Diaoyu Island protesters are to strike back in the battle of the classroom with plans for a new Hong Kong syllabus educating children about the dispute.
If adopted, the lessons would target primary and secondary students and take up two civic education classes each year. The proposal was announced after Japan's Education Ministry ordered the country's textbooks be changed to state the islands are Japanese territory.
Yeung Yiu-chung, a Defending the Diaoyu Islands education circle activist, said lessons would start in primary school, with basic information such as the islands' position on a map. In secondary school, more complex political discussions covering subjects such as Japanese militarism would be introduced.
'Chinese students must learn how we lost the islands and why we need to take them back,' said Mr Yeung, president of the pro-China Federation of Education Workers. He said the lessons would not trigger national tensions.
'They will establish that the best solution to the problem is a diplomatic one,' he said.