The Chinese government has fired Wang Zhimin, its liaison officer in Hong Kong. Wang was the highest representative of the People’s Republic in the Hong Kong Autonomous Region.

His replacement indicates Beijing’s dissatisfaction with his approach, but also impatience concerning the ongoing protest in Hong Kong.

Wang Zhimin was head of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, still an autonomous region.

You can compare him to an ambassador, but he was more than that: Wang had to pass on the orders from Beijing to the Hong Kong authorities and assess the situation in the former British crown colony.

It has been clear for some time that China has completely misjudged the widespread protests in Hong Kong – which has been going on since the beginning of June – and Beijing may partly attribute that to Wang Zhimin.

That is now being replaced by Luo Huining, a retired party secretary from Shanxi province. It seems a bit like an emergency solution.