Chinese official's HK visit "important breakthrough" - Global Times

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (R) listens as Zhang Dejiang (L), who chairs China's communist-controlled legislature, speaks as they visit the foyer of a newly built public housing block due to open later this year in Hong Kong on May 19, 2016. REUTERS/Anthony Wallace/Pool

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong visit by a top leader of China's Communist Party, which included talks with pro-democracy lawmakers, was an "important breakthrough" in relations between Beijing and the city, an influential Chinese newspaper said on Thursday.

The visit by Zhang Dejiang, the third most senior member of the Communist Party, follows a period of tension in Hong Kong after tens of thousands took to the streets in 2014 to press for full democracy.