Hong Kong is up in arms over plans to introduce compulsory “moral and national education” into its classrooms. As the school year starts, thousands of protesters have demonstrated outside government headquarters against what they see as an attempt to brainwash children with a pro-Beijing message. Primary schools have overwhelmingly rejected what is, until 2015, a voluntary scheme to merge “national education” into existing civic and moral education lessons. There have been sit-ins, marches and even hunger strikes. Such is the mood of hostility that Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s newly appointed leader, has scrapped plans to attend this weekend’s Asia-Pacific Economic Conference forum in Vladivostok to deal with the crisis.
Hong Kong’s citizens are right to be wary of the new curriculum. Protesters have pointed to an education handbook that glorifies the Communist party and ignores events such as Beijing’s suppression of pro-democracy activists in 1989. The booklet criticises multi-party democracy as creating “malignant party struggle”.
Since its handover to China in 1997, the former British colony has maintained freedoms not enjoyed by mainland Chinese, including the right to free speech, a free press and an independent judiciary. Many Hong Kongers see their city as a model of what China can become. Instead, some fear the mainland is seeking to erode its freedoms. There is growing resentment against mainlanders who are blamed for pushing up property prices and for having their babies in Hong Kong to gain residency.