The HKFP reports that the Po Leung Kuk is designating 16 staff members to promote national security. The Kuk was founded nearly 150 years ago to rescue and shelter abandoned, sold or trafficked girls and today runs orphanages and schools…
[Kuk manager] May Cheung said the team will not “force-feed” concepts of national security, but will instead spread awareness through celebrations like the Mid-Autumn Festival.
(A harvest festival, lest we forget – devoid of any obvious military or other national-security relevance.)
She added that many other national security initiatives are already underway at the charity. For example, she and colleagues in child care services will design picture books embedded with national security themes that will be distributed to more than 100 schools and educational institutions run by the Kuk throughout Hong Kong.
…In June this year, Ming Pao reported that the Social Welfare Department sent letters to around 200 subsidised non-governmental social service organisations, inviting them to nominate managerial-level staff to undergo training to become national security instructors.
According to the government letter obtained by Ming Pao, each instructor is required to promote national security information to at least 30 people annually.
The Standard last week reported on this broader NatSec push going high-tech…
The “NSmarties AI Interactive Platform,” jointly developed by the Hong Kong Police Force and Hong Kong Qianfan Technology, has officially rolled out across schools for the new academic year. The platform, designed to align with the 20 major fields of the “Holistic Approach to National Security,” leverages real-time generative AI to create an immersive national security learning environment for students.
Students can use the platform to independently craft personalized storybooks and short videos, as well as test their knowledge through interactive quizzes. To make national security education more engaging, the platform features voice narration from Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung and Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming, who simplify complex legal and security concepts for young learners.
…The initiative received full support from the Education Bureau and the Sisters of the Precious Blood.
You could interpret all this as something sinister, or cynical, or just desperate. There is certainly something weird about orphanages, nuns and officials trying so hard to appear to be doing something so vague. Do charities and schools have other things to do?
For Taiwan geeks – a brief guide on Twitter to the three strands of the KMT.
“To make national security education more engaging, the platform features voice narration from Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung …”
Wot?? Even more engaging?! Are there no limits?
“…Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung and Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming simplify complex legal and security concepts for young learners.“
I bet they do.
“The Hong Kong government is implementing a cumulative 7% reduction in recurrent expenditures for major social welfare organizations under its Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEP) by the 2027-28 financial year.”
Make that at least 10% to cover the NS programmes.
School book subsidy was cancelled. The books required by a single student can cost as muach as $6,000.
This in a city that still operates caged homes and around 20% of the population—roughly 1.3 to 1.4 million residents—lives below the poverty line.
So much for the Common Prosperity mandated by the president.