CHINA / POLITICS
Central govt should help HK schools design courses in national defense, foreign policy, Constitution: proposal
Published: Mar 04, 2021 06:43 PM
Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2019 shows China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, south China. Photo: Xinhua

Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2019 shows China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, south China. Photo: Xinhua

Central government organs, including the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of National Defense, should send a team annually to Hong Kong's schools to organize forums and provide course materials to deepen teachers' and students' understanding of China's Constitution, national defense and foreign policy, a two sessions proposal read. 

The proposal was made by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), a Hong Kong political party.  

The team should promote information about the laws to ordinary Hong Kong residents so that the entire society could establish a basic understanding of the Constitution, national defense and foreign policy, read the DAB's proposal. 

Foreign policy specialists should be sent by the Commissioner's Office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the proposal read.  

In July 2020, just days after the national security law for Hong Kong was implemented, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that she had requested the city's secretary for education to draw up a plan for comprehensive education regarding the Constitution, the Basic Law, the National Anthem Ordinance and the national security law for Hong Kong. 

Tang Fei, principal at Hong Kong's Heung To Secondary School (Tseung Kwan O), told the Global Times on Thursday that he absolutely supported the idea of sending Chinese mainland specialists to promote legal knowledge in Hong Kong schools, which is professional knowledge that Hong Kong society is unfamiliar with. 

"Legal knowledge actually should have been promoted long ago," Tang said. 

Tang, who had just finished a lecture on the national security law for Hong Kong to local primary school teachers, said that his school was the first Hong Kong school to invite the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison to lecture on national defense to all faculty members and students starting in 2018.