My Take | Chen Zuoer spelling out the future of Hong Kong

You don't have to like Chen Zuoer , but you would do well to pay attention to what he's been saying lately because he is spelling out the shape of things to come for Hong Kong.

A former deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Chen is now the head of a think tank, so he is freer to say what Beijing has in mind but is not ready to spell out: the re-introduction of national education, security and anti-subversion laws under Article 23, and much more.

Speaking at a forum in Beijing, he made a not-too-subtle warning that Hong Kong needed patriotic national education for its young people.

"How have the young men, who were just babies at the handover, become those on the front line who brandished the UK national flag and stormed into our military camps and government?" Chen asked.

"It is clear that there are problems with education in Hong Kong along its development."

The nation's "national interest" must be considered when the city formulated its education policy, he concluded.