London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Britain’s rule of Hong Kong was ‘occupation’, say draft teaching materials for revamped liberal studies

Britain’s rule of Hong Kong was ‘occupation’, say draft teaching materials for revamped liberal studies

Britain’s rule of Hong Kong was an “occupation which violated international conventions” according to draft teaching materials for revamped liberal studies courses that a major publisher has sent to teachers throughout the city.

Britain’s rule of Hong Kong was an “occupation which violated international conventions” according to draft teaching materials for revamped liberal studies courses that a major publisher has sent to teachers throughout the city.

The learning materials also described the return of government to China in 1997 as Beijing “resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong”, whereas “handover” was exclusively used to describe the event in the company’s textbooks for the subject before.

Teachers said the revisions, which were part of a wider revamp of the mandatory subject for older students, could narrow room for classroom discussion of Hong Kong history.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

New liberal studies teaching materials developed by Ling Kee Publishing.


“If this is the only narrative that Hong Kong teachers can teach students, we may only be able to touch on this one sole perspective in future,” said one educator with more than a decade of experience.

The materials developed by Ling Kee Publishing were sent to schools this week to help teachers prepare classes for Form Four students starting in September when the overhauled subject will be renamed “citizenship and social development” with a greater emphasis on patriotism, national development and lawfulness.

Publishers have been distributing new teaching materials to schools recently but all of them must be vetted by the Education Bureau under changes adopted last year.

Ling Kee’s version also said the Chinese government had “never recognised the effectiveness of unfair treaties” between the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and Britain.

“Over the more than 100 years before the handover, Britain’s governance of Hong Kong was an act of occupation which had violated international conventions,” the book stated. “China did not recognise unequal treaties and had never given up sovereignty over Hong Kong’s territories.”

Britain took possession of Hong Kong in three waves. The queen of England and the emperor of China ratified the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, ceding Hong Kong Island to Britain, with control of Kowloon Peninsula following under the Convention of Peking in 1860. The New Territories were added under a 99-year lease in 1898.

Another veteran liberal studies teacher said he had not seen the phrase that Britain’s “occupation of [Hong Kong] had violated international conventions” in school textbooks before and which was in contrast with many Hongkongers’ understanding.

The new materials developed by Ling Kee Publishing were sent to schools this week to help teachers prepare classes for Form Four students.


“Questions will arise among many people why the narrative of Britain occupying Hong Kong illegally should prevail,” he said. “Students may also question if the subject acts as a purpose of political propaganda and if teachers are helping to promote that.”

The latest changes are in line with broader trends in Hong Kong. Previous editions of some publishers’ history textbooks, including one from Ling Kee, had used the description of China “resuming the exercise of sovereignty” over Hong Kong.

In 2018, the government’s protocol office edited language on its website to remove mention of “handover of sovereignty”, while education officials had requested at least one history textbook replace the words “taking back” to describe the 1997 event as education minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said China had “always had sovereignty over Hong Kong”.

Beijing also used the term “resume the exercise of sovereignty” over Hong Kong in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, while Britain said “restoring Hong Kong” to China.

The preliminary revisions also reflect the government’s increasing emphasis on national security.

Apart from detailing the four offences listed under the Beijing-imposed law, namely secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, the materials stress an individual’s responsibility to protect national security, saying the law could “stabilise society, improve investments and protect human rights”.

New liberal studies teaching materials developed by Ling Kee Publishing.


Unlike previous liberal studies textbooks that gave opposing political views, the new materials omitted mention of the wide public backlash to the law, a change teachers said was “not unexpected” given that previous guidelines from education authorities stressed the topic was not up for debate.

Liberal studies, which was introduced in 2009 to raise students’ social awareness and develop their critical thinking skills, came under attack by pro-Beijing politicians who blamed it for radicalising young people during the 2019 anti-government protests.

An Education Bureau spokeswoman said Ling Kee’s books had not been reviewed and discussions with publishers on vetting arrangements were ongoing.

She added that “Hong Kong is an inseparable part of China” and teaching materials should help pupils “correctly” understand the relation of Hong Kong to the nation.

The Post has reached out to the publisher for comment.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
×