City of ‘patriots’: How Beijing is re-educating Hong Kong

Secession, subversion and collusion defined Beijing’s political perception of Hong Kong for a decade. Now, the harbour city state conquered, China is using those terms to remake the city in its own image and purge dissent from children’s imaginations.

The national security laws that brought an end to 18 months of protest over Beijing’s rising influence are being weaponised to enforce the loyalty of children, their parents, and the rest of Hong Kong’s citizens.

Hong Kong citizens on the border, with China’s Shenzhen in the background. Credit: AP

“As time progresses, the concept of national security is not only confined to political security, territorial security and military security,” Hong Kong’s secretary of education told teachers in an internal memo this week. “But may also encompass economic security, cultural security, social security, technological security, cyber security and ecological security.”

On Thursday, there was a mystery $HK8 billion ($1.4 billion) for national security revealed in Hong Kong’s budget - equivalent to half its new coronavirus stimulus package. In Beijing next week thousands of National People’s Congress delegates are expected to pass laws that will stop “non-patriots” for running for office.

“They want to wipe out the opposition altogether and impose direct rule from Beijing,” Willy Lam, a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a phone interview.

“It is very sweeping. The power of interpretation rests with Beijing. Beijing is the one authority which can lay down the red line and move the goalposts. Only they have the authority to define what constitutes national security, which can be as comprehensive as they want it to be.”

It starts early. Hong Kong’s Education Department this week wanted to clarify what 6-year-olds could be taught under the new curriculum.

“For lower primary students (usually aged 6 to 9) for instance, the framework outlines some topics related to national education such as the national flag, national anthem, law enforcement agencies, the concept of law abidingness and the names of the offences under the national security law,” it said.

The list of offences: “Secession by separating HK or others from China, subversion by force or threat of force, terrorist activities with a view to coercing the Central People’s Government, collusion with a foreign country”.

"They are fully pulling out the cultural revolution now," said one teacher who asked not to be identified because education is politically sensitive in Hong Kong. "It's just mental."

The secretary of education, Kevin Yeung, told schools they should also “encourage parents to learn more about the National Security Law” .

“In particular, preventive efforts should be accorded priority in order to minimise the need for suppression and punishment,” Yeung said.

Former Hong Kong legislative councillor Ted Hui said he despaired for the legacy of the 2019 democracy movement - would students even know it happened? “They will have to tell lies to survive in the education system,” he said.

Lam said avenues for resistance are dwindling. Hong Kong police raided the homes of former legislators, activists and lawyers in January. More than 50 were arrested on vague national security charges. They have been asked to report to police on Sunday.

The crackdown has been boosted by that billion-dollar national security funding in Thursday’s budget.

Asked what the money was for, a Hong Kong government spokesman said the work of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security didn’t have to be made public.

“Information relating to the work of the Committee shall not be subject to disclosure. Therefore, except for the above, we have no further information to provide in relation to the relevant provision.”

Lam said the circumstances had left Hong Kong people who are “uncomfortable with this Orwellian situation only two choices”.

“One is to keep quiet and acquiesce,” he said. “The other is to leave for the United Kingdom or Australia. There is no middle way. Beijing is imposing its total jurisdiction on Hong Kong.”

Chinese president Xi Jinping is applauded by delegates at last year’s National People’s Congress. Credit: Getty

When it meets next Friday, the National People’s Congress will be the centrepiece of China’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Up to 3000 Chinese Communist Party delegates will descend on Beijing for its annual political spectacular.

For a week they will deliberate and vote on stimulus measures, environmental protection and a draft of China’s blueprint for economic and social development for the next five years. Almost all of them will sail through 2980 votes to 0.

They will also vote on a measure that will effectively eliminate more than 100 seats assigned to district councillors in Hong Kong. The Wall St Journal reported they would be swapped for pro-Beijing loyalists in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Hong Kong’s voting system is also expected to be reformed, ending the first-past-the-post system that saw more than 80 per cent of votes go to pro-democracy candidates in 2019.

Han Dayuan, a professor at Renmin University and member of Hong Kong’s basic law committee, told Chinese state media that Hong Kong’s electoral system had some failings.

“Some of these flaws, including the failure to ensure all candidates meet the patriotic ethos, led to some candidates who advocated Hong Kong independence winning the elections,” he said.

Lam said the solution was simple. “People who are not patriots can not serve legislative, judiciary and executive,” he said.

Hong Kong’s police and security forces will now march in the goose step used by the well-drilled People’s Liberation Army, seen here in 2019 in Beijing. Credit: AP

Twelve months after the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in July, Beijing is preparing for another patriotic celebration: the 25th anniversary of Britain’s handover of Hong Kong in 2022.

China’s military began training the Hong Kong Police for the event this week.

On Monday, at the parade ground in Wang Chuk Hang, the Hong Kong police swung their legs, knees straight. It was the goose-step. The 96-year-old march of the People’s Liberation Army.

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