Hong Kong civil servants must take courses on Chinese constitution, national security law to pass work probation, gain promotion

Name: A look back at arrests, national security, and the Olympics defining Hong Kong news in 2021
Uploaded: 2022-02-09T10:19:44.000Z
Duration: 2 min 33 s
Description: A look back at arrests, national security, and the Olympics defining Hong Kong news in 2021

Staff will also be required to learn more about innovation and technology, civil service chief Patrick Nip tells lawmakers

Some legislators say measures do not go far enough, urge Nip to consider checking whether senior civil servants hold foreign nationality, overseas assets or BN(O) passport

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Civil servants will have to take compulsory courses. Photo: Sam Tsang

Tony Cheung

Published: 6:19pm, 9 Feb 2022Updated: 6:49pm, 9 Feb 2022

Hong Kong civil servants will need to take specific courses on China’s constitution and the city’s national security law during their three-year probation or before gaining promotion, to boost their sense of national identity.

Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen also told a Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday that with the government having established a college in December last year, staff would be required to learn more about innovation and technology.

By mid-2020, the government employed about 177,000 civil servants. The 33,000-strong police force was the largest department.

02:33

A look back at arrests, national security, and the Olympics defining Hong Kong news in 2021

Some pro-Beijing legislators said the measures did not go far enough and urged Nip to consider checking whether senior civil servants had foreign nationality or assets or held a British National (Overseas) passport.

The civil service chief gave a lukewarm response and said that was not required under the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

“When senior civil servants go abroad for work or exchange, they know they are representing Hong Kong. We need to let society discuss whether we need to impose restrictions on nationality when we hire new employees,” Nip said.

The minister was attending a public service panel meeting to brief lawmakers, who took office last month, on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s initiatives for the civil service in her policy address in October last year.