Photo taken on July 14, 2020 shows the Golden Bauhinia Square in China's Hong Kong. Photo: Xinhua

While the Hong Kong Disciplined Services have been gradually introducing Chinese-style marching since the beginning of 2021, the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) decided to fully transform from British style to the Chinese-style foot drills starting from July 1 in both ceremonies and all levels of foot drills and daily etiquette, a spokesperson of the HKPF told the Global Times on Thursday. 

With the assistance of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison, the HKPF has been actively planning the full adoption of the Chinese-style foot drills to underscore and enhance patriotism, the spokesperson said in an e-mail to the Global Times. 

The HKPF has arranged a series of training including online training sessions for police officers to learn the Chinese-style foot drills and it is now working on daily training programs. Also, the HKPF will send instructors to relevant departments starting from the second quarter of 2022 to assist frontline personnel to learn the basic movements and commands, the spokesperson said. 

The police will inspect from time to time the learning process in order to fully adopt the Chinese-style foot drills starting from July 1, 2022. 

HKPF fully adopting the Chinese-style foot drills underscored the police members' enhanced awareness of their national identity, further cultivating patriotic sentiment, Hong Kong Junior Police Officers' Association Chairman Lam Chi-wai told the Global Times on Thursday. 

"Although the HKPF has formed its own styles over the past years, the foot drills it adopted were evolved from the British style, so it has not got rid of the British structure," he said, noting that the most obvious example was that the words of command were given in English, which drew a contrast with a police force honestly serving its country. 

More than 23 years after Hong Kong returned to the motherland, which put an end to its colonial past, the Hong Kong Police College held training in Chinese-style foot drills, taught by members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison for the first time, in February 2021, after the HKPF invited the PLA Hong Kong Garrison Honor Guard Battalion. 

Observers and police officers welcomed this change, as some considered that the British-style foot drills were embedded with strong colonial characteristics that had to change.

Such a change is a transformation process of de-colonization, which has a great significance for the country and for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lam said, noting that it also displays the full solidarity and firm stance of the HKSAR being an inseparable part of China. 

Hong Kong Customs adopted Chinese-style foot drills for passing-out parades at the Hong Kong Customs College in October 2021, breaking new ground in the passing-out parades of the Hong Kong disciplined services.