On October 31, 2019, the Chinese Ministry of Education released a notice on the "Survey and Statistics of the Textbooks of Elementary/Middle/High Schools and Universities Across the Country." The notice was issued by the General Office of the National...
On October 31, 2019, the Chinese Ministry of Education released a notice on the "Survey and Statistics of the Textbooks of Elementary/Middle/High Schools and Universities Across the Country." The notice was issued by the General Office of the National Textbook Committee of the Textbook Bureau, Ministry of Education. The office was established when the Chinese government started to nationalize history, ideology and politics, and language and literature textbooks as Xi Jinping entered his second term, showing that the scope of textbook nationalization is expanding beyond elementary and middle schools to include universities.
In fact, in December 2016, President Xi Jinping called for "strengthening the education of the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)" in his speech to the Chinese Universities' Congress on Ideological and Political Work. In March 2017, Song Yongzhong, the Party Secretary of Nanjing Normal University, argued that "Universities must offer a compulsory history course." As a result, the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP and the Ministry of Education, in December 2020, distributed "The Guidelines on Ideology and Politics Education in the New Era," which requested the combination of the history education curricula of middle/high schools and "The Outline of Modern Chinese History," a compulsory liberal arts course offered by universities in China. The guidelines stated that it will become mandatory for freshmen who enter university in the fall of 2021 to take one of the courses on "History of the CCP," "History of New China," “History of Reform and Opening," and "Development of Socialism." It shows that China's history education in the ideology and politics subject has been strengthened, starting from "Socialism With Chinese Characteristics in the New Era," which refers to Xi's presidency.
The problem is that the Chinese Ministry of Education has stated that the reason for strengthening history teaching in the ideology and politics course is to fully implement the socialist ideas with Chinese characteristic in the New Era, which are promoted by Xi Jinping, and the spirit of the 19th congress and the educational policy of the CCP. The Ministry has also asserted that teachers of ideology and politics must make good use of the national "standard textbooks." In particular, the "standard textbooks," which call for "prospering Chinese scholarship, advancing Chinese theories, and spreading Chinese ideas," and reflect Xi Jinping's ideas of Socialism With Chinese Characteristics in the New Era, emphasize Marxist Sinicization and ethnic Chinese style. Thus, it is likely that Sino-centric expansionism will be strengthened among not only elementary/middle/high school students but also college students.
Since the recent release of "China's Education Modernization Plan Towards 2035," it has been stressed that education is part of the grand plan of the CCP and the state, and that well-run higher education has a direct impact on the development and future of the state. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously understand and analyze the characteristics of and changes in history education at Chinese universities.