Alias of Beijing national security official in Hong Kong unmasked by latest US sanctions list
蘋果日報 2021/01/17 05:37
Rumors that a senior official from Beijing used a pseudonym when he was sent to Hong Kong to join the newly established national security office appeared to be confirmed on Friday, when his alias appeared on the U.S. sanctions list.
Hongkongers first heard the name Sun Qingye through state news agency Xinhua on July 3, 2020, when it was announced that he would be serving as deputy director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security, established under the Hong Kong national security law.
Sun was one of six people sanctioned by the U.S. on Friday, in the latest round of designations targeting those responsible for the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong. The sanctions revealed that Sun Qingye also goes by another name, Sun Wenqing, a 59-year-old former state media journalist who was stationed in Tokyo for China Youth Daily.
Sun also serves as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a researcher on the State Council.
When Sun’s appointment in Hong Kong was announced last year, state media outlet Global Times reported that Sun’s previous work had been with the Ministry of State Security, but the rest of his professional history remained undisclosed.
The mouthpiece also quoted Tian Feilong, an academic at Beihang University in Beijing, who said that the officials chosen to lead the Office for Safeguarding National Security would form a “very good balance” between public relations and the requirements of operations.
Another high-ranking Chinese official sanctioned on Friday was You Quan, who serves as the head of the United Front Work Department, which focuses on intelligence gathering and influence operations outside China. You is also part of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2018, You met with party members from the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong who were visiting Beijing. You remarked that the DAB had made an important contribution to Hong Kong’s successful handover from Britain to China. He said that the central government held Hong Kong in high regard and firmly supported its continued prosperity and development.
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