Scandal-hit Hong Kong home affairs chief’s future uncertain, with suspension set to continue, source says

The political future of Hong Kong’s home affairs chief – the most senior official swept up in an embarrassing scandal that landed him and several colleagues in quarantine – appears far from certain, with a source saying he would not be returning to work as originally scheduled.

Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai was serving out a three-week suspension over his attendance at a now-infamous birthday bash for a pro-Beijing political figure just as the city’s current outbreak of Omicron cases was taking off.

Two people who later tested positive for the coronavirus attended the party, sending Tsui, two other officials and a handful of lawmakers to a government quarantine camp.

Tsui was originally slated to resume his duties on Tuesday, but a source at the Home Affairs Bureau said that he would be on leave until February 3 and was supposed to resume duty the following day.

A spokesman for the Chief Executive’s Office declined to comment on the progress of the internal investigations into Tsui and the other officials’ behaviour. He said only that the chief executive would be “unbiased in taking appropriate action” once the inquiries were finished.

Fourteen senior officials, retired customs chief Hermes Tang Yi-hoi and 20 lawmakers attended the birthday party on January 3, though most were spared quarantine after they were deemed unlikely to have been in contact with the infected guests.

Tsui, Director of Immigration Au Ka-wang and Allen Fung Ying-lun, political assistant to the secretary for development, were the three officials required to spend two weeks isolated at Penny’s Bay.