Hong Kong activists have succeeded in blocking moves to establish mandatory patriotic education classes in the island’s schools.  Many Hong Kong citizens feared that their children would be exposed to what they consider Chinese Communist Party propaganda.  While the classes can still be taught, they will now be optional, with schools free to decide whether to hold them and parents free to withdraw their children should they wish.

The people of Hong Kong had legitimate concerns.  Chinese high school textbooks describe the Great Leap Forward, which led to a famine responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, as merely a time of “serious economic difficulties”, while the proposed patriotic curriculum apparently portrayed the CCP as progressive and unifying in contrast to the “divisive” and “unhealthy” democratic system favoured by most Hong Kong citizens.  What is particularly interesting is how this may impact on the Hong Kong elections held today (Sunday 9 September).

In recent times Hong Kong has seen an increase in anti-mainland sentiments.  Citizens of the semi-autonomous island have become increasingly concerned by the rising number of visitors from the mainland, the strain placed on the medical system by birth tourists seeking to procure a Hong Kong passport for their child, and the perceived lack of manners associated with the nouveau riche mainlanders.

Today’s election is fascinating because 40 of the 70 available seats in the island’s legislative council will be directly elected.  For plans for universal suffrage to be fulfilled in 2017, the support of the legislative council will be essential.  Pro-democracy candidates are expected to do well.

One wonders why the CCP felt such a curriculum was necessary.  It seems self-defeating.  Under the One Country, Two Systems model, Hong Kong enjoys considerable autonomy.  Compared with the mainland, its citizens are particularly well educated and cosmopolitan, enjoying access to greater freedom of speech and much lighter censorship than their brethren in China.  Such a ham-fisted effort to promote clumsy propaganda was always going to sit badly with Hong Kong citizens.

Such poor decision-making will also play badly in Taiwan.  Beijing has invested in greater ties with Taipei. It has suggested that should Taiwan return to the mainland, the One Country, Two Systems approach could be used to allow Taipei to preserve considerable autonomy.  Such clumsy attempts to promote the CCP’s historical narrative will only strengthen the opinion of those Taiwanese who wish to preserve the status quo.