Hong Kong has unveiled controversial guidelines for schools in the Chinese-ruled city that include teaching students as young as six about foreign interference and subversion as part of a new national security curriculum.
Beijing imposed the new security law in June 2020 in response to months of often violent anti-government and anti-China protests in 2019, bringing the global financial hub more firmly on an authoritarian path.
The Education Bureau’s guidelines, released late on Thursday, show that Beijing’s plans for semi-autonomous Hong Kong go beyond quashing dissent, and aim for a societal overhaul to bring its most restive city more in line with the Communist Party-ruled mainland.
“National security is of great importance. Teachers should not treat it as if it is a controversial issue for discussion as usual,” the guidelines said.
Teachers should “clearly point out that safeguarding national security is the responsibility of all nationals and that as far as national security is…