Chen Sixi, a vice-director of the Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau, was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing yesterday.
From a list of 172 candidates, 159 were elected as members of the 13th NPC Standing Committee.
Chen is one of the four deputy directors of the Liaison Office in Macau.
During the sixth plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th NPC yesterday, Legislative Assembly (AL) President Ho Iat Seng was re-elected as an NPC Standing Committee member. He is among the 12 local deputies to the 13th NPC.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by 2,966 NPC deputies. When voting for NPC Standing Committee members, 2,955 votes were valid and 11 votes were invalid.
Among the 2,955 valid votes, Chen obtained 2,355 votes, while 474 deputies voted against him and 126 deputies abstained.
Chen was also elected as a member of the 12th NPC Standing Committee in March 2013. After he was posted to Macau in June that year, he resigned as a NPC Standing Committee member. His resignation was approved in a plenary meeting of the 12th NPC in March 2014.
Ho, who has been an NPC Standing Committee member for 17 years, garnered 2,942 votes, while seven members voted against him and six deputies abstained, among the 2,955 valid votes.
Ho, 60, was first elected as an NPC Standing Committee member in the fourth session of the 9th NPC in 2001. He has been an NPC Standing Committee member ever since.
Ho, an indirectly-elected lawmaker representing the city’s business sector, is the sole Macau member of the elite NPC Standing Committee. He told reporters in Beijing last week that he did “not know yet” whether he would run in next year’s chief executive election.
When speaking to the media after he was elected as a NPC Standing Committee member, Chen did not address the question whether he would keep his post as a vice-director of the Liaison Office of the People’s Government in Macau.
There has been media speculation that Chen will become the new head of the NPC Basic Law Committee, succeeding Li Fei who will lead the NPC Law and Constitution Committee which oversees national legal and constitutional issues.
Chen, born in Fujian in 1958, told reporters that the “overall” situation in Macau was good as the forces defending the principle of “loving the country and Macau” continued to prevail.
However, Chen warned that the local government must remain vigilant about external forces trying to interfere in Macau’s internal matters. He urged Macau to stay on high alert vis-à-vis such forces.
Chen said that the forces of the Hong Kong pro-independence movement were trying to “penetrate” Macau, adding that the local government needed to be determined to fight such forces.
Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau Vice Director Chen Sixi speaks to reporters yesterday in Beijing on the sidelines of the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC). Courtesy: TDM
