Senior Hong Kong public officers should keep in mind the country’s interests when performing their duties, civil service chief says
- Patrick Nip says the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ can only be improved by looking at things from both a national and city perspective
- But it does not mean that officers will have to observe the mainland’s civil service rules, he adds
Senior government staff in Hong Kong must consider the national context when executing policies in the city, the civil service chief said on Wednesday as he sought to clarify his earlier remarks on the role of the workforce.
Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, the minister in charge of the 180,000 public sector workers in Hong Kong, said the implementation of “one country, two systems” could only be improved by looking at things from both a national and city perspective.
Nip was speaking to legislators to explain earlier comments in which he said Hong Kong’s civil servants played a dual role, serving both city and country.
He told the legislature: “The full name of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. And civil servants of [Hong Kong] means the same as civil servants of the government of the [HKSAR] of the People’s Republic of China.”
He also cited remarks made by President Xi Jinping in 2017 that Hong Kong had been reintegrated into China’s national governance system since the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule.
