Hong Kong colleges have been banning books, warning academics to not specific “political” views, coaching college students how one can increase the Chinese language flag accurately and screening patriotic movies, in line with on-line paperwork that reveal what town’s “nationwide safety schooling” program seems to be like on the bottom.
The ruling Chinese language Communist Occasion is shifting to step up its “patriotic schooling” program in colleges, universities and non secular establishments throughout the nation, together with in Hong Kong, the place this system is mostly termed “nationwide safety schooling.”
Because the begin of the present tutorial 12 months, academics in additional than 1,000 Hong Kong colleges have been required to report “potential violations” of town’s safety legal guidelines to the authorities.
They’re additionally anticipated to submit studies detailing their efforts to impose “nationwide safety schooling” on workers and college students.
Many are posting their studies on-line, revealing ongoing inspections, surveillance and a rising emphasis on patriotic actions and celebrations of conventional Chinese language tradition, lauded by President Xi Jinping as a part of nationwide satisfaction and rejuvenation.
Authorities on the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Lengthy District Secondary College are reminding academics “to not promote their private politics, preach distorted values or make remarks that incite [others] in educating supplies,” in line with the varsity’s annual report back to the Schooling Bureau on its Nationwide Safety Schooling program.
Lecturers on the college have been warned “to not straight or not directly encourage or acquiesce in college students’ participation in any off-campus political actions,” in line with the report, a replica of which is on the market on the varsity’s web site.
The varsity has additionally began inspecting books held in its library and has axed its subscription to Hyread, a web-based platform providing studying materials in Chinese language and English to forestall “violations of nationwide safety legal guidelines,” in line with its report.
Banned books
The Kowloon Technical Faculty has additionally been checking its library, and has banned seven books, in line with its report for final tutorial 12 months.
“On March 15-16, 2023, the vice principal, director of studying promotion and the library director inspected the library assortment and located a complete of seven books containing political propaganda,” the report stated.
The Christian Alliance Cheng Wing Gee Faculty requires its academics to add any educating supplies to the varsity’s intranet for approval earlier than utilizing them in school, whereas academics are specializing in “boosting nationwide and ethnic satisfaction” as a pure a part of the day-to-day curriculum, in line with its report.
In the meantime, college students on the Tai Po Baptist Public College have been attending Chinese language nationwide flag-raising ceremonies on designated days to determine “right values and patriotic emotions.”
A number of colleges stated their college students educated for and took half in patriotic “flag-raising competitions,” in addition to a patriotic essay-writing competitors with the theme “I Love My Motherland,” in line with their “Nationwide Safety Schooling” studies for the tutorial 12 months 2022-2023 posted on their very own web sites.
The studies additionally reveal a fast-emerging system of sanctions and punishments for speech crimes in Hong Kong’s colleges.
College students who’re deemed to have violated nationwide safety legal guidelines, which embrace clauses forbidding public criticism of the Hong Kong and Chinese language governments, or any non-critical point out of the pro-democracy motion, will probably be recommended, punished or have their mother and father known as in, relying on the seriousness of the alleged offense, the studies stated.
‘My Nation, My Individuals’
Round 40% of publicly funded colleges within the metropolis, which on March 23 handed a second nationwide safety legislation, broadening an ongoing crackdown on dissent, have made comparable studies public on their web sites up to now, the Ming Pao newspaper reported.
In accordance with the Hennessy Street Authorities Major College’s Nationwide Safety Schooling report for 2022-2023, the varsity picked “pupil ambassadors” to shoot movies to advertise China’s Nationwide Day on Oct. 1, and held a screening of the Chinese language patriotic movie, “My Nation, My Individuals.”
English-language colleges are not any exception, with the federal government’s Chiu Lut Sau Memorial Secondary College in Yuen Lengthy reporting that it’ll “overview the content material of the scholar affiliation’s politics platform and the Christmas singing competitors repertoire” to filter out content material that would run afoul of safety legal guidelines.
Artist Wu Chun Him, who taught drama in Hong Kong’s major colleges for a few years, stated which means in follow that no unfavourable content material concerning the Chinese language authorities could be allowed within the metropolis’s colleges, citing the “hurt executed by the Cultural Revolution” in Mao’s China as one thing that may not be spoken about.
“Now they’ve the invisible hand of felony legal responsibility within the background, no instructor goes to wish to train that stuff and wait to see in the event that they get in bother,” Wu informed RFA Cantonese.
“Finally, all they will do is study to sing from the identical hymn sheet,” he stated.
Defending themselves
Former Hong Kong Examinations and Evaluation Authority official Yeung Wing Yu, who now runs the @edulancet Instagram account the place he blogs concerning the metropolis’s schooling system, as soon as attended Hennessy Street major college, and stated he was “shocked” to learn its nationwide safety schooling report.
“What was stunning to me was that they don’t seem to be simply placing up show boards at pupil affiliation actions to tell individuals about safeguarding nationwide safety … they’re additionally doing it at actions organized by alumni and alumni associations,” Yeung stated.
He described the Kowloon Technical College report as essentially the most radical. He stated the colleges are seemingly publishing these studies to guard themselves.
“The most secure factor is to inform all people how properly you might be doing one thing, and make it public,” Yeung stated. “It is the perfect type of safety.”
“It sends the message that this college is politically protected, in order that the federal government would not mess with it if one thing occurs,” he stated.
He stated the current enlargement of Hong Kong’s Diploma of Secondary Schooling to mainland Chinese language colleges will seemingly have the impact of repopulating town with incoming households from elsewhere in China, lured by the promise of an internationally acknowledged schooling.
Translated with extra reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.