New School Books in Hong Kong Will Change History

New textbooks in schools in Hong Kong will teach students that the city was never a British colony. The government changed the school books because they think that the books are a reason for pro-democracy protests in the city.

People in Hong Kong say that the new textbooks will teach students that the Chinese government didn’t agree to the contracts with Britain after the Opium Wars. The contracts ended in 1997 when Britain returned Hong Kong to China. Because China controls Hong Kong again, they say it was never a British colony.

The South China Morning Post news says the new textbooks also explain that the protests in Hong Kong in 2019 were caused by outside countries and groups outside of China.

Four textbooks for Hong Kong’s subject of liberal studies were released online last week. Schools can choose these textbooks for the new school year that starts in September. The textbooks will be used with students from age 15 to 18 in “citizenship and social development” classes. In 2020, pro-China groups attacked the liberal studies. They say it’s the reason for protests.

After, there was a complete change of the education system to focus on national security and patriotism. Now, teachers should report students who do bad things.

The head of Hong Kong’s education department says that schools have to teach students to think positively and to love their country.

Some of the textbooks talk about the 2020 national security law. Many people say that the national security law is too strict and limits basic freedom. One textbook says that the national security law started because of the anti-Beijing protests in 2019 and calls those protests "violent terrorist activities."

One of the books has the word "national security" in it 400 times.

The Global Times, a newspaper supported by the Chinese government, says that the new changes help make sure that some teachers can’t give students wrong political views.

Tang Fei, the person who edited and reviewed two of the textbooks, is also a politician in Hong Kong. He says that because of these new books, school teachers will not need to use other content.

The new textbooks come just a few weeks before the 25th anniversary of the British returning Hong Kong to China. At that time, the Chinese government promised Hong Kong that it could have 50 years of semi-autonomy. Many people say that because of the new national security law and many changes that Beijing made, the semi-autonomy has already ended.

The anniversary on July 1st will also be the first day of Hong Kong’s new leader, John Lee, who was chosen by Beijing. John Lee’s predecessor was Lam.

The senior leaders of China usually attend these kinds of ceremonies. There is no confirmation yet that Xi Jinping will attend the ceremony. Some people think he will attend because a school in Hong Kong asked students to stay in quarantine for 1 week. Maybe those students are preparing for the ceremony and must stay healthy from Covid-19.