Hong Kong: Hong Kong has been battered by two years of upheaval, between the pandemic and a sweeping political crackdown from Beijing. Many of the consequences have been immediately visible. Businesses have shuttered, politicians have been arrested, tourists have disappeared.
One major change is just coming into focus: some residents’ determination that the city is no longer where they want to raise their children. Primary schools will have 64 fewer first-grade classes this year than last. Some have lost as much as 15 percent of their students.
The education sphere is both a victim and a driver of the departures. Beginning this academic year, officials have pledged to instill obedience through mainland-China-style “patriotic education.”
Details: Last year, Hong Kong experienced a population drop of 1.2 percent, its biggest since the government began keeping records in the 1960s. From July 2020, when China imposed a national security law, through the following July, more than 89,000 people left the city of 7.5 million, according to provisional government data.
