Drive sense into HK students

The use of "pro-independence" posters and banners in the latest propaganda campaign launched by some students on Hong Kong university campuses has highlighted the need for the SAR government to improve the standard of legal and patriotic education so as to protect youths from poisonous ideas related to separatism.

"Pro-independence" clamors have flared up again in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after a period of relative lull following the disqualification of six radical legislators and the imprisonment of a number of violent protestors and student activists. In the latest farce, some students laid siege to the offices of university authorities, forcing them to promise to not tear down "pro-independence" posters. Many of the protesters used invectives to address the officials, thereby crossing the moral and even legal bottom line. The dramatic face-off last week between a mainland student who tore down separatist posters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and local "pro-independence" students reflected how deep separatist forces have infiltrated university campuses, even secondary schools.

The latest "pro-independence" campaign is not an isolated case. But what's more worrying is the attitude of non-intervention of some university authorities, which means they are tolerating or conniving at such wrongdoings.