Shrugging off end of US training programmes, Hong Kong police insiders say ‘any other country can serve the same purpose’

Even if the US’ Five Eyes partners follow suit, plenty of options for exchanges remain, say sources, who stress the trips are mostly for broadening horizons

‘None of these places train us to become police. It is a mutual knowledge exchange ... They learn from us, too’

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A Hong Kong riot police officer points a gun that fires rubber bullets at an anti-government protest in October. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:05pm, 16 Jul 2020Updated: 11:30pm, 16 Jul 2020

The end of American training programmes with Hong Kong police officers is a “non-issue”, senior sources with the force have said, noting the United States is far from the city’s sole partner and that similar exchanges will continue with countries including Singapore, the Netherlands and France.

The same holds true even if the four other countries in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – were to follow suit, the sources added, as the benefits and harms of ending such programmes were mutual.

Hong Kong riot police fire tear gas near the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay during an anti-government protest in May 2020. Photo: Sam Tsang

The Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, a tit-for-tat response to the enactment of the city’s sweeping new national security law, brings to an end years of training for members of the police force and other local security services at the Department of State’s International Law Enforcement Academy.

In an email on Thursday night, a Hong Kong Police Force spokesman said the force had sent a total of 1,489 officers to attend development training on the mainland over the past five financial years and just 604 overseas, noting it had been nearly a year since any had been sent to the US.

“Since September 2019, the force had not sent any officers to attend courses held by the International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) in the States due to the global complex situation, and the force has no intention to enrol officers in courses provided by ILEAs for the rest of 2020,” the spokesman said.