China’s government is led by a “progressive, selfless, and united ruling group,” according to a teaching booklet sent to all Hong Kong-government schools that’s stirring controversy in the city, and that’s led critics to brand it “brainwashing.”
“The China Model,” a 34-page color booklet, pays homage to China’s one-party system and says multiparty systems, such as those in the U.S., set up a “malignant party struggle.”
It was produced by the Hong Kong National Education Services Center, a government-funded organization that seeks to promote greater knowledge and exposure to mainland Chinese culture and history to Hong Kong’s youth.
“The book is just a reference for teachers to help students better understand China,” said Wong Chi Ming, who directs the center. Between 2008 and 2011, the center received roughly $8 million Hong Kong dollars (US$1 million) from Hong Kong’s government, including HK$2.3 million (US$297,000) for the production of educational materials.
The controversy over the “China Model” booklet comes at a sensitive time for Hong Kong’s relationship with mainland China. Though the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997, it continues to operate with its own independent political system and freedoms. On July 1, tens of thousands of protestors flooded Hong Kong’s streets in a rally criticizing Beijing’s interference in local politics, and calling for the resignation of newly sworn-in Leung Chun-ying, whom the city’s pro-democracy camp sees as being too close to Beijing.
“We should seek truth, we should not close our eyes and wipe out all the bad things about our country,” said lawmaker Wong Chi-sing, who was among a number of other lawmakers who criticized the government’s support for the biased education materials in a recent legislative hearing. “This sort of approach, which was used in the Cultural Revolution, is totally unacceptable because it’s brainwashing.”
In addition to discussing the merits of China’s political system, the book—some 30,000 copies of which were distributed in the past two months—also contains photos of smiling Chinese president Hu Jintao visiting farmers in Henan and a uniformed People’s Liberation Army member offering medicine to recipients in Africa. Teachers were free to use the booklet at their own discretion.
While Hong Konghad initially planned to institute compulsory “moral and national education” classes in all government schools this September, popular outrage prompted the government to postpone implementation of such curriculum until 2015. According to University of Hong Kong polling, just 37% of Hong Kongers say they are proud of having become Chinese citizens after the 1997 handover, the lowest figure recorded since 2001.
