From the BBC:
“Hong Kong: New school books
claim territory was not a British colony”
(Britain handed Hong Kong back to
China in 1997, a date specified by treaty requirements)
New textbooks for Hong Kong
schools will state the territory was never a British colony, local media
report. Instead, the books declare the British "only exercised colonial
rule" in Hong Kong - a distinction drawn to highlight China's claims of
unbroken sovereignty. China has always asserted it never gave up sovereignty
and its surrender of Hong Kong to the British was due to unfair Opium War
treaties in the 1800s. The UK returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 after ruling
for over 150 years. During its rule, it referred to Hong Kong - a port with a
deep harbour that grew into a booming city state, and one of the world's leading
financial centres - as a colony, as well as a dependent territory. The United
Kingdom governed the area from 1841 to 1941, and from 1945 to 1997, after which
it was handed back to China.
Encouraging a 'Chinese
identity' China maintains Hong Kong has always been its territory - that
the British only occupied it after 1842. And while the Qing government
at the time signed successive treaties ceding and leasing parts of the
territory to Britain, China argues those were signed "under coercion"
and never accepted them. Hong Kong's government has been following
Beijing's rhetoric since the 1997 handover. It never says sovereignty was
"transferred" to China, but rather Hong Kong has "returned to
the motherland". Government museums used to describe Hong Kong as a
"British colony", but those words were removed in 2020 - a move
locals said was indicative of China's strengthening control in the
semi-autonomous city.
The latest move is in line with
Beijing's attempt in recent years to instil a "Chinese identity"
among Hong Kong students - to sow the idea that Hong Kong has always been part
of China, but was taken away for a period under British rule. The new textbooks
take pains to explain the differences between a colony and colonial rule - with
the texts declaring that for a country to call an external territory a colony
it needs to have sovereignty as well as governance over the area. In the case
of Hong Kong, the British "only exercised colonial rule… so Hong Kong is
not a British colony", the textbooks say, according to local media
reports. The books have been drawn up for a specific course to be taught in
Hong Kong schools focusing on citizenship ideals, lawfulness and patriotism. The
subject replaces a liberal studies course that sought to teach students greater
critical thinking skills and ideas on civic engagement. Chinese authorities
directly criticised this course during the city's mass pro-democracy protests
in 2019, saying such education had "radicalised" young people and
given them the wrong ideas. The new textbooks - which have yet to printed, and
are pending final approval by Chinese authorities, local media say - also
reflect Beijing's characterisation of the mass pro-democracy protests in 2019
as a security threat.
The South China Morning Post
reported one excerpt on the protests reading: "Secession and subversion
against the government were advocated in some of those activities posting a
threat to national sovereignty, security and interests." While incidents
of violence did occur during the 2019 protests, the majority of protests were
largely peaceful. Human rights groups have also raised accusations of police
brutality and mistreatment of peaceful protesters during the period. Timothy
Lee, a former Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker who is now exiled from the
territory, was among critics expressing concerns about a "rewriting"
of history.
What's happened since
handover? After the handover in 1997, China's Communist rulers classified
the city as a special administrative region with its own governing and economic
system, allowing individuals more freedoms than on the mainland. Following
the major 2019 protests, China cracked down on civil freedoms formerly allowed
in Hong Kong. In 2020, it passed a national security law that has in
effect outlawed almost all forms of political criticism.
^ This is just more Chinese Communist
Propaganda. Beijing has already broken the 1997 Handover Agreement (by not
waiting 50 years under the One Country, Two Systems Provision) so it doing this
is not surprising. ^
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