China's New Mandatory Curriculum Focuses on 'Xi Thought'
Voice of America
Throughout China, as the school year starts on September 1, all elementary and secondary school students face a new mandatory class — Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
The new curriculum highlights how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Xi are focusing on ideological control of the population as the course, referred to as "Xi Thought," trickles down from Chinese universities, where it was introduced in 2020. "Propaganda and political instruction have been part of education in China since 1949, as the Communist Party understands exactly the power of shaping people's minds, especially when they are young and malleable," said Didi Kirsten Tatlow, a senior fellow at the Asia Program of the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, Germany. Chinese leader Mao Zedong declared the CCP had founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949. It's no surprise, Tatlow added, that as Xi prepares to extend his rule beyond the once customary two five-year terms, he and the CCP want his philosophy, or "thought," to be taught to children as young as 6 to make it seem as normal a part of education as multiplication tables.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.