Three Hong Kong security officials who attended a dinner that violated social-distancing rules broke the Ministerial and Civil Service codes by accepting “lavish entertainment”, a senior legislator said.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker, Paul Tse Wai-chun (pictured) ignored the advice of Chief Executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor that the city needed to “move on” from the incident by issuing a stinging rebuke.
Mr Tse suggested the actions of Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Hermes Tang Yi-hoi; Director of Immigration, Au Ka-wang and Under-secretary for Security, Sonny Au Chi-kwong, flew in the face of an anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
“There is a prima facie case that the officials have violated the Civil Service code on accepting entertainment,” Mr Tse said.
“In mainland China, you can’t even drink alcohol nowadays on these occasions,” he said.
Mr Tse’s comments piled further pressure on the embattled trio, who hadn’t spoken in public about the incident since news broke that they’d attended the dinner at a luxury clubhouse in March.
The nine guests at the dinner reportedly included executives of a mainland real estate giant.
According to a source, police discovered the incident while investigating an alleged sexual assault report filed by a woman who attended.
The source said the alleged assault took place at the woman’s home, while the suspect, who also attended the dinner, had been charged by police in connection with an attempted rape.
As information about the dinner slowly dripped out via Government sources and press statements, the three officials apologised for breaching social-distancing rules that, at the time, capped diner numbers at four per table.
The trio have said they paid a fine and would exercise “particular caution” at similar events in future.
However, their belated apologies failed to quell public anger over the perceived preferential treatment, and did not answer key issues, including who paid for the dinner, how much it cost, and whether granting privileged access to officials in charge of national security matters was appropriate.
Ms Lam said the three had seen their reputations suffer, and experienced “enormous stress to themselves and their families”, adding she considered the matter closed.
Hong Kong, 14 July 2021
