The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today strongly condemned a civil service staff union’s move to call on civil servants to participate in a referendum on strike to oppose the legislation of the national security law in the city.

In a statement, the Hong Kong SAR Government condemned the union for planning to use radical means by staging a political strike, which would undermine the community's interests and tarnish the civil service’s reputation.

The statement said Hong Kong’s economy suffered the double blow of a series of violent incidents and the COVID-19 epidemic in the past year and that the Hong Kong SAR Government has been assisting the city in riding out the difficult times as soon as possible by rolling out several rounds of relief measures.

It stressed that it is deeply regrettable that the staff union is openly calling on civil servants to participate in the strike at this critical juncture.

The union completely ignored how such acts would affect the Government’s effective operation and the community’s stability, and undermine Hong Kong's economy and its people’s interests. The Hong Kong SAR Government will not turn a blind eye to such an action.

Moreover, the Basic Law and Hong Kong’s legal system do not provide for any referendum mechanism. Conducting any form of a so-called referendum will have no constitutional basis or legal effect.

Civil servants must not participate in the referendum, or else they will fail to meet the community’s expectations.

The statement reiterated that the Hong Kong SAR Government has been steadfastly safeguarding freedom of speech but, as in other jurisdictions, this freedom is not absolute.

Article 99 of the Basic Law stipulates that public servants must be dedicated to their duties and be responsible to the Hong Kong SAR Government. Civil servants, being the public service’s key component, have a constitutional role.

Additionally, according to the Civil Service Code, civil servants should be committed to the rule of law and politically neutral. Political neutrality means that civil servants shall serve the Chief Executive and the Government of the day with total loyalty and to the best of their ability, no matter their political beliefs.

The statement said the Hong Kong SAR Government will follow up seriously with civil servants who blatantly violate the code.

The Hong Kong SAR Government will also fully co-operate with the National People's Congress Standing Committee to complete the legislation as soon as possible to discharge its responsibility of safeguarding national security.

Civil servants should stand united and be dedicated to their duties, the statement added.

They should firmly support and fully co-operate with the Hong Kong SAR Government under the Chief Executive’s leadership to accomplish the task of safeguarding national security to ensure the robustness of “one country, two systems".