In the brisk chill of December, junior high school students in Fuzhou, southeast China, gathered at a country park for a unique educational experience centered on the thoughts of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Declaring their outing a “walking classroom of politics and ideology” with a red banner, the students retraced Xi’s 2021 visit to the neighborhood for enlightenment, as reported by a state-affiliated local news outlet. Meanwhile, in the northern coastal city of Tianjin, another group of youngsters toured a fort to reflect on “the tragic history of Chinese people’s resistance to foreign aggression.”
This intensified nationalist education is part of a broader trend in China, now formalized through the recently implemented “Patriotic Education Law.” The law, focusing on “enhancing national unity,” mandates the incorporation of love for the country and the ruling Chinese Communist Party into the daily lives and studies of individuals, spanning from the youngest children to workers and professionals across all sectors.
While the emphasis on patriotism and Party loyalty is not new in China, the latest law reflects President Xi’s ongoing efforts to deepen the party’s influence in public and private spheres. It comes on the heels of strict COVID-19 controls that dominated China for years and ended in late 2022. These controls sparked unprecedented protests against Xi’s government and its regulations, particularly among the country’s youth, adding a unique backdrop to the current wave of nationalist education.
