More than 180,000 civil servants in Hong Kong will be forced to choose between their jobs and being able to speak and act freely outside the office, commentators say.
January 17, 2021 11:31:41 pm
Hong Kong’s Civil Service Bureau released a notice on Friday, demanding that all civil servants sign a document pledging their loyalty to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR).
The notice is the latest development in Hong Kong’s ongoing crackdown on opposition, since the promulgation of its national security law on June 30, 2020. It requires all civil servants joining the HKSAR government on or after July 1, 2020, as well as all those who joined before July 1, 2020, to declare that they will uphold the Basic Law of the HKSAR (Hong Kong’s ‘mini constitution’), bear allegiance to the HKSAR, be dedicated to their duties and responsible to the government.
Hong Kong unions likely to ‘tread carefully’ as mandatory allegiance requirement for civil servants heralds ‘arduous’ era for city’s labour movement
Warning from Leung Chau-ting, of Federation of Civil Service Unions, comes hours after Union for New Civil Servants disbanded on Saturday night
‘The labour movement in the city’s civil service is going to be very arduous in future,’ he says