Hong Kong wary of anthem on TV

HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong government has ordered television stations to run nightly broadcasts of a patriotic video, sparking worries that communist China is trying to indoctrinate the free-spirited territory.

The 45-second airing of China's national anthem played over a montage of patriotic images has sparked more complaints than flag-waving in Hong Kong, where many of the 6.8 million residents remain leery of Beijing's communist government after the territory was returned from Britain to China in 1997.

Some citizens called the video ''disgusting" and said it reminded them of China's bloody crackdown on the prodemocracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s.

Many Hong Kong residents revere China as their ancestral motherland, but those feelings have not translated into support for the mainland's authoritarian political system.

Beijing and its local allies often complain that Hong Kong residents have yet to become sufficiently patriotic.

The video, titled ''Our Home, Our Country," was launched last week as Beijing celebrated the 55th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

Itshows images of the first Chinese astronaut, China's Olympic medalists, Chinese soldiers, Hong Kong children singing, and some of the territory's landmarks.

The head of the government group that initiated the video, Daniel Heung, said that there was no intent to ''brainwash" the public.