China has recently made a major reshuffle in Hong Kong by appointing Luo Huining as the new director of the central government's liaison office in the city. The new top representative to Hong Kong made his public debut on Monday and expressed his confidence in bringing the city back on track.

"The new position for me is a new mission and challenge. I'll do my work with sincerity and love for Hong Kong," Luo told the media in brief remarks.

"What happened in Hong Kong over the past half a year is heart-wrenching. I believe with the efforts of Hong Kong's chief executive, the local government and various sectors in society, the Constitution and Basic Law can be fully implemented," he added in a show of support for the Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her administration.

'Multi-skilled economist'

Luo's resume includes work in three Chinese mainland provinces – including Shanxi in the north, central China's Anhui, and the far-flung western province of Qinghai – all with comparably weaker economies.

Hong Kong, which follows a capitalist economic model under the country's unique "One Country, Two Systems" policy, is his first post outside the mainland.

Once dubbed one of the so-called youth intellectuals back in the 1970s and now holding a PhD in economics, Luo is considered a multi-skilled economist with abundant grassroots experience. He is now expected to find new solutions to lead Hong Kong out of its current turmoil.

"Luo is a multi-skilled economist and politician. [And he] was successful in turning Shanxi Province, which is embedded in corruption and slow economic growth, into a largely corruption-free and economically [progressive] province," Lawrence Ma, the chairman of Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation, told CGTN. "And of course, undeniably, he has no experience in Hong Kong, so there is a very steep learning curve in the next few months to understand the political system in Hong Kong."

Continued social unrest

Luo's appointment comes nearly seven months after Hong Kong first became embroiled in social unrest against the local government. Protesters are now requesting an independent inquiry into police actions, amnesty for all those arrested, and universal suffrage.

On his first day in Hong Kong, about 200 people gathered at various locations in the city to voice their discontent with the local government, including at the Revenue Tower in Wan Chai, shopping centers in the Causeway Bay area, and the Kowloon Commerce Center in Kwai Chung.

On Sunday, north Hong Kong witnessed a protest against speculative mainland Chinese shoppers and clashes between riot police and radical protesters resulted in the arrests of over 50 people.

The protracted anti-government protests, prompted by a fugitive bill back in the summer of 2019, have continued into 2020 and have led to the arrests of thousands of people.

"The problem for him is to understand Hong Kong and to play a role to lead so many officials – about a thousand officials in the liaison office – to lead them, to politically change Hong Kong in such a way that people would vote in the upcoming election," said Ma.