Textbook Row Is An Overreaction By Critics: CE

The Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that some critics have "overreacted" to a government-appointed panel recently opposing certain wordings in some Chinese History textbooks.

A media report revealed that the Education Bureau’s Textbook Committee found some phrases in the Chinese History textbooks for higher-form secondary school students to be “inappropriate”.

The phrases changed included “Hong Kong is located in southern China” and “China took back the sovereignty of Hong Kong”.

Speaking ahead of the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam said she had read the findings provided by members of the committee over the matter and she feels it is reasonable to be as precise as possible when it comes to the words used in textbooks.

She added that some members of the public have read too much into the controversy – and stressed that the committee has been trying its best to ensure the accuracy of textbooks.

"I have every confidence that these experts ... doing this very important task with that one single objective in mind ... that's to ensure a high degree of precision and accuracy in our textbooks," she said.

"I just feel that some people have overreacted to this very important exercise to ensure the description that we use, especially when we use them in textbooks, are accurate."

Education Secretary Kevin Yeung last week told lawmakers that he believes it's not entirely accurate to say China took back sovereignty because the SAR belonged to China all along.

He also said there are several ways to interpret “Hong Kong is located in southern China”, saying that it could mean that Hong Kong is located within southern China, or that it is located south of China, but not inside China.