Hong Kong teachers targeted by Beijing for involvement in protests

TEACHERS who backed anti-government protests in Hong Kong are being investigated and even fired, as China’s ruling Communist Party intensifies a campaign to snuff out dissent.

Raymond Yeung, who was arrested after joining protests last year, was told in March his contract wouldn’t be renewed. He said the reason the school gave was that the subject he taught – a civics course that government officials say politicises students – was being removed from the curriculum. But his colleagues believed the decision was politically motivated. Mr Yeung, 30, is planning to sue the police force after sustaining an eye injury at a rally.

“I’m worried about Beijing’s tightening control over the education system,” he said. “In the past, schools would only review teachers’ performance, but now, there are political pressures.”

Those pressures are intensifying as China uses a new national security law to overhaul an education system, it believes, has turned out rebellious youth. Chinese officials have said the arrests of about 100 teachers and more than 3,700 students since protests erupted last year indicate a failing by schools.

Teachers interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph say the law – which criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion, punishable by up to life in prison – is creating a pervasive sense of fear. Education officials have banned the singing of political songs, displaying political slogans and forming human chains at schools.

But teachers remain worried that what they teach or say in their personal lives on social media could run afoul of the sweeping security law. “The national security law is not clearly written, and there can be different interpretations,” said Ip Kin-yuen, a pro-democracy lawmaker and vice president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union. “What are the words or phrases that cannot be spoken? We don’t know.”

A recent survey by the union found that more than a third of 1,100 teachers said they had been told by a supervisor to avoid discussing politics.

Since protests erupted last year, the city’s education bureau has received more than 200 complaints about teachers. Officials have reviewed 180 cases thus far and issued reprimands, warnings, advice or reminders to around a third of the teachers investigated.

China has long sought to develop loyalty and patriotism in Hong Kong's youth by trying to align curriculums with that of mainland China. It hasn’t always worked – a 2012 proposal to introduce China’s “national education” to city schools was met with backlash.

“The Communist Party wants to manipulate people’s thoughts, and education is the best way,” said Mr Yeung.