Chinese State Media Slams ‘Lawless’ Hong Kong Schools After History Test Row
Chinese language state media mentioned Hong Kong colleges have develop into “lawless” as controversy builds over a historical past query in a college examination, rekindling tensions over educational freedoms within the semi-autonomous town.
Beijing and a few Hong Kong officers have often flagged the training device as a possible breeding flooring for the large-scale, often-violent pro-democracy protests which roiled town in the second one part of ultimate 12 months.
The newest row used to be sparked over a query on a Degree of Secondary Training take a look at, which requested scholars to argue whether or not Japan had completed “extra excellent than hurt to China right through the duration between 1900 and 1945.”
A Xinhua statement revealed past due Friday mentioned Hong Kong colleges had did not ‘decolonise’ and the territory’s training device had no longer evolved in keeping with the ‘one nation, two programs’ rule.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese language rule in 1997 underneath an settlement with former colonial grasp Britain that town would have a top level of autonomy and experience some freedoms unavailable within the mainland.
“The colleges appear to have develop into a lawless position that may unscrupulously advertise heresies, assault the ‘one nation, two programs’ and discredit the country state,” Xinhua wrote on its site.
“Some immature scholars were tricked into use by way of the anti-China forces and feature develop into pawns to disrupt Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong Training Secretary Kevin Yeung has requested the Hong Kong Examinations and Evaluate Authority (HKEAA) to research why the query used to be a part of the historical past examination, sat by way of five,200 scholars, and requested for it to be invalidated.
The query “significantly harm the emotions and dignity of the Chinese language individuals who suffered nice ache right through the Jap invasion of China,” Yeung mentioned on Friday.
Public broadcaster RTHK reported on Saturday, bringing up unnamed resources, that two officers from the HKEAA had resigned following the debate.
In an interview with pro-Beijing e-newsletter Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong leader government Carrie Lam mentioned ultimate week the federal government would read about the longer term construction of the topic, which is a part of the college front checks curriculum.
An try by way of the federal government to introduce “nationwide training” in Hong Kong in 2012 to instill patriotism and advertise appreciation of mainland China used to be met with broad protests and scrapped.
