The timing of the announcement of the mother-tongue policy, a year after Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, has caused many people overseas to link it directly with politics, but the post-handover Hong Kong government has repeatedly stated that the policy is mainly "based on educational reasons."
母語政策在回歸一年後定案，海外許多人直接聯想到與政治的關聯，但回歸後的香港政府卻一再指稱，提出母語政策主要是「基於教育上的理由」。