HONG KONG has unveiled controversial guidelines for schools in the Chinese-ruled city that include teaching students as young as six about colluding with foreign forces and subversion as part of a new national security curriculum.
Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong in June last year in response to months of often violent anti-government and anti-China protests in 2019.
The Education Bureau’s guidelines, released on Thursday, showed Beijing’s plans for semi-autonomous Hong Kong to go beyond quashing dissent, and aim for a societal overhaul to bring its most restive city more in line with the Communist Party-ruled mainland.
“National security is of great importance. Teachers should not treat it as a controversial issue for discussion,” the guidelines said.
Teachers should “clearly point out that safeguarding national security is the responsibility of all nationals and as far as national security is concerned, there is no room for debate or compromise.”
After the 2019 protests where many of the demonstrators are teenagers, Chinese leaders turned to re-education in a bid to tame the city’s youth and make them citizens loyal to China.
Children in primary schools will learn how to sing and respect the national anthem, learn about police and the People’s Liberation Army as protectors of Hong Kong, and about the four main offences in the security law including terrorism and secessionism.(Reuters)
