New Directive Calls for More ‘Patriotic Education’ of Chinese Students, Even Those Abroad

The Communist Party Organization of the Ministry of Education has issued a new directive urging that Chinese students must be made even more patriotic and devoted to the party, even when they are studying in universities abroad, an article published in the New York Times said.

According to the directive, each stage and aspect of schooling, through textbooks, student assessments, museum visits and the Internet--a main source of information for many young Chinese--must be suffused with patriotic education.

"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," according to the document, which was approved in late January but made public only on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The document also demanded 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."

The report said that Chinese students have already been taught that the Communist Party has been the sole engine of progress in modern Chinese history and rescued the country from humiliating suppression of foreigners, restoring respect and power on China on the global stage. Since the 1989 protests of students at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, party leaders have made a priority of veering them from liberal values.

The report, however, said that the new document shows that President Xi Jinping is taking it even further than his predecessors did, even beyond China's borders. The directive said that Chinese students studying abroad must also be given instruction on Xi's "China Dream" of national revival.

"Assemble the broad numbers of students abroad as a positive patriotic energy," the document said. "Build a multidimensional contact network linking home and abroad--the motherland, embassies and consulates, overseas student groups, and the broad number of students abroad--so that they fully feel that the motherland cares."

The move is likely to raise concern among critics who have blamed the government of applying pressure on students abroad, the report added.

According to data from the Ministry of Education, almost 1.7 million Chinese students were studying abroad by the end of 2014, many of them are in Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States.

In the 2014-15 school year, more than 300,000 Chinese students have been studying in the United States, an increase of nearly 11 percent over the previous year, the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization, said.