Hamartia Antidote
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2013
- Messages
- 35,188
- Reaction score
- 30
- Country
- Location
Hong Kong was not British colony as China retained sovereignty: new textbooks
The textbooks also adopt government’s account of 2019 social unrest, saying it was a threat to national security and external forces were behind protests.
www.scmp.com
Hong Kong was not British colony as China did not recognise unequal treaties ceding city to Britain, new textbooks reveal
- United Nations removed Hong Kong from a list of colonies in 1972 after China made the demand, according to textbooks still being vetted by Education Bureau
- The books also adopt government’s account of 2019 social unrest, saying it was a threat to national security and external forces were behind protests
New textbooks on the revamped liberal studies subject in secondary schools now state that Hong Kong was not a British colony, as the Chinese government did not recognise the unequal treaties that ceded the city to Britain, the Post has learned.The textbooks, which were submitted to the Education Bureau for vetting, have also adopted the government’s account of the 2019 social unrest in Hong Kong, saying it was a threat to national security and external forces were behind the protests.
Four sets of textbooks by three publishers on the new subject, renamed citizenship and social development, were released online last Saturday for schools to select for Form Four students in September.
First introduced in 2009, liberal studies had aimed to enhance senior secondary students’ social awareness and critical thinking skills. But the bureau overhauled it last year after the pro-Beijing camp blamed the subject for radicalising youth during the 2019 protests.
The new subject was introduced last September to replace liberal studies, and has a syllabus focused on national security, identity, lawfulness and patriotism.
All the new textbooks said Hong Kong was never a British colony as the Chinese government had never recognised the unequal treaties or given up sovereignty over the city.
The textbooks said the United Nations removed Hong Kong from a list of colonies in 1972 after China made the demand.
Veteran Chinese history teacher Chan Chi-wa said most of the local textbooks in the 1990s and before mentioned Hong Kong as a “British colony”, but the phrase was gradually replaced by remarks saying Britain exercised colonial rule over Hong Kong before 1997.
He added that education officials at a briefing on the new subject last year stated clearly that Hong Kong was not a colony and this concept needed to be taught to students. He said the revamped subject only adopted a Chinese perspective.
Meanwhile, the textbooks said the social unrest had prompted Beijing in 2020 to impose a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, banning acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers.
One textbook, published by Aristo Educational Press Ltd, said opposition and separatist groups had openly challenged the central and local governments, asking foreign forces to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and impose sanctions on the city.
Another 121-page textbook, published by the Modern Educational Research Society, had mentioned “national security” more than 400 times, saying the legislation was imposed out of “urgency” as there had been serious violent activities in Hong Kong in 2019.
“Secession and subversion against the government were advocated in some of those activities, posing a threat to national sovereignty, security and interests,” it wrote.
“The central authorities believed that the intervention of external forces was involved in these activities and the HKSAR government could not handle them on its own.”
The textbook cited several pending national security cases as examples.
It also highlighted its team of veteran editorial advisers, formed by pro-Beijing political heavyweights including Basic Law Committee vice-chairwoman Maria Tam Wai-chu, Lau Siu-kai of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank and Professor Priscilla Lau Pui-king, a former Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress.
A textbook from the Hong Kong Educational Publishing Company Limited said the 2019 unrest disrupted social order in the city, weakened the law-abiding awareness of some people and seriously endangered national security.
Another of the publisher’s textbooks said the law was enacted to safeguard national security after “violent terrorist activities” involving various illegal acts in 2019 traumatised the city and seriously endangered national sovereignty, security and development interests.
A spokeswoman for the bureau said it would not comment on the content of the textbooks.
A teacher of liberal studies for more than 10 years, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they already expected textbooks to entirely quote official information on how the national security law came to be imposed.
“Discussing the issues with different perspectives and critical thinking only happens in liberal studies, but not this subject,” the veteran educator said, adding that the guidelines did not require them to teach details such as police performance during the unrest.
Educators said they hoped the textbooks would save them from crossing the red lines of using information which might be deemed inappropriate or illegal.
Scientia Secondary School principal Wong Ching-yung agreed the textbooks should not go into details of the unrest as people would have different views.
He said all the textbooks generally told the truth of what happened in 2019 and the official version should be adopted.
China rewrites history of Hong Kong with textbooks that deny British rule
Critics say Beijing wants to ‘brainwash’ students with new syllabus that mentions ‘national security’ more than 400 times in 121 pages
www.telegraph.co.uk
China rewrites history of Hong Kong with textbooks that deny British rule
The Prince of Wales, Chris Patten, the departing governor, and Prime Minister Tony Blair at the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony
Hong Kong schools will teach children that the city was never a British colony, after state textbooks for a course originally designed to teach critical thinking were revised to reflect Beijing’s version of the city’s history.
All references have been scrubbed from new teaching materials for the rejigged citizenship and social development subject on the basis that China never recognised the 19th-century “unequal treaties” that ceded control of the territory, according to the South China Morning Post.
The textbooks instead refer to an obscure 1972 UN resolution that removed Hong Kong and Macau from the body’s list of non-self-governing territories at China’s demand.
Britain took Hong Kong Island during the First Opium War and in 1898 signed a treaty that gave it control over the wider area for 99 years.
That agreement ended on July 1, 1997, an anniversary that is marked annually in the city and this year may be attended by Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. He has been overseeing a crackdown on basic freedoms in the city and broad censorship of any dissent.
The textbooks also parrot Beijing’s justification for the sweeping National Security Law imposed in 2020, which criminalised almost any criticism of the Chinese state following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The legislation banning sedition, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign governments was necessary to counter unrest, according to the new material.
One textbook mentions “national security” more than 400 times over its 121 pages, saying the legislation was imposed out of “urgency” to prevent serious violence.
Another book repeated a conspiracy theory that opposition and separatist groups had asked foreign forces to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs.
The changes to the textbooks are part of a broader overhaul of the old liberal studies subject, which has this year been replaced by citizenship and social development.
Liberal studies was introduced in 2009 as a mandatory subject to encourage critical thinking but came under fire from authorities for allegedly encouraging the 2019 protest movement.
Its textbooks were not previously vetted by the education authorities, with some even referring to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown – another topic now all-but banned in schools.
The Global Times, a Chinese state-tabloid, described the result as “chaos”. The new textbooks and syllabus issued by the Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB) means teachers “will no longer be able to convey their wrong and poisonous political views to students when teaching this course,” according to the article.
Beijing believes that admitting Hong Kong was ever a colony could open the door to it breaking away from China after a UN declaration in 1960 affirmed the rights for colonised peoples to gain independence – a key demand of some 2019 demonstrators.
“It is necessary for schools to teach students to think positively and to love their nation,” the head of the EDB was quoted as saying by the Global Times.
The new curriculum will teach children as young as six about the National Security Law and also requires all students to take a trip to mainland China.
‘Brain-washing’ to create patriots
Critics have said the changes are part of an increasingly insidious attempt to “brainwash” children with Beijing propaganda.
“Clearly, the overhaul wasn’t designed to serve students’ interest but to fulfil a political end,” said Timothy Lee, an activist and former district councillor in Kowloon City who fled Hong Kong last spring.
“Schools are becoming yet another battleground … to implement a ‘second takeover’, to build loyalty to the state, by various means from law to education.”
He said that schools were under “huge pressure” following the National Security Law.
“A ‘revamped’ version of [liberal studies], will include a module of national security, meaning school-goers are required to receive brain-washing Chinese patriotic education,” he added.
The tweaks “reflect the ‘mainlandisation’ of Hong Kong” to make it more like China, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute.
“Under the Communist Party education is the key instrument for making people embrace the Party, its leadership and its version of history,” he told The Telegraph.
“By shaping the minds of the young, the Party expects them to grow into ‘patriots’ who are totally supportive of the Party and its leader.”
Last edited:
