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Latest management modifications in China’s peripheral areas sign the federal government’s persevering with deal with an aggressive, closely securitized method to stability upkeep. The latest CCP cadre inserted right into a outstanding position is Main Normal Peng Jingtang, the new commander of Hong Kong’s PLA garrison, whose predecessor Chen Daoxiang is reaching retirement age. Dan Strumpf and Wenxin Fan from the Wall Avenue Journal described Peng’s background as a prime counterrorism official in Xinjiang:
China has named a prime inside safety forces officer who helped lead Beijing’s crackdown in Xinjiang as the brand new chief of its military garrison in Hong Kong, the newest hard-line appointment by Beijing within the monetary heart.
Main Normal Peng Jingtang, a deputy chief of workers of China’s Individuals’s Armed Police, will head the Individuals’s Liberation Military garrison in Hong Kong, China’s Xinhua Information Company reported late Sunday. He was beforehand chief of workers for the armed police within the far western area of Xinjiang, website of a yearslong crackdown on predominantly Muslim and Turkic-speaking Uyghurs and different minorities.
There Mr. Peng was tasked with counterterrorism, serving to practice an elite squad often called the Mountain Eagles. In 2019, he advised the state-run International Instances newspaper that the squad fired as many rounds of ammunition in 2018 as all different Xinjiang safety forces mixed had performed over the earlier three years. Final 12 months, Chinese language President Xi Jinping honored an unspecified antiterrorism squad in Xinjiang that officers mentioned killed 91 terrorists. [Source]
0107: Carrie Lam confirms public fears, meets the brand new rent of PLA #HongKong Garrison commander Peng jingtang; Lam says she seems ahead to “defending the state energy and nationwide safety” collectively. #111HK #Xinjiang #NationalSecurity #CCP #CarrieLam #genocide @benedictrogers pic.twitter.com/2WXrQAEVUJ
— The 852 Spirit (@the852spirit) January 10, 2022
Peng is the eighth PLA garrison commander in Hong Kong, and the primary to come back from the Individuals’s Armed Police (PAP). In response to the International Instances, his background in home counterterrorism “reveals that his appointment is extra focused at safeguarding social stability and coping with nationwide security-related points in Hong Kong.” Minnie Chan and Tony Cheung from the South China Morning Submit highlighted the increasing position of the Hong Kong PLA garrison and its deal with counterterrorism:
Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canada-based navy journal Kanwa Asian Defence, mentioned Peng’s deployment to town confirmed how the position of the Hong Kong garrison had modified, extending from defence of territory and sovereignty to counter riots and anti-terrorism.
“The Hong Kong garrison has acquired many anti-terrorist and counter-riot weapons and tools for the reason that anti-government protests in 2019 … many have been transferred from the armed police drive,” Chang mentioned.
“Peng’s appointment mirrored Beijing’s worry of potential riots in Hong Kong. The central authorities makes an attempt to forestall the continuing anti-government sentiment to be become social unrest, and even excessive terrorist assaults.”
[…] “The present greatest menace in Hong Kong is counterterrorism. Peng’s experience meets the requirement, that’s why he was chosen,” mentioned Tune Zhongping, a navy commentator and former PLA teacher. [Source]
My @hk_watch colleague @Johnny_HKWatch is spot on right here
The Orwellianisation of #HongKong https://t.co/2IFqq05agS
— Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 (@benedictrogers) January 10, 2022
Sadly, not a shock and one thing that even Congress noticed coming with the required annual DNI reviews. https://t.co/7vf2FqNHzv pic.twitter.com/IPpgzdZsMf
— Joe Moschella (@joemosch) January 10, 2022
The PAP play an enormous ongoing position in managing Xinjiang’s internment drive – it’s past frequent to seek out their bases hooked up to prisons there nonetheless, the place PAP are guard workers.
I’ve little doubt the XJ PAP chief may be very skilled. Why that have is required in HK is simply… https://t.co/4H5CUBqx7H
— Cate Cadell (@catecadell) January 10, 2022
From Leibold (2019), we will take into account how “social sorting” is already being utilized in HK. Clearly there’s a listing of “deviants” which were detained for the reason that NSL; there are additionally 10,000 “abnormals”
that have been arrested in the course of the protests and are on lists, and members of the family. pic.twitter.com/NVxSgUOpVz— Ataraxis (@ataraxisfinch) January 9, 2022
Beneath Hong Kong’s Fundamental Regulation and garrison regulation, the PLA garrison “shall not intervene in native affairs,” however the metropolis authorities might ask Beijing for the garrison’s help “within the upkeep of public order and in catastrophe aid.” Because the pro-democracy protests in 2019, the garrison has grow to be extra seen to the general public. In the summertime of 2019, it made veiled threats to intervene towards protesters, and following one road conflict between protesters and police in November of that 12 months, the garrison helped clear particles in a extremely symbolic act. It has additionally held public drills simulating crowd management and antiterrorism operations final summer season and this previous week, to “enhance its functionality in fulfilling Hong Kong’s defensive duties”, in line with China Information Service. In July 2021, the garrison opened a public exhibition heart to “assist strengthen public consciousness about patriotism and nationwide protection.”
Different authorities appointees in and round Hong Kong equally show a complete restructuring round politicized public safety and regulation enforcement. In one of many first management appointments following the Nationwide Safety Regulation, Beijing’s Workplace for Safeguarding Nationwide Safety in Hong Kong was inaugurated by Zheng Yanxiong, a hardliner with expertise battling protesters and liberal media. In January of final 12 months, Guangdong’s anti-corruption chief Shi Kehui moved to a disciplinary position on the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Workplace. That very same month, among the many 200 extra cadres despatched from the mainland to the Hong Kong liaison workplace was its new deputy director, Zheng Lin, who arrived from the Central Political and Authorized Affairs Fee, China’s prime regulation enforcement physique. Over the previous two years, as Iain Marlow from Bloomberg described, different officers with backgrounds main crackdowns have ascended to outstanding authorities roles in Hong Kong:
“China has lately put in officers with expertise heading crackdowns in key Hong Kong roles. In early 2020, Luo Huining, a Communist Get together stalwart recognized for executing Xi’s anti-corruption marketing campaign, turned head of the central authorities’s highly effective Liaison Workplace within the metropolis. Xia Baolong, recognized for prosecuting a marketing campaign towards Christian church buildings in Zhejiang province, was named director of the Hong Kong & Macau Affairs Workplace in the identical 12 months.
Hong Kong has additionally put former profession policemen in key authorities roles within the wake of town’s massive and typically violent anti-government protests in 2019. Former police chief John Lee rose to town’s No. 2 authorities place in June, whereas fellow former officer, Chris Tang, turned safety secretary.” [Source]
Different areas have seen management modifications that emphasize securitization. Final October, Wang Junzheng turned the brand new Get together secretary of Tibet after serving as head of safety in Xinjiang, the place his position in overseeing the alleged Uyghur genocide earned him the nickname the “Butcher of Xinjiang” and made him the most sanctioned official within the CCP. His appointment in Tibet “signifies that the Chinese language authorities intend to proceed utilizing an iron fist to manage the Tibetan folks,” mentioned the Worldwide Marketing campaign for Tibet.
Wang Junzheng’s CV is right here at China Vitae in English: https://t.co/JAtN1b23TH. The announcement in Chinese language and Tibetan is right here: https://t.co/8o0uIsGj93 pic.twitter.com/PGJQtvrYdS
— Robert Barnett (@RobbieBarnett) October 19, 2021
Extra on Wang:
Labored underneath Li Hongzhong, Xi’s ally on the Get together’s elite 25-member Politburo, in Hubei from 2012-2016, & underneath Chen Quanguo in XJ
Will go from non-voting alternate to full Central Committee member subsequent 12 months & younger sufficient to get on Politburo in 2027 (3/16)
— Neil Thomas 牛犇 (@neilthomas123) October 20, 2021
In the meantime, Xinjiang’s notorious Get together secretary Chen Quanguo, who exhorted officers to “spherical up everybody who ought to be rounded up” within the crackdown on Uyghurs, was changed final month by Guangdong’s governor, Ma Xingrui. Ma was previously head of the Nationwide House Administration and director of the State Administration for Science, Know-how, and Business for Nationwide Protection, and his distinctive expertise outdoors of politics has led some to imagine that his appointment alerts a shift in emphasis towards financial growth in Xinjiang. Lizzi Lee described some great benefits of Ma’s numerous background: “His earlier interactions with international buyers and worldwide firms ought to have offered him with concepts on methods to deal with labor and human rights considerations as Western corporations more and more keep away from merchandise.”
Ma Xingrui 马兴瑞 (62yo) is the brand new Get together Secretary of Xinjiang
Promoted from Governor of Guangdong, the place he labored underneath Xi ally Li Xi
Beforehand Shenzhen PS, MIIT Vice-Min, area engineer & Central Committee member since 2012
Prone to win a Politburo seat this fall (2/9) pic.twitter.com/diRru1vvYO
— Neil Thomas 牛犇 (@neilthomas123) January 3, 2022
However Ma has vowed to take care of his predecessor’s deal with social stability and public order: “We’ve got to steadfastly maintain long-term stability in Xinjiang’s society and should not let this stability – which didn’t come straightforward – to be undone,” he mentioned at his first management assembly as Xinjiang get together secretary. As Adile Ablet and Tenzin Dickyi observe in Radio Free Asia, Ma is unlikely to finish the repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang:
Chen’s alternative is a “change from the excessive impression, excessive stress mode into extra of a long-term upkeep mode that may proceed to make use of oppressive insurance policies in a long-term means,” mentioned [Adrian] Zenz, an unbiased researcher with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group Victims of Communism Memorial Basis.
“[With his] alternative by the governor of Guangdong, we will see Beijing’s technique of long-term financial growth of the area whereas sustaining the high-impact oppression, assimilation, inhabitants optimization, and prices of labor that may all be maintained in a means that’s form of like a gradual, gradual genocide,” he mentioned.
[…] “Ma Xingrui, who will change Chen Quanguo because the Xinjiang get together chief, has promised to uphold the present state of supervision in Xinjiang as it’s now,” [Kunga Tashi, an expert on Tibet-China relations] mentioned. “So, I imagine this alternative simply has to do with a wider reshuffle forward of subsequent 12 months’s twentieth [National] Get together Congress and nothing to do with ending the tough insurance policies in Xinjiang.” [Source]
Unclear what/how a lot to learn into this.
– 5 years is not uncommon time to carry a place earlier than rotating.
– Chen obtained promoted as soon as (to Politburo, 2017); may very well be up once more in 2022.
– Int’l sanctions no impediment to Wang Junzheng (XJ/Tibet) getting promoted… Will wait & see. https://t.co/Oofmxyr34i— Sheena Chestnut Greitens (@SheenaGreitens) December 26, 2021
I feel the default ought to be to imagine continuity until there’s sturdy proof on the contrary. The coverage comes from the highest.
— Donald Clarke (@donaldcclarke) December 27, 2021
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