Criticism of Hong Kong government ‘defects’ welcome but not type provoking hostility among people, security chief says
- Secretary for Security Chris Tang also reiterates need to guard against potential threats to national security amid a rise in US-China tensions
- He says officials don’t see criticisms as problems, ‘if they can let us know about our defects and make us perform better’
Criticisms against government “defects” are welcome but not those intended to promote enmity among people, Hong Kong’s security minister has said, days after two civil servants were arrested for allegedly publishing seditious content on Facebook.
Tang was asked in a radio interview about the “chilling effect” on free speech after national security police on Tuesday arrested two male administrators of the “Civil Servant Secrets” Facebook page on suspicion of performing “an act or acts with seditious intention”. The colonial-era sedition law has increasingly been used in recent months against purported security threats.
“We welcome criticisms and don’t see them as problems at all, if they can let us know about our defects and make us perform better,” Tang said.
“But if your intention is to provoke and promote enmity between different classes of people so that they might abuse, attack each other, or even resort to violence, this might constitute a breach of the law.”
Under the Crimes Ordinance, an act, speech or publication is not seditious if it intends to “point out errors or defects in the government” or persuade the administration to “attempt to procure by lawful means the alteration of any matter in Hong Kong as by law established”.