Why Hong Kong is going ‘all out’ in patriotic education 

HONG KONG – From legislative proceedings and reminders from Beijing to a large-scale exhibition, Hong Kong is going “all out and in all directions” to instil the importance of national security among its residents and, to a lesser extent, audiences beyond its shores.

The move appears to be aimed at preventing a repeat of the social unrest that Hong Kong experienced in 2019. But the scope and nature of the efforts also reflect an ongoing contest over the narratives surrounding the city’s past and a deep sense of insecurity among its officials, analysts say.

“The government endeavours to build mainstream values in Hong Kong characterised by patriotism with affection for our country and Hong Kong,” Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang told the Legislative Council on Dec 11.

“As such, we hope to take the ‘all out and all directions’ approach to vigorously promote the spirit of patriotism and cultivate an enhanced patriotic atmosphere in society, enabling patriotism to take root in Hong Kong as well as in people’s minds.”

Mr Tsang was responding to a lawmaker’s queries on the city’s progress in advancing patriotic education.

His comments came a week after Beijing’s top official in Hong Kong, Mr Zheng Yanxiong, reminded the city to learn from the painful lessons of its past and not to become complacent in safeguarding national security despite its present social stability.

These reminders that security threats are ever present in Hong Kong reflect how the events of 2019 continue to have an impact not just on regular residents, but also on the psyche of mainland and local officials.

Hong Kong went through a prolonged period of sometimes violent anti-government protests in 2019, which were sparked by a proposed extradition Bill that would have allowed for criminal suspects to be transferred to mainland China and other jurisdictions to face trial.

People saw it as a threat to the city’s independence and freedom from Beijing, and the protests escalated into a larger pro-democracy movement that led to mass demonstrations, clashes with the police and calls for political reform.

One of the flagship initiatives of the government’s patriotic education campaign is a 1,100 sq m national security exhibition gallery, which opened in August.

The gallery – which is the city’s first national security education base – is housed within the Hong Kong Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui and offers free admission.

When The Straits Times visited on Dec 12, museum guides were explaining the exhibits to several large groups of primary school pupils who had come by the busloads. There was also a small number of locals and mainland Chinese visitors.

The displays feature headlines in Chinese and English. But the detailed content is presented mostly in traditional Chinese characters, suggesting that the exhibition’s key target audience is local Hong Kongers.

The exhibition covers various aspects of national security, including food security, financial security and cyber security.

It also features footage and statistics from

the 2019 protests,

showing demonstrators standing off against the police, the scale of public areas damaged and the number of petrol bombs seized from protesters.

Notably, the displays present a perspective of the protests that deviates from typical Western media narratives, one Hong Kong visitor, who wanted to be known only as Kwong-zai due to privacy reasons, told ST.

“This shows something different from what many foreigners perceived of the protests through their media reports,” said Kwong-zai, who has been in the police force for more than 30 years and was involved in keeping order during the unrest.

“It shows that the unrest was instigated by foreign parties. Our young people were misled. Who in their right minds would destroy their own homes? It’s good to educate the younger generation on the truth of the matter.”

Not everyone sees the patriotic push in the same light. 

Mr Patrick Poon, a visiting Hong Kong researcher at the University of Tokyo in Japan, told ST that the government’s intensified efforts over the last few years in instilling patriotism in society exposed its “deep sense of insecurity”.

“The Hong Kong government’s approach is modelled after the mainland Chinese approach,” he said, adding that the authorities are “equating patriotism to complete loyalty to the Communist Party of China (CPC)”.

“For locals, the purpose is to convince them that national security education is a must as it’s depicted as the key for maintaining social stability and thus economic prosperity,” said Mr Poon, who studies freedom of expression in Hong Kong and China.

“For foreigners, the purpose is to show that no protest is justified, but any protest against the government is a riot. If the (Chinese) regime is confident enough, it wouldn’t need to spend all these resources to prove why national security and patriotism are that important.”

The Chinese economy has been grappling with sluggish growth, sagging consumer confidence and a plunge in property prices.

Hong Kong, by extension, is facing similar woes amid a slow recovery in tourism, a persistent drop in retail spending and falling home prices.

Dr Wilson Chan, director of policy research and co-founder of local think-tank Pagoda Institute, said the Chinese government’s emphasis on patriotic education is a direct response to the unprecedented protests of 2019.

“Beijing believes that Hong Kong’s openness left it vulnerable to foreign infiltration, and so it is now employing all kinds of strategies – including building and promoting its official narrative of the 2019 events – to ensure that the city can no longer be used as leverage for foreign intervention,” Dr Chan told ST.

Failure to synchronise the narratives within Hong Kong society with Beijing’s version of events poses a national security threat, as it could create disharmony that may hinder governance, according to Dr Chan, an expert on Chinese diplomacy and Hong Kong’s external relations.

The academic added that the CPC maintains its legitimacy to govern China through the twin pillars of economic performance and nationalism.

“So when one pillar appears to be weakening, the party has to ensure that the other pillar continues to hold up. That’s another reason why Hong Kong has to go all out in patriotic education,” he said.