Dominic Lee says only under top Party leadership can the principle be implemented accurately, yielding the greatest benefits

The Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the CPC Central Committee proposed under the Party and State institutional reform plan is believed to be more versatile and powerful in terms of functions than the previous Central Coordination Group on Hong Kong and Macao Affairs and Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macao Affairs. Its creation thus suggests that under the new global political situation, it is a major strategic deployment for the CPC Central Committee to strengthen the unified and centralized leadership over the work on Hong Kong and Macao affairs. It shows that the top Party leadership attaches great importance to the practice of “one country, two systems”, and is intended to ensure that the CPC Central Committee has stronger leadership over the implementation of “one country, two systems”.

The creation of the new body will facilitate the CPC Central Committee to directly make decisions on and coordinate the work on Hong Kong and Macao affairs, and will optimize the governance structure for Hong Kong and Macao affairs, so as to ensure that “one country, two systems” is fully and accurately implemented and achieves greater fruitfulness.

However, some malicious Western media have claimed that the creation of a top-level body in charge of Hong Kong and Macao affairs under the CPC Central Committee will compromise “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” and “one country, two systems”. Such arguments expose an ignorance of “one country, two systems” and prejudice against China.

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“One country, two systems” is a great pioneering work of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and only under the leadership of the CPC can it be implemented fully and accurately, yielding the greatest benefits and creating the strongest advantages for Hong Kong and Macao. Under the support and guidance of the CPC, the development of Hong Kong and the development of the country are coordinated and facilitated to ensure that the HKSAR’s development strategy is aligned with the national development strategy, so that the city can better play the role of “satisfying the needs of the country by leveraging the strengths of Hong Kong”.

The successful integration of Hong Kong’s development into national development requires institutional support and guarantees. The reform of the governance structure for Hong Kong and Macao affairs will facilitate Hong Kong and Macao to better integrate into national development, and better leverage their unique advantages to play more significant roles and functions in China’s modernization.

In 2019, an unprecedented riot broke out in Hong Kong, and “one country, two systems” was in danger. In 2020, the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macao Affairs was formed, which was upgraded from the Central Coordination Group on Hong Kong and Macao Affairs. This major adjustment has further strengthened the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee over Hong Kong and Macao from the perspective of an institutional setup. It has comprehensively coordinated and achieved remarkable results because it has successfully brought Hong Kong from chaos to order, and to prosperity again. It demonstrated that under the direct coordination and supervision of the CPC, the governance structure could be optimized to achieve the best result.

China’s political culture has thousands of years of practice and history, and contains rich political wisdom and values, which are ahead of Western values such as modern electoral democracy. The integration of traditional Chinese political wisdom with Chinese socialist political culture has become a contemporary socialist political culture with Chinese characteristics.

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Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC (2012), President Xi Jinping has vigorously promoted the modernization of the country’s governance system and governance capabilities, taking traditional Chinese culture and history as the cornerstone, insisting on inheritance and innovation, to provide new ideas for China’s development.

The framework of “one country, two systems” is the combination of traditional Chinese political wisdom and the Chinese socialist political culture, and is an innovation that is worthy of study by and the appreciation of Western societies.

The author is a co-convener of China Retold, a Legislative Council member and the spokesperson of Community Development Pulsation.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.