Xi's thought and national security: Beijing rewrites school textbooks

According to CCTV, they will be introduced next week, with the start of the year. first to seventh grade, 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 (AsiaNews) - National security, Xi Jinping's thought, wars and tensions with Vietnam and India: these are the topics that will have increasing space in school textbooks on language and history, as well as morals and law, dedicated to Chinese elementary and middle school students starting from the next autumn semester.

This is the latest measure taken by the Beijing leadership within educational institutions to strengthen propaganda and control over the education of the new generation in the new year on the desks starting 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 a priority at the level of the Ministry of Education since 2016, so much so that they are considered ‘compulsory subjects’ to reinforce the party's directives.

The topics of the new textbooks include the president's political philosophy, Xi Jinping's thinking, as well as specific sections on ‘traditional’ culture and ‘national security’, a controversial topic criticised by international institutions for the ‘legalised’ repression of rights.

All Chinese citizens receive nine years of compulsory education, six in primary school and the remainder in middle school. According to State TV reports, the new textbooks will initially be used from grade one to grade seven in primary school, and then be extended to all nine grades within the next three years.

The new morality and law textbook, the broadcaster continues, will introduce the ‘main content and historical status’ of Xi Jinping Thought. Officially known as ‘Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’, Xi's political philosophy was included in the Chinese Constitution in 2018, which elevated him to the ‘rank’ of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

However, the textbook ‘revolution’ in recent years has 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’ became a top priority for all party organisations, with orders to hold regular meetings to study Xi's speeches and directives.

The new history textbooks will also include the brief but bloody 1962 border war between China and India, which ended with Delhi's defeat after four weeks. Even today, the two Asian giants are still at odds over the Himalayan border, which covers over 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 Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, supported by the Chinese, will find ample space in school books.

The war caused tens of thousands of casualties on both sides in what Beijing called a ‘war of self-defence against Vietnam’. However, China has long remained silent on the issue, blocking public commemorations for the 40th anniversary in 2019 and trying to prevent veterans from paying their respects.

Moreover, the relationship between the two countries, both 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 over 550 schools before being launched nationwide.

(CCTV photo)