New schoolbooks will teach students in Hong Kong that it was never a British colony, the South China Morning Post reports, highlighting Beijing’s campaign to revamp education in the city.
The four sets of textbooks for a class on citizenship say the Chinese government never recognized the 19th-century treaties that handed Britain control of Hong Kong, the report says. They also stick to the government’s stance on the large and sometimes violent protests in the city in 2019, blaming them on "external forces.”
The educational materials have been provided to schools so they can pick which ones they want to teach from September, the newspaper said. Textbook publishers are responsible for choosing the appropriate materials for schoolbooks in accordance with official guidelines, the Education Bureau said in a statement to Bloomberg News.