‘Threat’ of prison visitors instilling anti-government sentiment will be investigated, Hong Kong security chief says

Hong Kong authorities are investigating whether some visitors to correctional institutions are fostering hatred against the government among inmates after guests were found to have made hundreds of visits to different prisoners they did not know personally.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung on Friday said authorities had noticed some visitors often met offenders involved in the 2019 anti-government protests, noting one individual had paid 395 visits to more than 59 prisoners while another met 47 inmates on 211 visits.

He said some visitors tried to promote anti-government views, such as through references to “Liberate the correctional institution”, a phrase similar to the 2019 protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times”, which is deemed seditious by authorities.

“[One] has no personal connection with those inmates and the purpose of his or her visit is basically to instil hatred against the government and to instil negative feelings about the government, which is contradictory to our rehabilitation aims,” Tang said.

“This is a security threat. Basically, this is a threat to Hong Kong.”

The minister added the visitors were once jailed due to protest-related offences and held strong feelings against society or were aiming to nurture certain political interests.

He said an investigation was ongoing and whether crimes had been committed would depend on the intentions of people involved.