No pressure on Hong Kong civil servants from proposed domestic security law, official says
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong government employees will face no additional pressure under a proposed security law as they have always been subject to confidentiality requirements, the city’s civil service chief has said.
Speaking to Commercial Radio on Thursday, Secretary for Civil Service Ingrid Yeung said that civil servants should not worry about the newly proposed offence against theft of state secrets, because they were already accustomed to adhering to non-disclosure requirements.
Theft of state secrets was one of the five types of crimes targeted under a proposed security legislation required under Article 23 of the Basic Law, which stipulates that the government shall enact laws on its own safeguard national security.
Its legislation failed in 2003 following mass protests and it remained taboo until after the onset of the separate, Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020. Pro-democracy advocates fear it could have a negative effect on civil liberties but the authorities say there is a constitutional duty to ratify it.
Illegal possession and disclosure
According to a consultation document released in late January, the authorities are seeking to bar public officers from disclosing confidential information illegally with intent to endanger national security. They also suggested criminalising the unlawful possession of state secrets when the officers leave their posts in the government.
The government recommended consolidating the offences linked to “state secrets” involving public officers and government contractors under the existing Official Secrets Ordinance.
The term “public servant” should also be replaced with “public officer” to cover principal officials, personnel at the Monetary Authority, lawmakers, judicial officers, staff of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and others, the consultation paper read.
See also: Hong Kong’s homegrown security law seeks to define ‘state secrets’ along China’s legislative line
Yeung told Commercial Radio that government employees would only use confidential information obtained through work with permission. The proposed offences would only make public servants be more careful when handling sensitive information, the minster said.
“They have a high awareness of the importance of compliance, and I do not believe that they face significant pressure or concern in doing so,” Yeung said in Cantonese.
New Civil Service Code
In December last year, the Civil Service Bureau released a a draft of its updated Civil Service Code regulating the conduct of government employees. The authorities proposed adding upholding national security as a “core value” for the city’s 175,000 civil servants. They would also be barred from criticising government policies in their official capacity.
According Yeung, the government received around 40 responses to the draft code. The minister was asked whether civil servant unions could still fight for wages and benefits, and whether civil servants would breach the code if they objected to government policies on their personal social media accounts.
Yeung said the higher-ranking the civil servant, the more cautious they needed to be. She added the government had no plans to set up a new mechanism to encourage members of the public to lodge complaints against civil servants.
“It is not true that expressing opinions in private settings can serve as a ‘get-out-of-trouble’ card or provides immunity,” she said.
Civil servants were among those who mobilised to demonstrate against the government during the protests and unrest in 2019. A rally they held in Central was attended by 40,000 people, organisers said at the time.
A new civil servants’ union was also founded amid the protests. But the union disbanded in 2021 after the government introduced a loyalty pledge requiring employees to swear allegiance to the city and vow to uphold the Basic Law.
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