns HK In Worst Crisis Since 1997

In a rare meeting with local National People’s Congress delegates, the director of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Zhang Xiaoming, warned on Wednesday that the SAR is facing its “most severe crisis” since the handover.

Zhang, together with the head of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong, Wang Zhimin, were meeting around 500 people from the SAR, including NPC deputies, members of the CPPCC and pro-government lawmakers, at a seminar in Shenzhen.

It was the first joint meeting between the two office chiefs and local delegates since August 2014.

Journalists were allowed to attend the first ten minutes of the seminar when Zhang gave his opening remarks.

He said the anti-extradition saga and accompanying violence has been expanding in scale and intensity over the past two months, and the central government is extremely concerned.

Zhang said Beijing is “studying the events strategically” and hopes that the meeting with various sectors in Hong Kong will help the central government make decisions that are closer to the actual social situation in the territory.