According to CCTV, they will be introduced next week, with the start of the school year. First to seventh grade, and then extended to all nine grades of compulsory education. Extensive coverage of the war with India and Vietnam. Specific sections also for ancient Chinese literature and the years of the communist revolution.
Beijing () – National security, Xi Jinping thought, wars and tensions with Vietnam and India: these are the topics that will increasingly be covered in language and history textbooks, as well as in moral and legal textbooks for Chinese primary and secondary school students from the next autumn semester. This is the latest measure adopted by Beijing’s leaders within educational institutions to strengthen propaganda and control over the education of the younger generations in the new school year that begins next week, state broadcaster CCTV reported today.
Courses on morality and law, as well as those dedicated to the ideology and policies promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, have been prioritized by the Ministry of Education since 2016, to the point that they are considered “compulsory subjects” to reinforce the party’s guidelines. The topics of the new textbooks include the president’s political philosophy, Xi Jinping Thought, as well as specific sections on “traditional” culture and “national security”, a controversial topic criticized by international institutions for the “legalized” repression of rights.
All Chinese citizens receive nine years of compulsory education, six in primary school and the remainder in secondary school. According to state television, the new textbooks will initially be used from first to seventh grade in primary school, and will then be extended to all nine grades over the next three years.
The new textbook on morality and law, the station continues, will introduce the “main content and historical status” of Thought Xi Jinping. Officially known as ‘Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’, Xi’s political philosophy was included in the Chinese Constitution in 2018, elevating him to the ‘rank’ of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
However, the textbook “revolution” in recent years has been expanded to include seven aspects, covering his instructions on economic, diplomatic, military and environmental matters, as well as law, propaganda and party discipline. Earlier this year, the study of these “ideologies and thoughts” was made a priority for all party organisations, with orders to hold regular meetings to study Xi’s speeches and directives. The new history textbooks will also cover the brief but bloody 1962 border war between China and India, which ended with Delhi’s defeat after four weeks. To this day, the two Asian giants remain at odds over the Himalayan border, which spans more than 120,000 square kilometres of disputed territory.
The 1979 conflict between Beijing and Hanoi, when some 300,000 Chinese troops entered Vietnam to prevent the overthrow of the bloodthirsty Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, will find plenty of space in textbooks. The war caused tens of thousands of casualties on both sides in what Beijing called a “war of self-defence against Vietnam”. Yet China has long been silent on the issue, blocking public commemorations of the 40th anniversary in 2019 and attempting to prevent veterans from paying their respects.
Moreover, the relationship between the two countries, friends and rivals, has seen ups and downs and moments of tension: Vietnam seeks Chinese investment and technical support, but the 1979 war and territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea have long been potential obstacles to bilateral ties. Meanwhile, Chinese-language textbooks will include more space and attention to ancient Chinese literature and stories about the revolutionary years before the party won the civil war in 1949, establishing the People’s Republic. The new textbooks took two years to complete and were used by more than 100,000 students in more than 550 schools before being rolled out nationwide.
(CCTV photo)
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