Hong Kong’s Education System is the Most Recent Target of China’s Anti-Democracy Measures
Starting with elementary school students, China is razing the Hong Kong education system to the ground, replacing the current curriculum with animated stories of arguably Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda. These changes aim to mirror China’s educational standards in mainland schools.
These are just the most recent attempts to rewrite the guidelines of Hong Kong’s educational curriculum following the pro-democracy protests in 2019. After anti-government protests filled the streets and catapulted Hong Kong’s resistance to a global stage, Beijing officials quickly blamed radicalized liberal values promoted by the current education system. Socio-political analysis of current events is dangerous and unnecessary. As Professor Lau Chi-pang, the chairman of the government committee redesigning curriculum puts it, “They need to know that, after 1997, Hong Kong is part of China. They only need to know about that. We don’t want them to analyze anything out of that.”
CCP officials have been quick to dispose of the seeming threat to its power in Hong Kong. Primary school-aged students are expected to digest illustrated depictions of Chinese traditions and read stories about the Great Wall and the Forbidden City in the country’s capital. Kindergarteners are expected to memorize the rules of the security law imposed on the city by China last year: subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers are punishable offenses. Teachers are required to report any violations of Hong Kong’s new national security law. In a statement released by the Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB), it was revealed that these “patriotic” regulations were enforced in order to “ create a peaceful and orderly school environment and atmosphere, deepen students' understanding of the country's development and national security, as well as enhance students' sense of national identity.”
Not only has elementary-level schooling been scratched and redrawn, but liberal studies, such as investigation of present-day issues and holistic analysis of Hong Kong history, have been severely reduced in most grade levels, and subjects from biology to geography have been injected with “national security” tenets. Teachers of liberal studies classes have seen their teaching time halved, due to the government’s belief that these skills don’t nurture critical thinking, but instead poison students’ minds against the government. Chan Hei Tung, a teacher of these “poisonous” values, is afraid that these changes to curriculum will distance his students from both Hong Kong and the country that officials want them to identify with. No longer able to use history to analyze the present, “the interaction between their generation and their city and the whole society will be gone.”
In a recent interview with Divya Gopalan of PBS News, Angel Choi, a 16-year-old student experiencing the changes to Hong Kong’s educational curriculum firsthand, also expressed her dissatisfaction with the alterations. She is especially worried about the impacts on future generations, saying “They will just think in the way that the government wants them to think, because they will only possess the information that is given directly by the government. They cannot voice their opinions freely. They cannot decide whether the news is right or wrong.”
This isn’t the CCP’s first attempt to bring the city of Hong Kong closer beneath China’s wing. In 2012, officials attempted to enforce a similar patriotic system, but backed down after intense protest to the action. The current educational revamp brings the city closer to the educational system of Beijing, where students are often required to study the direct teachings of President Xi Jinping.
This decision is also relatively new, with the educational announcement first released in late February. It still remains to be seen if the action will incite widespread resistance, but regardless, the question remains whether the changes will result in obedient patriots or more anti-government protesters.
by Laasya Chiduruppa