“In 1840 an Opium War broke out between China and Britain. Britain found that many Chinese took tobacco, which was a serious problem; So they launched the Opium War to destroy these things called opium.”

Believe it or not, above words come from a Grade 2 primary school teacher in Hong Kong during online classes delivered on Monday. The mother of one pupil who watched the video, shocked by such ludicrous words, made a video record of it, shared it online and complained to the school.

These claims are beyond the imagination of any person with a rational mind. Britain launched the war because Chinese officials legally destroyed the opium of British opium traders, and China banned opium while Britain did not. Through this revising of history, the teacher turned a victimizer into a victim.

This is especially egregious since the teacher lives in Hong Kong, a place whose fate was totally changed by the war. It was after the war that Britain seized Hong Kong as its colony for over a century, and did not return it until 1997.

Even in Britain, there was not consensus over the war. Mao Haijian, a Chinese scholar at Harvard－Yenching Institute, wrote in his book that the British parliament passed a bill on declaring war against China by 271 against 262; Gui Tao, a Xinhua reporter, pointed out in 2016 the British parliament did not discuss it and it was the British Prime Minister who ordered fleets to attack China.

Whatever the truth, we can at least be sure many British people were and are against that war. They feel shame for their government sending troops to fight for opium traders.

Yet the Hong Kong teacher seems proud enough of them to change it into “Britain helping China control tobacco”. He even mixed tobacco with opium.

If the teacher is ignorant of that part of history, then he is unqualified for the job and should not be given the important role of educating the next generation of Hong Kong.

If the teacher knows the facts but intentionally distorts them, then it is even worse because he is denying history on behalf of invaders.

On April 29, Ho-Lap Primary School, which is involved in the incident, announced on their website the teacher realized he is wrong and apologized. They promised to reorganize their materials.

Maybe they have yet to realize it might not be strictly an issue of reading materials.

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