| Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region | |||||||||||
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| Entrance on Connaught Road West | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中央人民政府駐香港特別行政區聯絡辦公室 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中央人民政府驻香港特別行政区联络办公室 | ||||||||||
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The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an organ of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.
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It is responsible for liaisons with the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison and the Office of the Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is also responsible for liaisons with Chinese companies in Hong Kong, and facilitating economic, cultural, educational, technology and sport exchanges and cooperation between Hong Kong and mainland China. De facto, the CLO is also the headquarters of the People's Republic of China's United Front in Hong Kong, and therefore the origin of all propaganda efforts carried out in the territory in order to "win the minds and the hearts" of the Hong Kong citizens. For this reason, protests regularly occur before its building.[1].
Before renaming on January 18, 2000, it was known as the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch. Before the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, it was the de facto diplomatic mission of the People's Republic of China in the territory, since the People's Republic of China did not recognise the legitimacy of United Kingdom colonial rule. The current director of the office is Gao Siren.
In January 2008, Cao Erbao, the incumbent head of the research department published an article justifying the need of a parallel, Communist-led government in the SAR in Study Times[2]. It sparked great controversy in some sectors of the Hong Kong society, already worried about the growing interference of the People's Republic of China into the SAR's political affairs[3].