A recently published book on Hong Kong history was found to have distorted events in favor of China, including the 2019 pro-democracy protest movement and Beijing’s imposition of the national security law.

Chau Chi-fung, an assistant professor at the history department of Hong Kong Shue Yan University, is the author of “A Brief History of Hong Kong,” published in May by Chung Wah Books and intended for secondary school students.

The book’s second volume, which covers the period between 1949 and 2020, only spent three pages discussing the 2019 pro-democracy protest movement. Describing the events on June 12, the book made no mention of police firing tear gas and claimed that “protesters thrusted metal sticks at police officers.”

The book also claimed that former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting and his supporters went to Yuen Long station and clashed with people dressed in white on July 21, 2019.

“The media successfully changed the topic of conversation to ‘innocent civilians being attacked by triads’ and ‘police inaction due to collusion with triads’ instead of the Liaison Office being attacked,” Chau wrote.

On July 21, 2019, a group of men wielding sticks and dressed in white entered the Yuen Long MTR station and attacked civilians, injuring almost 50 people. The police came under heavy criticism after officers arrived on the scene more than half an hour late.

Chau’s book also claimed that Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong because the city had become chaotic, and “some protesters were allegedly receiving financial and material support from foreign forces.”

The book also tried to whitewash the leftists involved in the 1967 riots, saying that they were demonized by the British colonial government.

On the topic of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Chau wrote that the government “used force to disperse the students gathered at Tiananmen Square,” but made no mention of specific acts by the People’s Liberation Army.

The book also claimed that Hong Kong’s historic opposition to the Article 23 legislation in 2003 was incited by the press, and that the remarks by Regina Ip, the city’s security chief at the time, were exaggerated by media organizations aligned with the pro-democracy camp.

Hong Kong historian Hans Yeung told Apple Daily that the book resembled the official line by Chinese authorities, such as describing the 1989 student democracy activists as “radicals.”

The book also blamed 1970s Hong Kong Governor Murray MacLehose for fostering “localist sentiments,” which it said was the seed of conflict between the city and mainland China. Such a view was “unheard of” and represented an attempt to rewrite history, Yeung said.

Chow Hang-tung, vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said the book downplayed the brutality of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and said she was worried that young readers might not learn the truth from the book.

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