Regardless of the length of its history, no country together with its inseparable regions can look forward to enjoying lasting peace, security, integrity and prosperity if its residents do not have a working command of national security interpretation and abidance of the pertinent laws. Putting national security in perspective, every nation faces threats from time to time, which can be social — such as invasion by another country or infiltration from a terrorist group or global economic trends that compromise a country’s welfare.
National security then functions to identify such potential dangers that “challenge a nation’s power and disrupt its well-being”, and sets the right responses at the ready. It deserves to be noted that threats can also be natural, such as tropical cyclones or the COVID-19 pandemic harassing geographies.
It is understood that national security not only safeguards citizens against such threats but also protects the nation’s political and economic stability. Taking the US as an example, national defense has always been treated as a “guiding principle of the government at least since 1947”, the year when the country’s National Security Act was signed into law by then-president Harry Truman. This legislation established the Cabinet position of defense secretary, which directs all branches of the military.
The national security-related problems that surfaced should be dealt with at the source by nourishing in schools and the wider society a profound understanding of the motherland, and a greater sense and awareness of national identity and security
It is most unfortunate to see that the US has trespassed repeatedly on the national security of other countries by imposing on them, or pushing other administrations into compliance with, proliferating economic sanctions with the malignant intent to bring their economies into immediate jeopardy. This is precisely what has been happening to Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan and Russia. On national security grounds triggered by the eastward expansion of NATO and the open intention of Ukraine — Russia’s neighbor — to join NATO, Russia has recently mounted a “special military operation” against Ukraine to demand its neutrality and halt the threats to its security and territorial integrity.
For the similar purpose of protecting national security and territorial integrity, Ukraine has slashed back with defensives bolstered materially by the US and the European Union. The crossfires between the two countries with growing belligerent interference from the West have led to a prolonged conflict between the two countries with peace negotiations hitting “a dead end”.
It thus boils down to a sober realization that national security should in no way be compromised, especially in the light of the painful lessons in our national history registering the atrocious aggrandizements in the past two centuries by the West and Imperial Japan. Even in these days, when superpowers have always on their tongues globally accepted core values of fairness, equality and respect for other countries’ sovereignty, integrity and security, they are more often found saying one thing and doing another. It follows necessarily that national security and the education on it for residents of different age brackets is assuming rising importance in a world increasingly torn by the ulterior motives and hegemonic acts of some powerful countries.
Back in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the conceptual and practical comprehension of national security is relatively weak, given over a century of colonial rule that rendered the population largely inert toward this field. Knowledge and ties in connection with the motherland were deliberately kept minimal in public education and school curricula all through the decades. With this exceedingly limited knowledge among the younger generations about the Chinese mainland and our kinship with it, efforts should be continually heightened to improve acceptance and attainments in this crucial area.
As history indicates, a country is able to achieve vibrancy in economy and culture only when it keeps stability. “Without national security, how could a country possibly maintain social stability, develop its economy and preserve its culture?” (Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, secretary for education.)
Under Article 10 of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, the HKSAR shall promote national security education in the local schools and universities, as well as through social organizations, media outlets, internet and other means to raise residents’ awareness of national security and the obligation to abide by law. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the National Security Law of the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 2015, and at the same time designated April 15 each year as National Security Education Day to “raise public awareness of national security and create a positive atmosphere of safeguarding national security”.
The 15th of April this year denotes the seventh National Security Education Day, while the year 2022 signifies the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. In line with its multipronged approach in helping schools to launch national security education, the Education Bureau (EDB) has organized in conjunction with the Security Bureau the “2022 Let’s Join Hands in Safeguarding National Security” program, designed to enlist the participation of teachers and students and to get national security education more firmly rooted in schools. The two bureaus involved have worked out a series of key activities for this program, to tie in with the coronavirus circumstances and the early start of the special “summer holiday” among schools in March and April. Among these key activities are the “2022 Slogan-cum-Poster Design Competition on National Security”, and the “2022 National Security Online Quiz Competition”.
In addition, the EDB has compiled the Suggested Learning and Teaching Activities for National Security Education (Examples) for schools’ reference, and will continue to provide diversified resources related to the Constitution, Basic Law and national security education through a web-based resource platform to help schools promote national education and foster students’ sense of national identity and awareness of national security protection.
Around the world, countries admit of no exception in the determination to attach great importance to national security education and responsibilities as a nation. Authorities should take as imperative the crucial task to help students cultivate a cohesive sense of belonging toward the homeland and the Chinese race, a strong sense of national identity, as well as a vigorous awareness of the responsibility for safeguarding national security. It is only in this way that young people in schools and colleges will be brought up as good citizens who are keen to associate themselves with the motherland, respect the rule of law and abide by the law.
It is worth pointing out that these fundamental values and attitudes can be nurtured only when both teachers and students accept and treasure them. They must have in themselves a strong and correct sense of nationhood on which to build their patriotism and care for fellow citizens. Memories are, however, still fresh of the horrible yearlong social disturbances since June 2019. Numerous unlawful assemblies and street demonstrations were staged in that year instigating the territory’s independence, violence against the innocent, and rejection of the rule of law.
Most of these violent activities targeting to sabotage the HKSAR’s governing institutions came to an abrupt end only when the National Security Law for Hong Kong was passed by the NPCSC on June 30, 2020. Over 10,000 people — youngsters occupying no less than 30 percent — were arrested for participating in these illegal and mostly violent activities. A total of 344 schoolteachers were also rounded up in the same connection.
With the painful 2019-20 rioting lessons lingering in mind, the national security-related problems that surfaced should be dealt with at the source by nourishing in schools and the wider society a profound understanding of the motherland, and a greater sense and awareness of national identity and security.
The author is a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.