Hitting the wrong note: Hong Kong official resigns after attending karaoke bash
Hong Kong’s home affairs secretary has resigned after he broke the city’s tough “zero-Covid” guidelines to attend a karaoke party.
Caspar Tsui attended the bash alongside 14 other senior officials including the police and immigration chiefs, as well as pro-Beijing lawmakers.
Hong Kong enforced heavier restrictions following a new Omicron outbreak in the city.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam has been attempting to contain Covid outbreaks, including one at a public housing estate where about 400 positive cases were found in three buildings in less than a fortnight.
It was revealed that Tsui also did not use the recommended contact-tracing app when he entered the party and stayed at the event for nearly two hours.
“I have not set the best example during the recent outbreak,” Tsui said in a statement today, in which he also announced his resignation to Lam.
Parallels can be drawn to the ongoing ‘party gate’ in the UK, where Boris Johnson is under fire for breaking lockdown rules over the course of the pandemic.
The zero-Covid policy is pushing the bounds of Hong Kong’s already restrictive limits on free speech, according to reports from the Financial Times.
The government issued a statement on Sunday clarifying that “making general remarks and discussion” about the effectiveness of its zero-Covid policy was not illegal.