How China is changing schools in Hong Kong

So there it is, the bright red Chinese flag hanging from a small flagpole in the corner of a classroom. Every Monday morning a school employee comes and switches on the video transmission to the other classrooms because of Covid. At nine sharp, he plays the Chinese national anthem and hoists the flag, very slowly. Nevertheless, it is finished well before the anthem, the flagpole is so short. «March on! Keep on marching! », it sounds, then the new school week can begin.

A national security law has been in force in Hong Kong for almost exactly two years, with which Beijing abruptly ended months of protests and riots by pro-democracy Hong Kongers. The law is directed against “secession”, “subversion”, terrorism and “conspiracy with foreign countries or with external elements”. Life imprisonment is threatened.

In the name of the security law, the authorities are plowing up Hong Kong: unpopular parties, trade unions, NGOs and the media have been shut down. In schools and universities, the special administrative zone is now promoting “education for national security”, according to the law. After all, it was mainly young Hong Kongers who protested by the millions in 2019.

The most visible change in everyday school life is probably the flag ceremony, which a Hong Kong primary school carries out every Monday morning. The school must remain anonymous because the subject is sensitive. A visit there shows how even a private elementary school – i.e. outside the public school system, without directly political subjects – feels Beijing’s crackdown.

A father lets his child skip the flag ceremony

In the past, says the school director, the education department hardly contacted him and only informed him about new rules when they had already come into force. “Now the employee calls every two or three weeks.” For example, he informed in advance about the new obligation to raise flags and then inquired about the progress in buying flags – almost apologetically, says the director. He only carries out orders, the employee said.

The introduction of the flag ceremony was not discussed at parent meetings. Since the security law, once opinionated parents are “quiet,” says the director. Sensitive topics are practically only discussed in private. For example, after consulting the principal, a father lets his child come to school late every Monday so that he or she misses the flag ceremony.

Every Hong Kong school now has to report annually to the city’s Department of Education what it is doing for national security. The headmaster didn’t really know what to write. He points to the dwindling legal certainty. “In the past we knew where the red lines were, what we weren’t allowed to do – and that we could do anything we wanted within those lines.”

Is the Tiananmen massacre now a taboo?

That changed with the security law. The new red lines are unclear and could change constantly. “Can we still talk about June 4, 1989?” the director asks, referring to the massacre of democracy demonstrators on Tiananmen Square in Beijing that day. “Many teachers don’t know what they can and can’t talk about.”

All teachers in Hong Kong have become very cautious since two colleagues from the education department were fired without further ado in 2020. The first teacher should, before the safety law comes into force, in their teaching materials spread pro-independence messages. The second person allegedly described to their students the opium war between Britain and China “wrong” – unintentionally, as the education department itself announced. But there was no quarter.

So the school principal wrote a few polite, noncommittal sentences to the education department in his annual national security plan so as not to make himself vulnerable. No, unfortunately his school could not set up the desired working group on national security because it was so small. But yes, the school will work to implement relevant measures as soon as possible. “In practice, I haven’t changed anything,” says the director.

Books are also in focus. As a precaution, Hong Kong schools are removing some works from their libraries, says the librarian at the private elementary school. The government does not say what is specifically prohibited. “School libraries should practice self-censorship.” This applies in particular to secondary schools, which deal with Chinese politics and society, for example in the subject “Liberal Studies”. But the curriculum is currently being renewed.

The book “Nazi China” is gone

The librarian herself hasn’t removed any books yet, she assures, but the director did it twice, just to be on the safe side, from the book corner where parents and teachers exchange what they’ve read. One book is called “Nazi China” and compares both dictatorships; the other says something like «In my next life I won’t be Chinese» and is a general reckoning with China and its culture, written by a Hong Konger who emigrated to Norway. Both books were published in Taiwan.

The most noticeable effect of the security law for the private elementary school is the dropouts. “Since 2020, we’ve been losing ten percent of our students every year,” says the director. They would move to England, Canada or Australia with their families. Two teachers have already moved away, and two more will follow soon.

The director himself isn’t sure how much longer he’ll stay because he has children. “Is Hong Kong still a good environment for you?”