Hong Kong parents are battling plans to introduce lessons praising Chinese Communist Party rule, saying the curriculum amounts to brainwashing and an attack on the territory’s cherished freedoms.
Up to 90,000 people, led by stroller-pushing parents and banner-waving children, took to the streets of the semi-autonomous territory on Sunday to denounce “national education,” as the subject is officially called.
The issue has been on the Hong Kong Government’s agenda since it was handed over from Britain to China in 1997, but a new teaching booklet lauding the “China model” of development has infuriated educators and parents.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“It will poison our children’s minds,” 34-year-old office clerk Gordon Chan said as he marched with his wife and nine-month-old daughter. “This is putting politics before education.”
Mercury Leung, a 21-year-old university student, said: “Students, especially those in primary schools, are like pieces of white paper. They absorb what is taught in schools. This subject is akin to painting the paper red.”
Sunday’s march was the third major demonstration in Hong Kong in the past two months, reflecting growing fears about the extent of Beijing’s economic and political influence in the southern Chinese financial center.
Scores of thousands attended an annual vigil on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in early June, while on July 1, hundreds of thousands rallied on the 15th anniversary of the handover.
Like many others in Sunday’s protest, Chan and Leung said they did not oppose the teaching of Chinese values in Hong Kong’s schools, but were against the teaching of Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
Concerned parents and students have pointed out that the proposed curriculum fails to properly address upheavals in 20th-century Chinese history, such as the Tiananmen protests and the violent radicalism of the Cultural Revolution.
The 34-page government-sponsored booklet called “China Model” praises the Chinese Communist Party as “progressive, selfless and united.”
China’s one-party rule is referred to as a “society-first” and “united” system, and is compared favorably to multi-party democracy as practiced in the US, which is described as inefficient and disruptive.
A section on multi-party politics comes with the headline: “When the parties struggle, there is disaster for the citizens.”
The booklet is one small part of the national education curriculum, which was approved last year and will become compulsory for all primary and secondary students from 2016.
Students will attend the classes for one hour a week, but will not be required to sit exams on the subject.
“National education teaches our kids to lie,” Wong Kin, an irate father of three, said at a recent public conference where teachers and parents vented their anger at the government’s plans. “There are already courses for Chinese history, Chinese culture and Chinese language, there’s no need to teach national education.”
In response to the protests, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) promised another round of consultation with parents to reassure them that their children would not be subjected to Chinese Communist Party indoctrination.
“The government definitely does not have the intention to brainwash,” he said on Monday. “Schools, teachers and educational bodies will have a lot of space, using professional attitudes and using open methods, to teach this subject.”
His comments contrast with those of Jiang Yudui, of the pro-Beijing China Civic Education Promotion Association in Hong Kong, who fueled critics’ suspicions when he said brainwashing was justified.
“A brain needs washing if there is a problem, just as clothes need washing if they’re dirty, and a kidney needs washing if it’s sick,” he said ahead of Sunday’s demonstration, according to local media.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese