An Individual Schooled in Beijing and HK Exposes How the CCP Infiltrates HK’s Education System

The Education Bureau has updated the Chinese Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide for primary one to secondary three students, incorporating the CCP's commonly used term "cultivating cultural self-confidence" and indicating the need to foster students' awareness of protecting national culture. (Provided by the Information Services Department)

The Hong Kong Education Bureau has recently updated the Chinese Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide for primary and secondary schools, incorporating the term “cultivating cultural self-confidence,” commonly used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The updated guidelines also emphasize the need to “foster students’ awareness of protecting national culture” and have altered the original wording that encouraged the development of “critical” thinking skills. Concerns have arisen among some Hong Kong citizens who previously received education in mainland China, suggesting that the introduction of CCP culture into Hong Kong is undermining the transmission of genuine Chinese traditional culture and hindering students’ ability to think independently when the CCP’s ideology is directly propagated to students through articles in the language course.

‘Safeguarding Cultural Security’ Is from the CCP Education Charter

“Cultural self-confidence” is one of the “Four Confidences” advocated by Xi Jinping, following Hu Jintao’s “Three Confidences” in Chinese socialism with distinctive characteristics (confidence in our chosen path, confidence in our guiding theories, and confidence in our political system). It has been repeatedly mentioned by Xi Jinping and was included in the CCP Charter in 2017, becoming a “spiritual guide” for the entire party.

On Feb. 15, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Education, Christine Choi Yuk-lin, spoke during a legislative council debate on “making Chinese History a compulsory subject at the senior secondary level.” She argued that relying solely on Chinese History as a compulsory subject may not be the most effective way to enhance national sentiment and identity at the senior secondary school level. She believed that a “multi-pronged approach,” including emphasizing Chinese culture in Chinese language education, would be more effective in “enhancing cultural confidence” and fostering connection to one’s nation and culture.

The Hong Kong government has introduced this “cultural self-confidence” narrative into the curriculum guidelines for all new school year classes.

How Chinese Language Subjects Differ in Hong Kong and China

Mrs. Lam, who received primary and secondary education in Beijing during the 1980s and 1990s, expressed concerns in an interview with The Epoch Times on Aug. 30, about the modifications made to textbooks in Hong Kong, fearing that they would lead to further assimilation of mainland Chinese systems.  She remarked, “Twenty years ago, Hong Kong’s education encouraged students to think from multiple perspectives, based on facts, and develop a humanistic outlook. In contrast, the CCP’s education only has standard answers that align with its values, requiring students to memorize without regard for comprehension.”

Ms. Lam, who studied secondary 4 to secondary 7 in Hong Kong from 1994, compared Chinese language textbooks between the two places. She said that the Chinese language subjects in Hong Kong could better provide a true understanding of Chinese culture than the Chinese textbooks in Beijing. She said, “I remember when studying Chinese in Form 6, one of the textbooks was called ”Emotion and Chinese Culture.” which contained content I had never encountered in Beijing. She felt that it was written exceptionally well and didn’t offer standardized answers but genuinely inspired her understanding of Chinese traditional culture.

“Now they want to cultivate awareness of protecting national culture in Hong Kong, which is absurd. The CCP has done the most damage to Chinese traditional culture. How much of China’s traditional culture was destroyed by the CCP during various movements and the Cultural Revolution? Intellectuals committed suicide or were spiritually castrated. Those who truly inherited Chinese traditional culture escaped to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and cultural relics had to be taken abroad for protection. In China, the CCP broke ’the Four Olds’ (Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits) during the Cultural Revolution. Now, The CCP is promoting ‘cultural self-confidence’ and trying to instill it in students. Isn’t this a case of covering up the truth and thieves crying ‘Stop thief’?”

She believes that the Chinese culture emphasized by the CCP is not the genuine traditional Chinese culture but a distorted version resulting from the CCP’s ideological manipulation.

Modification of Guidelines for Critical Thinking

In the latest update of Hong Kong’s education curriculum guidelines, “cultivate critical, creative thinking, and problem-solving abilities” was revised to “cultivate the ability to think carefully and discern.”

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A Hong Kong Secondary Form Four student, Lee Man Miu (pseudonym), from a prestigious century-old school, expressed concerns during an interview with The Epoch Times on Aug. 28. She attended a “national education” camp organized by the school before the summer vacation. The camp invited an alumnus to talk to students from Form 1 to Form 3 about national education. Besides discussing identity issues, the talk included political concepts like explaining how the CCP’s military strength surpasses that of the United States. She found that “the content is far from the truth, and the arguments needed supporting evidence, and she saw no signs of “thoughtful discernment.”

Individuals with Limited Abilities Gain High Scores

Regarding “independent thinking,” Ms. Lam recalled her experience in political classes after 1989. Besides the supplementary teaching materials arranged by the education bureau that students were required to learn, such as the “Four Basic Principles,” the textbooks mainly summarized the content of Das Kapital and “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.” The secondary students were asked to write articles demonstrating how socialism with Chinese characteristics had led to societal prosperity.

“At that time, I often failed in political classes because I couldn’t understand the content in the textbooks. However, I knew I would get a high score if I were ‘politically correct.’ So, I wrote an article full of lies, which got me an A grade.”

She pointed out that directed questions only allowed students to argue and explain in the direction set by the topic, and there was no room for thinking in multiple directions. “If it is so, it will only cultivate those who can score high but lack abilities or snobs who trim their sails, which is not beneficial to society,” she noted.

She believes that independent thinking is based on facts. Mainland Chinese history textbooks distort historical facts, such as portraying the CCP’s Fifth Encirclement Campaign and escape as a “miracle” Long March; glorifying opium cultivation in communist base areas as Yan'an’s Large-scale Production Movement, without mentioning their selling it to the Japanese as a source of income; portraying plunder of private property as land reform; describing the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward as three years of natural disasters, dissociating the CCP from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution, and labeling it as an individuals error. These textbooks avoid discussing taboo topics like the 1976 Tiananmen April 5th incident and the 1989 June 4th incident.”

Ms. Lam believes that when students are unilaterally indoctrinated with such information, they fail to understand real history and cannot think independently. “Honestly, I have been very distressed since the national education movement began in 2012. Hong Kong should not relinquish its most precious assets and pander to CCP’s cultural education. That is the real beginning of destroying our culture.”