The Hong Kong government promotes the expansion of patriotic education to the community and soft brainwashing to stimulate patriotic sentiments

China has implemented the "Patriotism Education Law" this year to legalize "patriotic awareness." The Hong Kong government has followed its lead and established a "Patriotism Education Working Group" and held its first meeting on Monday ( 29th ). Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-kee pointed out that soft methods should be used to achieve emotional recognition, so that Hong Kong people can be proud of the country and then consciously love and protect the country, including extending it to the community through organizing activities, media reports, etc., but emphasized that there is no intention to turn patriotism into socialist education legislation. Commentators believe that so-called softness is actually just brainwashing and reflects the CCP’s lack of confidence in governance.

Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-kee, who is the chairman of the Steering Committee of the "Patriotic Education Working Group", met with reporters after attending the working group meeting on Monday and introduced the working direction of the group. He said that he would refer to China's "Patriotic Education Law" and the goal is to make "Patriotism and love for Hong Kong have become Hong Kong's core values."

Chen Guoji said: "Everyone must consciously safeguard national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. The working group will have four major areas as the focus of work. They are school education, local communities, history, politics, economy and culture, and media publicity."

One of the key points of the work is "finding the key points"

Chen Guoji said that he would summarize the work into three key points. The first one turned out to be: "First, we must find out the key points. Therefore, the working group believes that in addition to courses, appropriate and effective methods must also be adopted."

The other two key points are "finding the right method", which emphasizes not "memorizing by rote" but using soft methods, such as introducing students to the country's history and various achievements to arouse students' emotions; and "finding a good partner", Coordinate the efforts of government and civil society organizations and make good use of private resource networks.

As for what role the media can play in patriotic education? Chen Guoji responded this way: "I believe that no government official can force the media to report. This does not exist. The so-called media is actually one of our publicity strategies. Of course, for example, we organized some students to visit, and your media helped us The report has already helped us by promoting patriotic education.”

When asked whether he could criticize the country and the ruling party, he "added" that if the purpose of the criticism involves wanting to overthrow the government or subvert, that would be a different matter: "We take any well-intentioned criticism very seriously. What is the purpose? Do you want the government and society to do so?" Well, we welcome any constructive suggestions. Not only is this not unpatriotic, it is also very patriotic because it can improve the country.”

Comment: Hong Kong must keep up with the central government

Yang Yingyu, founder of "Education Needle", told this station that Hong Kong must keep up with the pace of the central government, but if it dares not to implement it to extremes, it can only implement patriotic education in a soft way in a limited space. Yang Yingyu said: "I just want to sing the praises of the country, but the problem is that you dare not objectively face the policies or issues he has made, and make it clear whether he sings well or not. Everyone knows that so-called softness is just brainwashing."

Regarding the promotion of patriotic education into the community, Yang Yingyu believes that it is related to the gradual deterioration of China’s ruling foundation. Yang Yingyu said: "He will feel that there are dangers and there are people around him who are anti-communist. When the white paper revolution comes out, I think what kind of revolution is it? In fact, some people are resisting, but the government is already very worried. So he wants to promote patriotism in the whole society, so he feels that it is a little lacking. Security."

Earlier this month, the Hong Kong government announced the establishment of a "Patriotism Education Working Group" under the "Constitution and Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee" to coordinate government departments and non-governmental organizations to promote patriotic education in line with the content of China's Patriotic Education Law. Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of China's National Day, Chan Kwok-kee said he would launch the "Love Country, Love Hong Kong, Love Community" campaign to create a patriotic atmosphere in the community.