The Hong Kong government was yesterday accused of “brainwashing” after it suggested schools broadcast to students a live address by a Beijing official visiting the territory.
It comes as concern grows that Chinese authorities are squeezing the semi-autonomous territory’s freedoms in a range of areas, from politics to media and education.
The Hong Kong Education Bureau said it sent schools information about a seminar on Hong Kong’s Basic Law and invited them to broadcast it, but added that it was voluntary.
Pro-democracy lawmakers said that schools now felt under pressure to show it.
“This is very, very strange. In Hong Kong, we have not had anything like this,” said Hong Kong Legislative Council member Ip Kin-yuen (葉建源), who represents the education sector.
Schools were asked to reply to the government whether they would be broadcasting the event, he said.
“The schools will very naturally feel the pressure from the government,” Ip said.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo (毛孟靜) said it was part of Beijing’s bid to re-educate Hong Kong’s youth in the wake of 2014’s “Umbrella movement” protests calling for political reform and the emergence of an independence movement that wants to see a complete split from China.
“[Chinese authorities] are furious that the Hong Kong young are not patriotic,” Mo said.
“It’s a huge attempt at brainwashing,” she added.
The bureau said the seminar, which is to be held in Hong Kong next month, was part of celebrations marking 20 years since the territory was handed back to China by Britain.
It is to include a 50-minute speech by high-ranking Chinese official Li Fei (李飛) about Hong Kong’s “role and mission” under the Basic Law as a Special Administrative Region of China, local media said.
The bureau told reporters it would “allow schools to decide whether or not to make arrangements for students to watch the live broadcast.”
A proposal to introduce patriotic lessons into schools, known as “national education,” was shelved in 2012 after more than 100,000 protesters rallied against it outside government offices, led by then-15-year-old Joshua Wong (黃之鋒).
However, there are fears in the democracy camp that it is back on the agenda.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) this month announced that teaching Chinese history would be compulsory in secondary schools from next year.
Chinese Minister of Education Chen Baosheng (陳寶生) on Monday said that teachers in Hong Kong “need to love the country first.”
In an interview with Hong Kong broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, Chen added that Hong Kong needed to reintroduce national education and branded worries about brainwashing as “ignorant.”
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS