Lau Kong-wah, Cheng Chi-kong join CPPCC but no seat for Carrie Lam

Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's first Chief Executive after the city's 1997 handover, will bow out from his role as Vice Chairman of China's top political advisory body, while the former city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor will not take his seat. 

The 25th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee closed on Tuesday in Beijing, with the approval of the list of 2,172 members of the 14th CPPCC.

Eight of the 18 current Hong Kong members of the CPPCC Standing Committee remain in office. 

Ex-Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, the incumbent Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC, was re-elected as a member of the CPPCC. Another Vice Chairman, the first Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, was not on the list, meaning that he would step down from his role. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was also not on the list, meaning that she would not serve as CPPCC's Vice Chairman. 

Common practices see members of CPPCC aged 68 and above stepping down, while multiple incumbent Hong Kong members with this age will see their tenure extended, including former director-general of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun(75) and West Kowloon Cultural District Authority chairperson Henry Tang Ying-yen (70).

Former secretary for home affairs Lau Kong-wah and previous deputy police commissioner Alan Lau Yip-shing will also get seats in the CPPCC, as well as Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, chief executive officer of New World Development, and managing director of Shun Tak Holdings, Pansy Ho Chiu-king. 

The number of seats for specially invited figures from Hong Kong in CPPCC remains at 124. 

Wang Huning, who is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is the only one from China's top decision-making body to have his name on the new CPPCC member list, which means that he has a chance to take over the presidency after the current Wangyang. 

Xia Baolong, Director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and Vice Chairman of CPPCC, is also not on the member list.
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