Four of six Citizenship and Social Development textbooks submitted for review by the Hong Kong Education Bureau stated that “Hong Kong was not a former colony,” Hong Kong media Ming Pai Daily News recently revealed.
Hong Kong historian Hans Yeung Wing-yu believes that this statement is not based on historical facts. In his view: “The rule [under] a communist regime and altering history are often regarded as ‘twins.’ Altering the content of textbooks is also part of the need to suppress Hong Kong independence. Its aim is to erase the fact that Hong Kong was a colony. As a colony secured through armed conflict, its people would have had the right to seek independence, according to the United Nations resolution 1514 concluded in 1960. …