The Chinese administration has been issuing directives from time to time to target students in schools and colleges and Xi Jinping is aiming to erase Western liberal thought from China’s education system, reported Voices Against Autocracy (VAA).
For Xi, two things are of paramount importance after being elected as President of China for a record third term, if he is to stay on as leader for life.
First, China must outsmart the US (and the West) at some point in time and overtake it in all spheres. Second, internally, citizens should learn and adopt a way of life as instilled in them by the Communist Party of China (CPC), rather than look to the West and adopt liberal ideas and thoughts, reported VAA.
This is perhaps the reason for Xi issuing an order on 26 February 2023, which not only reinforces his leading role in the affairs of China, but also directs schools to “oppose and resist Western erroneous views” such as constitutional government, separation of powers, and judicial independence. This is a clear attempt to purge liberal Western concepts from China’s education system.
The latest directive is nothing but a forceful imposition of Xi Jinping’s ideology on Chinese youth. Such directives are aimed at restricting people from analyzing issues in a fair and unbiased manner.
In March 2021, a Chinese lawmaker proposed removing English as a core subject for Chinese students receiving compulsory education.
The latest order states that teachers and students of law and legal theory workers must be guided to have a “clear-cut position and take a firm stance in the face of issues of principle and major issues of right and wrong”. The directive also states that teachers and students must “comprehensively implement the party’s education policy, insist on educating people for the party and the country, and focus on cultivating builders and successors of the cause of socialist rule of law.”
The operative part of the order is that students should oppose and resist Western “erroneous views” such as ‘constitutional government’, ‘separation of three powers’, and ‘independence of the judiciary,’ reported VAA.
Xi’s ideology campaign reflected China’s preference to have Chinese standards adopted as legitimate alternatives to Western values and institutions.
China defends the ideology campaign by claiming that it should not be viewed as anti-West or anti-American, but an effort to maintain and cultivate Chinese culture while at the same time borrowing from the West, a strategy China has carried out for many years, reported VAA.
Xi Jinping has sought to purge liberal Western concepts from the education system, and ordered that foreign religions be “Sinicized” to operate in China. He has also attempted, with limited success, to reorganize popular culture along more conservative lines, going so far as to ban “effeminate” men from the state broadcaster. (ANI)
