China pushes for a more "patriotic education"

As part of President Xi Jinping's "China Dream" of a national revival, a new directive, issued by the Ministry of Education to education officials, calls for “patriotic education” to be further instilled in every stage and aspect of schooling, through textbooks, student assessments, museum visits and the internet, to ensure loyalty to the Communist Party. The directive extends to Chinese students studying abroad who must also "be made a focus of instruction". According to the Ministry, by the end of 2014, there were almost 1.7 million Chinese students studying overseas, the majority of them in Australia, Britain, Canada and the US; in the 2014-15 school year, just over 300,000 Chinese students were studying in the US, up nearly 11% on 2013-14.

 

BEIJING — Chinese students, already immersed in classes and textbooks that promote nationalist loyalty to the Communist Party as a bedrock value, must be made even more patriotic and devoted to the party, even when they are studying in universities abroad, according to a new directive sent to education officials.

The directive, issued by the Communist Party organization of the Ministry of Education, calls for “patriotic education” to suffuse each stage and aspect of schooling, through textbooks, student assessments, museum visits and the Internet, which is the chief source of information for many young Chinese.

“Organically instill the patriotic spirit into all subjects, curriculums and standards for primary, secondary and higher education in morals, language, history, geography, sports, arts and so on,” says the document, which was approved in late January but publicized only on Tuesday by Xinhua, the state-run news agency.

The document demands that university and college students be instructed more thoroughly to “always follow the party” and be “clearly taught about the dangers of negativity about the history of the party, nation, revolution and reform and opening up, as well as of vilifying heroic figures.”