Chen Fang, deputy mayor and head of the public security bureau of Putian city in Fujian, is appointed the director of the police liaison department of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Sing Tao Daily reports.

Chen is replacing Li Jiangzhou, who became deputy director of the newly founded office of safeguarding national security in Hong Kong.

Chen has reportedly been working in Hong Kong for a few months and was in touch with several heads of local disciplined services. He last appeared on Chinese media in August, where a photo showed his visit to Meizhou Wanbei’an Economic Development Zone in Putian. He attended a marathon on the New Year’s Day of 2020, which was the last time he was seen participating in a public event.

According to Chinese media outlets in Fujian, he was removed from his position last month.

Chen graduated from the foreign language department of the People’s Public Security University of China before obtaining a master’s in criminology from Keele University in the U.K. He started his career at the public security bureau of Fujian, where he worked his way up from an investigator in 2008 to the bureau’s chief in 2018, focusing on maintaining the law and order as well as cracking down on smuggling.

Fluent in English, he headed the police liaison office in the Chinese embassy in the U.S. in 2004 for a four-and-a-half-year stint, where he was responsible for handling criminal cases that involved the two countries as well as the security of visiting officials.

In 2011, he led a team of 23 Chinese police officers to Timor-Leste on a peacekeeping mission. “The biggest challenge is enforcing the law directly. I gave myself a target and made sure I had a good grasp of the local law and order situation within a week,” he said in an interview at the time.

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