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The 11th National Security Education Day once again showcased Hong Kong’s commitment to safeguarding stability while deepening integration into China’s national framework. Yet beneath the banners and speeches lies a sobering truth: the city’s future hinges not only on patriotic education but on the health, resilience and opportunity afforded to its young people.

Children and youth are the flag bearers of tomorrow. The Education Bureau’s introduction of Primary Humanities from the 2025-26 academic year signals a renewed focus on instilling national identity early. This patriotic curriculum needs to be bolstered with prioritising the linguistic, physical and mental well-being, and the socioeconomic mobility, of Hong Kong’s children.

China’s success in uniting 56 ethnic groups through language and inclusivity offers a powerful lesson. Hong Kong’s Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) initiative, launched in 1996, sought to make students and working adults biliterate and trilingual. Yet decades later, language acquisition remains a stumbling block. Calls to lower university language requirements betray the very principle of opportunity through effort. What is needed is not lowered standards but sustained commitment to early, rigorous language education, because inclusion and mobility begin with communication.

Similarly, merely fixating on the linguistic gymnastics of “ethnic minority”, “ethnically diverse” and the like is a disappointing way to address the problems of those who bear the burden of language-based exclusion on a daily basis. As the Chinese proverb reminds us, “mere talk doesn’t cook rice”.

We need definitive action with concrete results, not just research and expressions of concern. In just five years, the number of secondary school students diagnosed with mental illness has doubled. Depression and bipolar disorder are rising among the youth. In 2023, nearly one in four children were living in poverty. Ninety-four per cent fail to meet daily exercise requirements, while vision problems and child abuse cases continue to rise. These are a damning indictment of us as a society failing its youngest members.