Hong Kong Students Required to Participate in the Mainland Study Tour Programs, Including Military Training

Demonstrators display a banner reading "withdraw brainwashing education" during a protest against the government's efforts to implement national education in Hong Kong on July 29, 2012. Dale de la Rey /AFP/GettyImages

In a controversial move by the Hong Kong Education Bureau, the city’s senior high school students will be required to participate in mainland China “study tour” programs, raising concerns about potential indoctrination. Failure to comply with this requirement could jeopardize their graduation prospects. The Education Bureau issued a formal notice on Aug. 30, outlining the schedule for next year’s mainland study programs.

Of particular concern are two items on the list that involve “experiencing the daily life of soldiers” and “participating in military training,” both categorized under “national defense education.” A Hong Kong resident who has undergone military training as a high school student and a college student in Beijing said that similar activities were used for brainwashing in Beijing in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. She believes that the CCP sees the 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition protests as similar to the June 4 incident, and is trying to use the same tactics to brainwash students.

These military-related programs are the “Taishan Arts & Culture and National Defense Education Mainland Study Tour,” spanning three days, and the “Chongqing Three Gorges Cultural and Economic Development Mainland Study Tour,” lasting five days.

According to the Education Bureau’s announcement, one of the key objectives of the “Taishan Arts & Culture and National Defense Education Mainland Study Tour” is to “cultivate awareness of national defense and national security through national defense education, promoting national unity.” On the second day of this tour, students are scheduled to visit the “National Defense Education Base,” where they will “experience the daily life of soldiers” and participate in disaster preparedness training to enhance their emergency response skills.

The Education Bureau plans to send 50,000 students annually to the mainland for such programs in the future.

Ms. Christine Choi Yuk-lin, Secretary for Education, said that starting from April this year, the Education Bureau would gradually arrange for students to go on study tours to the Mainland as part of their Citizenship and Social Development education and that in the future, 50,000 students would participate in the study tours every year.

In response to this directive, some parents have taken action by sending their children to study abroad in the United States to avoid participation in what they perceive as “brainwashing tours.” One mother, Mrs. Lam, whose son had been admitted to a prestigious Hong Kong secondary school, inquired with the school about opting out of the mainland study tour program. To her surprise, the school insisted that her son must attend, even going so far as to state that failure to do so would result in him not graduating.

With this policy confirmed Mrs. Lam wasted no time in applying for her 15-year-old son to study in the United States. He now attends a private school in upstate New York. Mrs. Lam’s decision was motivated by her mother’s experience of being deceived and indoctrinated by the CCP while studying in mainland China for college. Her mother later faced persecution during the Cultural Revolution, and Mrs. Lam is determined not to let her son follow the same path.

The CCP Views Hong Kong after 2019 as Beijing after June 4

The Hong Kong authorities implemented significant changes to the education system following the 2019 anti-extradition movement. Liberal studies were replaced with Citizenship and Social Development, with a strong focus on teaching students about mainland China’s political situation. Additionally, students are now required to participate in at least one mainland visit.

It is worth noting that after the harsh crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, all schools and universities in Beijing mandated military training for their students. Freshmen at renowned universities such as Peking University underwent one year of military training, encompassing military drills, marching, night exercises, and singing military songs.

Mrs. Lam entered a Beijing secondary school in September 1989 and underwent three days of military training in 1990. When she started senior secondary school in September 1992, she endured ten days of military training. She is deeply concerned that the recent actions of the Hong Kong authorities parallel the CCP’s efforts to indoctrinate Hong Kong’s youth, particularly in the wake of the 2019 anti-extradition movement. She remarked, “Hong Kong in 2019 is reminiscent of Beijing in 1989.”

Ms. Lam emphasized that the CCP fears that Hong Kong youth are influencing mainland China by advocating universal suffrage, political engagement, freedom, and universal values. This, in turn, poses a potential threat to CCP rule. She explained, “I believe that their military training of Hong Kong students is aimed at consolidating the CCP’s dominance in the minds of the students. It seeks to enforce their obedience to the CCP, make them recognize its absolute leadership, and erase the universal values that Hong Kong citizens originally held dear.

Recalling her experience, Mrs. Lam noted that the mandatory military training was perceived as a tool by the CCP to control students. It was well known that the regime was trying to brainwash the students, in a punitive way.

Military Training: Subverting Beauty, Cultivating Obedience

During military training, many students found it difficult to adjust. “For example, we had to sing the ‘Military Song,’ and we had to sing it loudly. The louder you sang, the better you were considered. Singing the song was exhausting, and the lyrics of the military songs were designed to brainwash. It felt like what we saw in the Cultural Revolution era, where good and evil were completely distorted.

She continued, “During the training, we had to stand still under the sun for hours, from one hour to several hours a day. My left face got sunburned, and a piece of skin came off, and it took many years to heal. I heard that some female students in other classes fainted from the heat. My classmates said they didn’t know what they were standing there for.”

Mrs. Lam questioned whether standing for a day or two could truly cultivate a person’s spirit of “obedience.”

Regarding mainland China’s approach to military training for Hong Kong students, she said, “It might not be as extreme. After all, Hong Kong serves as China’s international window. Overly ‘inhuman’ arrangements would damage its image.”

At the time, military training took place on the outskirts of Beijing. “The public toilets were all outdoors, exposed to the wind from all sides, and inside were pits of feces filled with maggots. The piles of excrement were even higher than the squatting position, and no one cleaned them, and there was no sewage system. I could smell the stench even before I reached the toilet; it was disgusting.

After military training, she felt that being a soldier was “dirty and hard,” and that the CCP did not provide good conditions for soldiers. She did not feel that being a soldier was a good thing, and it did not improve her impression of the Party. It did not promote obedience and loyalty to the Party, let alone cultivate a sense of team spirit or love for the motherland. She added, “Actually, the most useful thing was learning how to fold the bed sheet into a block of tofu.

Having gone through military training twice, Mrs. Lam believes that the CCP authorities want to cultivate students’ obedience to the Party’s orders and make them accustomed to “Party values.” They want students not to use their minds and universal values to evaluate things, to analyze what should be done and what should not be done, but to take orders directly and do a good job wherever they are.