Beijing appoints Yuan Gujie as deputy director of Hong Kong liaison office

Beijing has appointed Yuan Gujie, a former senior Guangdong official who vowed to advance rules and mechanisms connectivity within the Greater Bay Area, as deputy director of its liaison office in Hong Kong.State news agency Xinhua announced the appointment on Monday. Yuan, 58, will succeed diplomat Liu Guangyuan, who is expected to retire at 61.The liaison office’s top leadership includes director Zhou Ji and four deputies.Yuan headed the provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee and also served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong-provincial-committee" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="138033" data-entity-type="organization">Guangdong Provincial Committee and an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party before being posted to Hong Kong.She has a legal background and spent her career in Guangdong. She graduated with a law degree from Sun Yat-sen University in 1988 and earned a PhD in international law from Peking University Law School in 1997.Yuan then served as dean of the School of Law at South China Normal University from 2004 to 2006. Her research interests include international law, civil and commercial law, and sports law.