China crackdown extends to children’s books

Five speech therapists in hoods and handcuffs were led away by security police in Hong Kong yesterday for distributing ‘‘seditious’’ children’s books that depict China as a malevolent wolf.

The arrests came after the General Association of Hong Kong Speech Therapists published books that appear to describe prodemocracy activists as sheep protecting their village by fighting a pack of wolves.

The gesture of defiance came after a crackdown on dissent and free speech in the territory under Beijing’s new security law. Hong Kong’s protest movement has been shut down by the threat of jail and independent media outlets have been hounded into closure.

The suspects, two men and three women aged between 25 and 28, were accused of ‘‘inciting hatred among the public, especially small children, against the Hong Kong government and Hong Kong judiciary, inciting the use of violence and encouraging disobedience of the law’’.

Police said the suspects’ faces were covered as part of a tactic to protect their identity, which is also used on Muslims arrested in Xinjiang. Officers use the hoods on dissidents and activists so that they remain anonymous.

Pro-Beijing newspapers and politicians said that the books were an attempt to ‘‘poison’’ the minds of children by promoting freedom from Beijing in the territory. A senior Hong Kong education official claimed that they used fables to spread political propaganda.

The association published three books which Li Kwai-wah, a national security department superintendent, said had seditious intent.

The stories revolve around a village of sheep that has to deal with wolves from another village. They appear to chart Hong Kong’s recent history, from the first book, Guardians of Sheep Village , in which the sheep protest, to the second, Janitors of Sheep Village , in which they strike, to the third, The 12 Braves of Sheep Village, in which the wolves force the sheep to flee by boat.

In August 2019, 12 pro-democracy activists, aged 16 to 33, were intercepted in a speed boat trying to reach Taiwan. Since then more people have tried to sail to freedom from Hong Kong.

Li said that another story was about cruel wolves who try to kill the sheep and ‘‘occupy the area’’ where they live.

Challenged as to whether George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm were now illegal in Hong Kong, Li said that the speech therapists’ books were banned because they ‘‘incite hate’’.

The arrests came as Beijing moved a senior security official from Macau to Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post said that Luo Yonggang was a ‘‘key man’’ in China’s crackdown on freedoms.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions said the five arrests ‘‘sounded the death knell’’ of artistic freedom. It said: ‘‘This explains why a lot of creators started selfcensoring or even took their existing creations off the shelf.’’

The arrests were made as four senior executives of the Apple Daily newspaper, once a vocal critic of Beijing, appeared in court on charges of conspiracy with foreign forces to endanger national security. They were all denied bail and remanded in custody.

Hong Kong’s public broadcaster also announced that it had revised its stylebook to conform with the ‘‘one China policy’’. No phrase suggesting that Taiwan is an independent state would be allowed. An official said: ‘‘Hong Kong and Taiwan are part of China.’’

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