CHINA Xi Jinping bans ‘Western’ thinking in schools

Principles such as constitutional government, separation of powers or independence of the judiciary are rejected. They encourage students to denounce teachers who deviate from the Communist Party line. Chinese “liberals” are a persecuted minority. Xi wants to promote the Chinese ideological model in the world.

Beijing () – Chinese schools must “oppose and resist the misconceptions of the West”, especially constitutional government, the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary. Xi Jinping launches a campaign to banish Western democratic thinking from the national education system.

As a directive released on February 26 by the Communist Party of China General Office notes, teachers and students must strictly abide by the legal dictates of the CCP and its General Secretary Xi. The order has been issued a week before the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Assembly (Parliament), which will coincide with the beginning of the current leader’s third term.

It is not the first time that the Party intervenes with directives of this type. The communist authorities already encourage students to denounce teachers who praise the system of government in Western countries. Now the regime wants the CCP’s education policy to be fully implemented in schools and Chinese people to be educated “for the Party and the country” in observance of the “socialist rule of law.”

In China, the majority of the population has so far accepted total Party control of the state, but in exchange for improvements in their economic situation. The “liberals” are a clear minority, persecuted by the government. Reformist academics such as He Weifang, Xu Zhiyong and Xu Zhangrun ended up in prison or lost their job because they demand the creation of a rule of law in China (in its authentic, liberal democratic version), where the freedom of the press is respected, the independence of the judiciary, human rights and trade union protection.

The Chinese Constitution talks about respecting personal freedoms, including religious freedom, but everything is subordinated to the supreme interests of the Party. It seems that Xi wants to promote the Chinese ideological model in developing countries. In a recent speech at the Party school, the general secretary (and head of state) declared that China offers a new path for human progress and that “modernization” is not synonymous with “westernization.”