HK history textbooks to set record straight

A revision of history textbooks for secondary school students in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is expected to rid them of biased and misleading content related to the first Opium War (1840-42) between China and Britain, a secondary school principal in the city told China Daily on Wednesday.

The textbooks included some tutorial discussion topics that asked students whether the war could have been avoided if China had adopted a more open trade policy or whether it was wise for China to ban opium, according to a report by Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao on Monday.

In an interview on Wednesday, Tang Fei, principal of Hong Kong's Heung To Secondary School (Tseung Kwan O), said the publishers of the textbooks had revised the misleading information, as requested by the Education Bureau, and submitted it to the bureau for final approval.