China's New Mandatory Curriculum Focuses on 'Xi Thought'

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.