HONG KONG – Police will foster a stronger partnership with schools through school liaison officers and educate students via talks or other activities on the harm of terrorism to the community, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a Legislative Council meeting, Tang said that the police will also advise students on ways to identify extreme ideologies and the precautionary measures they should take.
He pointed out that, similar to the trend of global terrorist activities, local radical organizations recruit members mostly via social media. There are also signs that some people are introducing terrorism into schools or recruiting students from schools to take part in terrorist activities.
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Student concern groups, political bodies or even tutorial schools were seen in recent years to have wantonly instilled improper values among students and sent out false or biased messages.
The security chief cautioned that ideologies endangering national security are still infiltrating via the media and other means to poison the minds of young people
They attempted to incite the students’ hatred against the country and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and even advocated resorting to violence and illegal acts for political ends.
Tang explained that such groups promoted extreme ideologies and recruited students by various means, such as distributing biased teaching materials.
The security chief cautioned that ideologies endangering national security are still infiltrating via the media and other means to poison the minds of young people.
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He stressed that the public should stay on guard that some people are trying to glorify or downplay acts of violent attacks.
On preventing the infiltration of terrorism into schools, Tang said police have all along strived to strengthen their efforts in gathering counter-terrorism intelligence for early identification and deterrence of acts by violent radicals that endanger public safety.
Publicity and education are equally important for instilling correct values and law-abiding awareness among young people as early as possible, he added.