{"id":118203,"date":"2021-04-12T17:21:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T17:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=185298"},"modified":"2021-04-12T17:21:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T17:21:43","slug":"hong-kong-launches-national-security-education-campaign-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/04\/12\/hong-kong-launches-national-security-education-campaign-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Launches ‘National Security Education’ Campaign in Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
Authorities in Hong Kong are launching a campaign to “educate” secondary-school students about a draconian national security law that has left most of the city’s political opposition behind bars and criminalized public criticism of the authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n Students returning to classrooms on<\/span> <\/span>Monday<\/span><\/span> <\/span>as coronavirus restrictions eased were greeted with gifts of paper bookmarks bearing the slogans “Uphold national security,” and “Safeguard our home,” as the government launched a suite of newly revised teaching materials claiming that the city’s seven million residents “still enjoy freedom.”<\/span><\/p>\n A circular letter to schools, a copy of which was sent to RFA, said schools are responsible for ensuring that their students are “educated” about the new law, which was imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Hong Kong from<\/span> <\/span>July 1<\/span><\/span>, 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n Morning assemblies and class registration sessions should include reference to the phrase that “upholding national security is the constitutional responsibility of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” it said.<\/span><\/p>\n Teaching materials now include a cartoon summarizing the law, which claims that there has been no change to “the various rights and freedoms,” including freedom of the press and of association, in Hong Kong since the law took effect.<\/span><\/p>\n However, it made no mention of the arrest and charging of 47 members of the pro-democracy opposition camp for taking part in a democratic primary election, nor the arrest of radio talk show host Giggs for “incitement to arouse hatred or contempt for the governments of the People’s Republic of China and the HKSAR,” under the national security law. Almost all of the city’s prominent pro-democracy figures, opposition lawmakers and social activists are now either behind bars or in exile.<\/span><\/p>\n The charging of 47 democracy activists and opposition politicians with “subversion” has sparked an international outcry and calls for their immediate release, with the U.K. saying that the law was being used to “eliminate political dissent,” and the U.S. saying it had criminalized normal participation in politics.<\/span><\/p>\n
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A citywide crackdown on anyone linked to the 2019 protest movement intensified when the law took effect, and has included cases brought under colonial-era sedition laws as well as “illegal assembly” charges.<\/span><\/p>\n