CHINA is expected to send a veteran trade official to oversee economic affairs at its liaison office in Hong Kong, according to government sources.

Yin Zonghua, 56, a deputy director of the country's top political consultative body, is the front runner to take over as deputy director in charge of economic affairs at the liaison office, replacing Qui Hong, who's retiring, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported citing two sources who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

One source said Mr Yin, who is deputy director of the Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas Chinese committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, "will take up the role in the liaison office soon".

A second source based in Hong Kong confirmed Mr Yin's transfer. His transfer is the second big change at the liaison office this year. Wang Songmiao, a former spokesman for the country's top prosecutor, took over from Wen Hongwu as the office's secretary general earlier this month.

The Hong Kong-based source said more changes could be on the way for the office, with a number of retirements and rotations delayed by the coronavirus pandemic now able to go ahead.

Mr Yin was born in Shengzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, and has a doctorate in economics from Nankai University.

He spent the first two decades of his career in the then foreign trade ministry, which became the Ministry of Commerce in 2003. He rose through the ranks to become minister counsellor of economy and commerce at China's mission to the European Union in August 2006.

In May 2011, he returned to China to head the ministry's international trade and economic affairs department before being appointed the ministry's lead on World Trade Organization affairs two years later.

In August 2014, he became deputy chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a Communist Party body promoting international business ties.