Why did Hong Kong police rewrite official account of 1967 riots? To make it shorter for readers, city's top cop claims

Hong Kong’s police chief today denied there was any political motivation behind an update of the force’s history on its official webpage, which saw removals of wordings such as “Communist Party militia” and “leftist schools” from a section depicting mob action during the 1967 riots.

The update was merely made to make the force’s history more accessible to today’s readers, Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung said.

READ MORE: Rewriting history? Hong Kong police accused of political correctness in revising official account of 1967 riots

“There is no political aim in this update. [It] is only a trimming of the webpage’s content as today’s Hongkongers wish to get information quickly,” he said.

The changes were made this month to the “Modern Era 1945-67” section of the force’s history and spotted by internet users using software to look back at an older version dating October last year.

Descriptions of mobs’ political links during the riots were played down in the latest Chinese-language version.