Hong Kong's "brainwashing" classes protested

Demonstrators gather near the government's headquarters in Hong Kong on September 7, 2012, during a protest against plans to introduce Chinese patriotism classes. / PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images

(AP) HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government calls it national education. But parents, teachers and pupils in the former British colony call it "brainwashing" and fear it's a ploy by Beijing authorities to indoctrinate the city's young into unquestioning support of China's Communist Party.

Plans by the government to introduce the classes have triggered mass protests and hunger strikes, the latest sign of the widening gulf between Beijing and the freewheeling semi-independent southern Chinese financial center, 15 years after Britain handed it back to China.

The dispute deepened as classes started this week, with activists including a handful of hunger-strikers camping out in front of Hong Kong government headquarters in a bid to force officials to drop plans to introduce the subject in primary and secondary schools. They've been joined each evening by thousands of protesters wearing black.

A local TV station fanned the flames when it called the activists a "destructive faction" controlled by London and Washington.

The rising tensions forced the city's Beijing-backed leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, to call off his trip to a high-profile Asia-Pacific summit this weekend in Vladivostok, Russia.

A child holds a placard as protesters sit near the government's headquarters in Hong Kong on September 7, 2012 during a protest against plans to introduce Chinese patriotism classes.

/ PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images

The growing opposition to the new curriculum threatens to undermine the chances of pro-Beijing candidates in elections Sunday for the city's legislature, when for the first time more than half the seats will be chosen by the public. Leung insisted the government had no intention of brainwashing, and reiterated Thursday that a group he set up to listen to public views would consider all options, including dropping the new curriculum entirely. But activists slammed the move as a hedging tactic ahead of the vote.

The protesters are afraid of what they see as underhanded attempts to indoctrinate the city's next generation with Beijing-style nationalist education classes used in schools all over China to inculcate support for the Communist government. Many believe Leung, who became the city's leader in July after being picked by an elite, pro-Beijing committee, has close ties to the Chinese leadership.

"Those who are opposed aren't against becoming more familiar with China, but they are against being made to mindlessly flatter China," said Ben Leung, an 18-year-old secondary school student who has joined the protests with a half-dozen friends for the past few evenings. "We're afraid of this so that's why we need to take this step."

Many Hong Kongers are people who have either fled mainland China in past decades or have relatives who did. Surveys show a shrinking number identify themselves as Chinese citizens. They are increasingly uncomfortable with Beijing's growing influence on the city, its stunted democratic development and an influx of wealthy mainland Chinese that is driving up property prices. Residents take pride in the city's high degree of autonomy, separate legal system and civil liberties not seen in mainland China such as freedom of speech. Hong Kong was allowed to keep them when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997 after more than a century of colonial rule.

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[Clarkyo]

They should show an example of how crazy this national education is, there was no illustration of any of material regarding this manner.
One of the horrific side of this national education is that, it is exactly the same as what Nazi's imposed to their youth in the 30s, you have to blindfoldly praise the party. 1 of the horrific things i read about this subject was that, " when you hear the national anthem and see the country's flag" you should feel emotional and cry, the harder you cry, the higher your marks. The level of your emotion affected will be recorded into the database of the department of education,and could be viewed by the government and might be used for assessment when one progressed to apply for college degrees.

[justthetruthhere]

What is amazing is that this whole movement was started by a 15 year old local high school student some 15 months ago. Now it is supported by over 120,000 Hong Kong people.

[justthetruthhere]

What is amazing is that this whole movement was started by a 15 year old local high school student some 15 months ago. Now it is supported by over 120,000 Hong Kong people.

[jefforsythe]

The Chinese people are not improving just because they have cell phones and new cars. They used to be Buddhists and Daos and believed in goodness and truthfulness but these beliefs have been brainwashed out of them by the brutal Chinese Communist Party.
It was not that long ago that a citizen was so afraid of the cruel Party, that he or she would not speak one word against it. Now, people are cursing the evil Party openly on the street. Not until the Communist Party is completely dissolved and the thousands of members who committed millions of human rights atrocities are brought to trial will China truly change. The CCP is not being destroyed by other people, but by itself. It is rotten from the inside out. There is no hope for it to survive.
This is just my understanding. Thank you for your consideration.