China Bans Foreign Textbooks, Novels From Schools To Control Student Ideology

China’s Ministry of Education has published a “guideline” stating that classrooms must feature teaching materials that "insist on the guiding principles of Marxism and reflect the Chinese style."

The guideline will effectively ban foreign teaching materials like textbooks and classic novels in all public primary and secondary schools. Exceptions will apply to senior high schools that offer joint classes with foreign education institutions.

The publication follows an update on a code of ethics for journalists made in December. The update called upon journalists to uphold the authority of the Communist Party. Prior to that, in October, the State Council issued new morality guidelines for citizens that highlighted President Xi Jinping's personal role in defending the country's morals.

Other aspects of the educational guideline point to what some experts say is an attempt to get a tighter grip on the ideology of students across the country under the regime of the Communist Party and President Xi. The Ministry of Education’s announcement stated that students would "bear the great responsibility of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and, "All primary and secondary school teaching materials must reflect the will of the party and the country."

Indoctrination of youth to a certain way of thinking is certainly not the invention of the Chinese. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum offers this 1938 quote from the German dictator Adolf Hitler: “These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht [German armed forces] will take care of that.”

The U.S. does their indoctrination in a much subtler way. One method is the rewriting of history textbooks changing the narrative of past events to alter the image of historic figures. This is sometimes necessary as in the case of Native Americans from their portrayal in textbooks and cowboy movies of the 1950s and 1960s into a more realistic image today showing both the bad and good.

Most American youths have access to the internet that offers some degree of objectivity and could aid in the development of critical thinking. Most Chinese students do not, making it easier for the Chinese government to exert some mind control via their educational systems.

The most ominous statement from China’s Ministry announcement is that it would tighten its review system for all teaching materials, and those deemed to contain "problems of political direction or value orientation" would not be approved. Materials covering topics with strong ideological principles, such as national sovereignty and religion, will be written and distributed directly to schools.