An article that hk01.com published reported that a senior monk with China’s Buddhist Association called the Communist Party the “Living Buddha” and asked the members of the association to follow him to hand write the report from the 19th Congress. The official wechat account of the Hainan Nanhai Buddhist College published the original article and ifeng.com picked it up. However, since then, it has been deleted. According to the article, on December 10, during the session of studying key messages from the 19th Congress, the deputy director of the Hainan Buddhist Association said, “The Communist Party is the living Buddha and the reports from the 19th Congress are the modern Buddhist script.” He hand wrote the reports three times and plans to write them ten more times. The deputy director also stressed that the Buddhist monks must be patriotic, party loving, law-abiding citizens first; they must have faith in both the Buddha and the current leader of China; they also must have the image of a “patriotic Buddhist” and tell “patriotic Buddhist” stories to the public.”

Source: hk01.com, December 14, 2017
https://www.hk01.com/兩岸/141255/中國佛教協會高僧-十九大報告是當代佛經-已手抄3遍要再抄10遍

According to an article VOA published, on December 4, China’s National Constitution Day, Beijing officials stationed in Hong Kong said that, “Hong Kong must respect and agree that its political system is under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, which is defined under the constitution. Hong Kong became a part of Red China after its return and it shares the same fate with the Chinese Communist Party.” The article stated that this is the first time in the 20 years since Hong Kong’s return that Chinese officials have made such a bare and direct statement about the relationship between Hong Kong and the Mainland. According to the comments from a retired professor from Hong Kong City University, Hong Kong people acknowledge themselves as Chinese and also recognize China but they don’t accept the rule of the communist party and can’t accept the statement that equates China with the Chinese Communist Party as one. He told VOA that “In Hong Kong other than a few of those establishments at the top who care for their power and interest and openly praise Beijing, most of the Hong Kong people are in fear of the communist party and don’t like what it does. Even for those in the establishment who praise Beijing, they feel concerned and unsafe that the Communist Party is invading Hong Kong and openly stating that Hong Kong is under communist party rule.”

Source: Voice of America, December 5, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-chinese-officials-claim-hk-part-of-red-china-20171205/4149830.html

Central News Agency reported that the Westminster School, the well-known private boarding school from England, announced that it plans to open six campuses in China by 2028. The first campus will be set up in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in 2020. It promised that it will use China’s basic education curriculum, including political ideology education courses, while incorporating curriculum from Westminster School for students in elementary and middle schools. It will then fully adopt English class requirements for high school students. These requirements will be compatible with the test standard in England. According to a report from Xinhua, Westminster School signed a contract agreement with HKMEGT, a Hong Kong education investment group. Its campus on the mainland will enroll students from 6 years old to 18 years old.

Source: Chinese News Agency, December 8, 2017
http://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201712080161-1.aspx