Hong Kong’s civil servants will contravene their oaths if they don’t accept Hong Kong’s constitutional order, according to the city’s civil service minister.

The government will send out notices on Monday requiring new hires to pledge support to the Basic Law and swear an oath of allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The arrangement will begin with employees who have joined since July 1 and will later be extended to other staff.

“If [a civil servant] does not accept ‘one country, two systems,’ does not recognize Hong Kong as part of China, or even wishes to overthrow the central government or Hong Kong government, then these will be considered actions that contravene their oaths,” Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Such actions would already constitute a breach of the oath, and not just an “intent” to do so, Nip added in his post.

Nip previously said that civil servants who violate their oaths could face dismissal and that there could be serious consequences. However, Nip also said that the threshold for such an offence would be “relatively high.”

In his post, Nip said that civil servants are the backbone of the government and have a responsibility to express their opinions when the government is formulating policy.

But once the policy is decided, civil servants must “explain, implement and promote” it without being affected by their personal opinions or political ideals and should also refrain from openly criticizing the government’s decision, he wrote.

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