Beijing blasts ‘poisonous’ Hong Kong exam question on whether Japan did more good than harm to China during first half of last century and warns of ‘rage’ of Chinese people
- Xinhua warns that if question is not pulled from the history exam, the ‘rage of all Chinese sons and daughters will not be able to be settled’
- Education Bureau takes unprecedented step of asking the local exams authority to strike out controversial question
Hong Kong’s Education Bureau on Friday took the unprecedented step of asking the local examination authority to strike out a controversial history exam question on whether Japan “did more good than harm to China” in the early 20th century, condemning it as biased and flying in the face of objective facts.
Barely hours later, state news agency Xinhua in a strongly worded commentary called the question “poisonous” as it warned that if it were not pulled from the exam, the “rage of all Chinese sons and daughters would not be able to be settled”.
The commentary said that nearly 23 years after the handover, Hong Kong had yet to establish a new education system that was in line with “one country, two systems”, the framework under which Beijing governed the city.
“Hong Kong’s education system is a place where the worst elements of society are assembled and students are being poisoned,” it said.
The commentary also took aim at education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen for defending those involved in setting the question.
The bureau’s demand to invalidate the offending question came a day after it appeared in the city’s university entrance examinations, sparking outrage from pro-establishment figures in Hong Kong and internet users on the mainland for blatantly ignoring the suffering Chinese people endured when Japan invaded and occupied it for eight years, from 1937 to 1945.