Top Hong Kong security officials to escape further punishment over hotpot dinner after city’s leader decides they did not break other rules or laws

Chief Executive Carrie Lam says customs boss Hermes Tang, immigration director Au Ka-wang, and deputy security minister Sonny Au in clear

Lam compares social-distancing fines handed out to trio for incident in March to parking ticket or fine for littering

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 12:36pm, 13 Jul 2021Updated: 10:24pm, 13 Jul 2021

Hong Kong’s leader said on Tuesday no further action would be taken against three top security officials over a dinner that violated social-distancing regulations, after deciding the trio did not breach other rules or laws.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was speaking a day after a senior legislator and a former anti-corruption investigator said Commissioner of Customs and Excise Hermes Tang Yi-hoi, Director of Immigration Au Ka-wang, and Undersecretary for Security Sonny Au Chi-kwong broke the ministerial and civil service codes by accepting “lavish entertainment” by attending a hotpot dinner at a luxury clubhouse in March.

At the weekend, Lam said people should look at the incident in a “more humanised way”, and dismissed concerns over the trio’s integrity.

In a media briefing before a weekly meeting of the Executive Council, her de facto cabinet, Lam pointed out that the trio had already paid a fine for breaking social-distancing rules, and under government policy, civil servants were not required to declare to their supervisors if they were issued a fixed-penalty ticket for illegal parking or littering.

The Sui Yuan Hui clubhouse in Wan Chai where the luxury dinner was held. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

“As their supervisors at various levels, the chief secretary, the security secretary and I agreed unanimously that [the trio] was not involved in other rule-breaking acts, and they did not break any rules knowingly,” she said.