HONG KONG – Hong Kong police today displayed a cuddly bear mascot and unveiled a new goose-step march as the financial hub held its “National Security Education Day”, part of a push to instil patriotism in a city chafing under Chinese rule.
Beijing blanketed Hong Kong in a sweeping national security law last year in response to months of huge and often violent democracy protests that convulsed the international business hub.
Today’s education day, the first since the security law’s imposition last June, saw activities held across the city that burnished the security forces and outlined the threats China perceives it faces in Hong Kong.
At a morning ceremony attended by senior officials, Luo Huining, Beijing’s top envoy here, gave a fiery speech vowing to “strike down hard resistance and regulate soft resistance”, warning that China is ready to “teach a lesson” to any foreign power trying to use the city “as a chess piece”.
“For all deeds that endanger national security and Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability, the central authorities will take action as necessary.”
In 2019, huge crowds hit the streets for seven straight months, demanding democracy and greater police accountability, in the worst unrest since the city’s 1997 handover to China.
Beijing’s authoritarian leaders have dismissed the movement, portraying it as an insidious “foreign plot” to destroy China.
It has since embarked on a crackdown on critics and rolled out an official campaign – dubbed “staunch patriots governing Hong Kong” – to root out disloyalty towards the Chinese Communist Party.
Across town today, Hong Kong’s police college held an open day, during which officers revealed a new goose-step march, the same style used by cops and troops on the Chinese mainland.
The display is a symbolic break from the city’s British colonial past, and Chinese army officers helped train police in the new style.
Tactical units then held an “anti-terrorism drill” that included officers rappelling from a helicopter to shoot “dead” pretend armed militants and a hostage-taker.
On the sidelines, guests wearing “I love police” T-shirts posed for selfies with a bear mascot dressed in tactical uniform.
Cuddly toy versions of the bear are also on sale for HK$400 (RM212), alongside plastic toys of police officers holding tear-gas warning flags. – AFP, April 15, 2021
