Students from a school in Tung Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, kick off a new semester by holding a flag-raising ceremony on Sept 2, 2019. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

There can be no doubt that the anti-China forces in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as their foreign patrons and bankrollers, have succeeded in brainwashing numerous young minds in the region through decades of inculcation with toxic ideologies. Teachers and teaching staff who have an animus against China's political system have prioritized their anti-China crusade over professional ethics and morality to carry out the dirty campaign.

This was evidenced once again by two appalling episodes that unfurled over the past week. As of Monday, 14 suspects had been arrested after Hong Kong police busted a well-organized separatist group that was in the final stages of launching a series of terrorist attacks using triacetone triperoxide (TATP) improvised explosive devices targeting courts, cross-harbor tunnels and railway facilities. While thankful that terrible bloodshed and loss of life have been avoided, Hong Kong residents have been shocked by the fact that nine of the arrested are high school students led and bankrolled by a staff member of a local university and an employee of a local high school.

In another episode that speaks volumes of how the anti-establishment forces have poisoned the minds of the Hong Kong youth, a group of University of Hong Kong students on Thursday observed a minute's silence in remembrance of the lone attacker who stabbed a police officer in the back in a busy street in Hong Kong and then fatally stabbed himself on July 1. They then proceeded to adopt a motion to "express deep sympathy" at the assailant's death and "appreciate his sacrifice to Hong Kong".

Such an open display of contempt for human decency and morality, which is intolerable in any civilized society, is a direct result of decades of inculcation by politically-motivated educators. Notably, Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a former associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, who relentlessly preached "achieving justice by breaking the law" among other toxic notions and ideas. Many members of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, a staunch member of the region's opposition camp, have also done their best to incite hatred against their own country by vilifying its political system and the ruling party, as well as misrepresenting "one country, two systems".

Previous efforts of the HK government to promote patriotic and national education aimed at countering such toxic inculcation have been vilified, undermined and derailed by those anti-China and anti-establishment forces, particularly some members of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union who were leading Hong Kong's youth astray under the guise of academic freedom or freedom of expression.

Fortunately, the promulgation of the National Security Law for the SAR has cleared the way for effective patriotic/national education, which should be promoted vigorously without further delay with concerted efforts by the SAR government, community and parents. After all, so many things are at stake, not least the futures of Hong Kong's younger generations.