Teachers in Hong Kong have been warned to keep themselves and students away from any US Independence Day celebrations as they might breach national security laws, educators have said.
A text message purportedly sent by the principal of a Hong Kong school to staff said the education bureau’s regional education office had reminded them “to be careful about Independence Day activities organized by the US consulate in Hong Kong, and not to participate to avoid violating the national security law and Hong Kong laws.”
The text was published on Edu Lancet, a Facebook page run by a former manager at the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Hans Yeung. It urged staff to be diligent in “protecting” any students who were considering participating, and to discourage them.
Photo: AFP
Another e-mail shared on Edu Lancet told faculty staff that any teacher who received an invitation from an embassy or a foreign organization funded by an embassy must seek permission to attend from the principal for the purpose of “maintaining national security.”
The Hong Kong Education Bureau in a statement said it had enacted policies to help schools “effectively prevent and suppress acts and activities that endanger or are detrimental to national security.”
“Schools have the responsibility to play a good gatekeeper role and to enhance the sensitivity of teachers and students to national security,” it said.
The bureau had enacted “clear guidelines” for schools that required them to “establish school-based mechanisms and formulate appropriate measures, according to their own circumstances and needs, to implement various tasks related to safeguarding national security and national security education,” it added.
The bureau did not answer questions about what laws would be broken by attending any Fourth of July event, or whether such warnings only applied to the US holiday.
Edu Lancet and Yeung, who runs the page to voice concerns from those working with the education system and “expose the current problems,” have been criticized by the Hong Kong government for their posts.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) has said Yeung was “making incitements” from his current home in the UK.
The purported directives fit in with tightening restrictions on Hong Kong’s education system, and a push to have the curriculum focus more on national security.
In 2020, then-Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) blamed the education system for fueling the pro-democracy protests that rocked the city in 2019, setting the tone for an overhaul that is ongoing.
The Hong Kong government has since altered the school curriculum to include teachings on national security in subjects such as English language, music, math and sports, and to focus more on patriotic education.
It has also banned texts it sees as endangering national security and prosecuted authors.
Teachers in Hong Kong have previously said they felt pressure to self-censor for fear of being reported for remarks seen as unpatriotic.
Since the start of the 2023 to 2024 school year, all new teachers in public sector schools, direct subsidy scheme schools and kindergartens are required to sit an exam on Hong Kong’s mini constitution, the Basic Law, and the national security law.
Hong Kong Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin (蔡若蓮) has repeatedly warned of “soft resistance” in schools, and this month said educators had to be vigilant against the infiltration of “hostile forces” through events such as book fairs and extracurricular activities, which “could include undesirable reading materials.”
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS