‘Salute’: Hong Kong police, officials launch accounts on Chinese social media platforms
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong police have opened an account on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform similar to Instagram, after the city’s security chief and chief secretary earlier launched accounts on the same platform.
Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu greeted “friends on Xiaohongshu” on Tuesday in the first post from the Hong Kong Police Force account. The video, featuring Siu in his uniform, attracted comments including, “Hi Sir,” “Salute,” and “What a handsome man.”
“I am very happy that the police force has another platform to tell good police stories, ” Siu said, as he urged users to follow Guarding Our City with Faith: The Prequel, a upcoming promotional movie produced by the force.
The account has gained 34,000 followers so far.
Xiaohongshu, launched in 2013, announced that it had 200 million active monthly users by the end of 2022, of whom 72 per cent were born in or after 1990.
Hong Kong government departments and officials have been increasing their exposure on social media platforms in the past few years.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang opened a Xiaohongshu account last September, two months after he launched on Facebook and Instagram. Tang published posts on all three platforms with the same photos and content, including how he spent Father’s Day, a trip to Macau and his promotion of national security.
Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan set up a Xiaohongshu account in March after opening an account on Weibo, another Chinese social media platform.
While Tang’s Xiaohongshu account had 72,000 followers, Chan’s account on the same platform had fewer interactions, with 9,273 followers.
The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department has also set up an account on Douyin, a short video platform founded by the Chinese technology giant ByteDance. The department said the move was to facilitate “direct information exchange with mainland people.”
Official duty
Hong Kong police also interact with mainland Chinese with letters and pictures.
On Xiaohongshu, at least three users posted to say they had received letters from police chief Siu after writing to him from mainland China. Some of the letters included Siu’s .
Many others asked how they could get letters and signed portraits.
Police told HKFP that “as part of official duties, the Chief’s Office will respond to letters based on their content and actual situation, in order to express gratitude for the public’s recognition and appreciation of the work of the police force.”
The Hong Kong Police Force has suffered from a decline of public trust in the city following the 2019 protests and unrest, according to the Public Opinion Research Institute.
The satisfaction rate saw a sudden drop from June to November in 2019 at the height of the unrest, from 61 to 35.3. Last November, it had reached 56.4.
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