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Beijing liaison office in Hong Kong ‘has HK$3.4 billion property empire’ in the city: Demosisto report
- Mainland China agency has 757 properties in the city with 130 flats bought since 2014, according to research from pro-democracy group
- Joshua Wong says data shows liaison office’s expansion across city, while lawmaker highlights its need to house staff locally
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Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong has a HK$3.4 billion property portfolio in the city, according to research based on 2019 data from pro-democracy activists who said it offered a glimpse into the expansion of the central government’s local operation.
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With a power row intensifying over the agency’s role in Hong Kong affairs, Demosisto on Monday published its findings that the institution owned 757 properties in the city, including residences, offices, car parks and entire buildings, as of February last year.
According to the report, about 400 of the residences were bought before the 1997 handover of the city from British to Chinese sovereignty, when the Xinhua News Agency’s Hong Kong base was the de facto representative office of Beijing in the colonial era.
About 180 were snapped up between 1998 and 2014, with another 130 added to the portfolio between 2015 and 2019, the report read.
Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who co-founded the opposition political party, said the findings showed how Beijing had widened its reach in Hong Kong after the Occupy movement of 2014. But a senior pro-establishment figure echoed an earlier liaison office statement that the properties were mainly used to house staff.
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