Vice Premier Han Zheng yesterday urged Macau lawmakers to respect the existing executive-led system of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) – when carrying out their legislative tasks – by ensuring that the executive authorities and the legislature always complement and provide checks and balances to each other.
Han also urged Macau’s lawmakers to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty, security and development interests.
Han also praised the Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) for its positive contributions to the city’s democratic development, improvements in its legal system and social progress. He said that the central government fully acknowledges the work of the local legislature.
Han is one of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee – the nation’s top governing body, officially known as the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Community Party of China (CPC).
29 of 33 lawmakers present
Han, who ranks first among the four vice-premiers of the State Council, made the remarks yesterday morning during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People with 29 local lawmakers, who went to Beijing on Tuesday for a four-day visit to the national capital and the nearby municipality of Tianjin, at the invitation of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council.
Several other central government officials, including Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council Director Zhang Xiaoming and Central People’s Government Liaison Office in Macau Director Zheng Xiaosong, also attended yesterday’s meeting between Han and the local delegation headed by Legislative Assembly President Ho Iat Seng.
Members of the delegation told reports upon departure from Macau’s airport on Tuesday that the four-day trip aims to allow local lawmakers to better understand the ongoing social and economic development of the mainland. Four legislators of the 33-member legislature did not go on the trip, having requested a leave of absence.
Tianjin trip
The delegation will visit Tianjin – one of the four nation’s four municipalities – today where its members are slated to meet members of the Standing Committee of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress. The 29 lawmakers will return to Macau tomorrow.
During yesterday’s meeting, Han noted that it is the third time that members of the Macau Legislative Assembly have paid a formal visit to the mainland as a delegation since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) in 1999.
The vice-premier said that the visit would allow local lawmakers to gain a better understanding of the mainland’s latest socio-economic development and to boost their confidence in the future development of the mainland and Macau.
Vice Premier Han Zheng (centre, front), also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council Director Zhang Xiaoming (fifth from right, front) pose with 29 members of the Macau Legislative Assembly (AL), including AL President Ho Iat Seng (sixth from left, front) – who heads the local legislature’s delegation – and other central government officials in Beijing yesterday. – Xinhua
Vice Premier Han Zheng (second from right) meets with a delegation led by Ho Iat Seng (second from left), president of Macau’s Legislative Assembly, and other delegation members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, including Chui Sai Cheong (left), vice-president of the local legislature. – Xinhua
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