The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) said on Sunday that it has voluntarily decided to postpone sending officers overseas and the mainland to attend training courses given the current COVID-19 epidemic situation after reports claimed that the UK government has barred UK military personnel from training the Hong Kong police force and two other organizations amid strained ties.
Observers believed that the UK’s possible withdrawal from provision of these training courses will have little impact on the HKPF and is likely to further tighten Hong Kong’s bond with the Chinese mainland.
In a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday, the HKPF said it has decided to postpone sending officers to the Chinese mainland and overseas to attend training courses after assessing the risk of the pandemic and resources for the operation, pending a review of the arrangements in the future.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that the British government has barred UK military personnel from training members of the HKPF.
Both the British army and the Royal Air Force (RAF) run limited drill instructor programs for the HKPF, its Government Flying Service and its Sea Cadet Corps, but these have now been put on hold.
The move was seen as the UK government’s provocation of China over the recently enacted national security law for Hong Kong – legislation that the Chinese public believes to end the yearlong social turmoil and bring back peace and stability to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).
Joe Chan Cho-kwong, former chairman of the Junior Police Officers’ Association, told the Global Times that the suspension is “actually a good thing for both Hong Kong and the mainland.”
“After 1997, cooperation between the HKPF and the UK has been limited to technical exchanges,s and there has been no concrete collaboration,” Chan said, noting that the UK’s influence on the HKPF “has been gradually declining.”
If the UK is seeking to retaliate against China through halting assistance to the HKPF, it is doomed to fail, Fan Peng, a research fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Political Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.
“The HKPF won’t suffer any loss if the UK withdraws its support, for the UK no longer has considerable influence on it,” Fan noted.
Lam Chi-wai, chairman of the Junior Police Officers’ Association, told the Global Times that most training courses between the HKPF and the British side are organized at the management level with British universities after the HKSAR returned to the motherland. The city’s police have also maintained exchanges with other countries including Australia, Singapore and France apart from the UK.
“Personally, I think halting such programs won’t have a big impact on us. As far as I know, there’s only small amount of junior and middle-level management training [between the UK and the police,]” Lam said.
Meanwhile, the HKPF is going to adjust its training direction as the next step, he noted.
Fan said that the central government has never interfered in the technical exchanges and cooperation between Hong Kong and the UK since 1997 and it is “completely unnecessary” for the UK to politicize its technical exchanges with Hong Kong.
“The UK’s suspension will indeed cement the bond between Hong Kong and the mainland,” Fan said. “It is no doubt that the mainland will provide all technical help that HKPF needs in the future.”
Members of the Airport Security Unit of the Hong Kong Police Force patrol the airport, May 14, 2020, Hong Kong, south China.Photo:Xinhua
