The ICAC: how Hong Kong’s corrupt police force became ‘Asia’s finest’
- Set up in 1974, the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s early years were marked by tumultuous relations with police
- Following an infamous incident in October 1977, the corruption-riddled force was gradually transformed
It was about midday on a Friday in late October when a rampaging mob stormed the Hutchison House headquarters of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), in Central, brawling with staff and vandalising the offices. Five officials of the anti-graft agency were beaten up as the assailants smashed doors and windows and ripped the ICAC plaque off the wall.
That the attackers were police officers – both serving and retired – came as little surprise to those following the ICAC’s crusade to stamp out the rampant corruption that had spread its tentacles across the force.
“Details emerged which were quite shocking to all of us,” says former ICAC chief investigator Stephen Char Shik-ngor. “There was a certain amount of antagonism between the police and the ICAC, but nobody had expected such a public display of outright violence.”
Which raised the question: who really runs Hong Kong?
Given the city’s current, 20-plus weeks of upheaval, it’s as valid a question today as when these events took place, on October 28, 1977.
