The Hong Kong government will introduce national security guidelines for all civil servants in the first half of 2025, the city’s security chief Chris Tang has said.
The guidelines, which will be confidential, will outline how civil servants can safeguard national security in their daily duties, Tang said on Monday afternoon in the Legislative Council, while presenting the Security Bureau’s work for the year ahead.
“It must be confidential. If others know about how we remind our colleagues [to safeguard national security], those endangering national security will try to escape from [being caught],” Tang said in Cantonese.
The security chief said authorities had noticed that some civil servants were unsure how to safeguard national security in their daily endeavours, and therefore guidelines were needed to illustrate practises they could put into place.
“Another thing is to change the mentality and mindset of our colleagues, to embed the concept of national security into their brains,” Tang said.
Tang added the confidential document will serve only as guidelines.
“Those who deliberately violate the guidelines and harm national security will be handled according to the Civil Service Code,” Tang said.
Pledging loyalty
The government has been strengthening measures to ensure the city’s 175,000 civil servants work to safeguard national security since the 2019 protests and unrest.
Earlier in June, a new version of civil service code was introduced, with six new core values added that civil servants must uphold, including “upholding the constitutional order and national security” in first position.
Before the amendment, among the six core values contained in the code were: commitment to the rule of law, honesty and integrity, objectivity and impartiality, political neutrality, accountability for decisions and actions, and dedication, professionalism and diligence.
In addition to making safeguarding national security a core value, the new civil service code also added values such as being people-oriented and outcome focused, having a passion for public services, and team spirit.
Objectivity and impartiality were omitted as core values.
In late 2020, soon after the Beijing imposed national security law came into effect, the government announced that all civil servants in Hong Kong had to declare allegiance to the city.
As of June 2022, a total of 129 Hong Kong civil servants and 535 other government workers have been sacked or resigned after failing to take the oath of allegiance to the government.
