fbpx
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter

Fri, April 23, 2021

Home / China / News China

Schools Ordered to Instill ‘Red Gene’ in Children

09/30/2020Zhou Hua |

Studying China’s socialist dogmas must start from an early age, President Xi believes. Thence, first-grade students are forced to learn them by heart.

by Zhou Hua

While visiting a primary school in Chenzhou city in the central province of Hunan on September 16, President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to instill “the red gene” in students and “pass down the revolutionary cause from generation to generation.” Since the day he took the top office in 2013, the president has been forcefully promoting patriotic education in China’s educational institutions, intended to indoctrinate Chinese youth with communist ideology and loyalty to the ruling Communist Party, starting from kindergartens.

On September 1, students in a primary school in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang attended their first patriotic education class of the new school year. A slogan on the classroom’s blackboard read, “Let’s hold high the flag of Young Pioneers, follow the Party, and prepare ourselves to fight for the Communist cause at all times.” Various patriotic slogans, such as “Obey the Party’s commands, serve the people, be bold and ready to fight,” were shown on the electronic display screen next to the blackboard.

The students’ parents received messages from the school that day, demanding them to ensure that their offsprings watch a special TV program called First Class of the Semester at 8 p.m. The show, co-produced by the CCP Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education, and China Central Television, is broadcast nationwide on or around the first day of school. This year’s topic—the government’s “achievements” in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Parents were also ordered to take photos of their children watching the program and hand in their written accounts on what they had learned from it. Because of the complicated content, parents helped children write down their thoughts and posted them on the school’s group on WeChat, China’s largest social media platform. “Most of them expressed gratitude to the country and pledged to serve it and said that China would only be strong if its youth are strong,” one of the parents recalled, calling such type of education “indoctrination.” 

Parents were notified to make sure their children watch the First Class of the Semester.
Parents were notified to make sure their children watch the First Class of the Semester.

In a primary school in Yantai city in the eastern province of Shandong, the new school year for first-year students started with a tough assignment. They had to memorize the 12 core socialist values—new interpretations of Chinese socialism promulgated at the CCP’s 18th National Congress in 2012. Since young children could not understand them, parents had to break up sentences to help them memorize the dogmas word by word.

Students at a primary school in Shandong’s Jinan city were also told to memorize the core socialist values at home, and their parents were instructed to supervise their progress. Some parents reported that their children wept from frustration.

A Jinan primary school’s notice demands parents help children memorize the core socialist values.
A Jinan primary school’s notice demands parents help children memorize the core socialist values.

“The state pays close attention to patriotic education, teaching children to love the country and the Party from a young age,” a student’s parent from Jinan’s Huaiyin district commented.

A teacher posted on a WeChat group the school’s demand to memorize the core socialist values.
A teacher posted on a WeChat group the school’s demand to memorize the core socialist values.

The core socialist values are widely promoted everywhere in China, including religious venues, and are used to contend “Western universal values.” President Xi declared at a Central United Front Work Department meeting on May 18 in 2015, that “the core socialist values and Chinese culture will help develop various religions in China.” He urged to “support religious communities in interpreting religious thought, doctrines, and teachings in a way that conforms with the needs of the progress of the times. Resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology, and consciously resist the influence of extremist thought.”

The Education Bureau of Anhui Province’s Huaibei city publicly criticized a primary school principal because three of his students could not recite the core socialist values.
The Education Bureau of Anhui Province’s Huaibei city publicly criticized a primary school principal because three of his students could not recite the core socialist values.

The national education training center in Shandong’s Heze city is used for primary and middle school students’ patriotic education. Completed in May this year, the center organizes special courses, lasting from 2 to 40 days, for schoolchildren between the ages of six to sixteen on “loving, respecting, and defending the country.” Some schools in the city had sent their students to attend classes there.

“Cultivation of red successor should start at a young age,” a city government insider said. “It’s difficult to transform youngsters at 17 and 18. They all have their own thoughts then. Children are so naïve, with no thought of their own; that is why they should be taught to love the Party and defend the country. If they are educated this way, they will be able to serve the country when they grow up.”

Tagged With: Anti-Religion Activity in Schools, Communist Propaganda

Related articles

  • The CCP’s New Secret Agent: Count Dracula

    The CCP’s New Secret Agent: Count Dracula

  • Xi Jinping’s New Book: “Our Red Country Will Never Change Its Color”

    Xi Jinping’s New Book: “Our Red Country Will Never Change Its Color”

  • Chinese Incited to Report Those Spreading “Bad” History

    Chinese Incited to Report Those Spreading “Bad” History

  • QAnon—Who Promotes It? The Answer Is, China

    QAnon—Who Promotes It? The Answer Is, China

Keep Reading

  • Schools and Kindergartens Ordered to ‘De-Westernize’
    Schools and Kindergartens Ordered to ‘De-Westernize’

    President Xi’s sinicization policy expands to all areas of Chinese society, as educational institutions are required to stop “worshiping foreign things.”

  • Church-Run Schools Eliminated to Advance Patriotic Education
    Church-Run Schools Eliminated to Advance Patriotic Education

    The CCP cracks down on educational institutions with ties to places of worship to ensure that the young generation receives only “proper” communist training.

  • People’s Homes Destroyed to Build ‘New Socialist Countryside’
    People’s Homes Destroyed to Build ‘New Socialist Countryside’

    Behind the “success” of the CCP’s rural revitalization campaign hide stories of misery and pain by its “beneficiaries.”

  • ‘Red Tourism’ Sites Developed to Enforce Communist Ideology
    ‘Red Tourism’ Sites Developed to Enforce Communist Ideology

    The CCP invests considerable funds to revamp China’s revolutionary heritage, using it to indoctrinate people and force them to worship its leaders.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

VIDEOS

Most Read

  • “Protest, Conscience, and Human Rights” Discussed in a Webinar by Marco Respinti
  • Grid System Used to Target “Illegal” Religion by Massimo Introvigne
  • Chinese Incited to Report Those Spreading “Bad” History by Massimo Introvigne
  • Rural Settlements Ordered to Intensify Crackdown on Religion by Liu Wangmin
  • More Money to MIVILUDES: The French “Mind Police” Is Back by Patricia Duval
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses: Disfellowshipping, Shunning, and the Ghent Ruling by George Chryssides
  • China: National Security Education Day Focused on Fighting Illegal Religion by Yang Feng
  • Death of a Colonel: Falun Gong Military Man Dies of “Natural Causes” in Detention by Yang Feng

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

ARCHIVES

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2021 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY