Hong Kong students learn new lesson: respect China's laws

Once regarded as a bastion of free thought, city's education takes a drastic turn

20210417 HK National Security Education Day

Hong Kong students attend a flag raising ceremony during morning assembly ahead of National Security Education Day. © Reuters

TAKESHI KIHARA, Nikkei staff writer

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong has been renowned for its liberal education system aimed at fostering free, intellectual and critical thinking, but that is beginning to change as the city has begun to fully adopt a curriculum favored by state-run schools on the mainland. 

The drastic move in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that Beijing has promised a certain degree of autonomy, follows massive pro-democracy demonstrations and the subsequent implementation of a controversial national security law in the former British colony.

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