Bernard Chan: schools should not avoid discussing Hong Kong independence

Executive councillor says misinformation could spread if the issue is not discussed, contrary to stances of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and education minister Eddie Ng

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Bernard Chan, Executive Council member, says the topic should not be avoided. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:00am, 2 Sep 2016Updated: 11:32pm, 2 Sep 2016

A leading member of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s circle of advisers spoke up yesterday in support of schools discussing Hong Kong independence to avoid “misinformation”.

Executive councillor Bernard Chan adopted a seemingly more tolerant approach to the contentious issue than Leung and Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim, who have repeatedly warned that promoting separatism violates the Basic Law and should not be allowed on school campuses.

Chan, who has ruled himself out of next year’s race for the city’s top job, also said he did not plan to continue as an executive councillor, and that he “absolutely supports” the incumbent running for a second term.

His comments were reported by RTHK as some localist secondary school students had to abandon their campaigns to distribute flyers on independence around campus yesterday.

Chan told the public broadcaster that although advocating the separation of Hong Kong from China went against the city’s mini-constitution, merely discussing the issue should not be a problem and schools should not make it taboo.

“We need to handle this issue positively and discuss it,” he said. “If you don’t allow people to discuss this, they may still discuss it privately, and there may be more misinformation.”