Guarantee HK administered by patriots

Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed a bill by a 40-to-1 vote on Wednesday requiring district councilors to swear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region when assuming office. This completes the arrangement for making it compulsory for all civil servants to take an oath of allegiance or sign a declaration to that effect before taking office.

Although the district councilors are at a low level in the public office system, they are more in number and closer to local communities and residents. To include them into the oath-taking system was necessary to ensure the principle of "patriots administer Hong Kong" is effectively implemented in grassroots governance.

The oath-taking is more than simply a ceremonial procedure, as those who decline to take the oath or sign a written declaration of allegiance, whichever is required, will be disqualified from assuming their position and banned from running for public office for five years.

The bill clarifies the actions considered to be violations of the oath, such as refusing to recognize the constitutional status of the HKSAR as a local administrative region of China, soliciting interference by foreign forces in the region's affairs and desecrating the national flag or national emblem.

And actions that violate the oath-taking requirement, including altering the words or not behaving sincerely and solemnly, are regarded as declining or neglecting to take the oath, according to the bill.

That said, given the already tested and proved authority of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, which along with the Basic Law provides the oath-swearing system with legal basis, those not willing to shoulder their responsibilities of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests will soon lose their footholds.

That at least 29 district councilors have resigned for various reasons, including refusing to take the oath, over the past six months indicates those that the bill targets are well aware of the fact that the institutional loopholes they have previously taken advantage of to claim a stage for their political farce no longer exist, and the "good old days" when they could grab the media's attention by promoting separatism and radicalism are now gone.

To put the oath-taking procedure into place is in line with the fundamental interests of the SAR, and answers the calls of the Hong Kong residents for its civil servants to work hard for the SAR's long-term prosperity and stability.

The establishment and implementation of the oath-taking system in the SAR draws a red line that no civil servant at any level or in any department can cross.