Refer Report
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Students at Tsinghua University in China are undergoing military training. / Tsinghua University public
“They were really good at catching people. Even the instructor collapsed during training.”
Mr. A, who sent his daughter to college this year, is very worried. As of the 5th, his daughter is receiving basic military training, which is mandatory for new students at Chinese universities. Parents are allowed to observe two days of the approximately three-week training period. Mr. A observed the training a few days ago.
China made military training mandatory for freshmen in college and high school in 1984. Military training was emphasized as a form of ideological education after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Prestigious universities that produce many Communist Party officials, such as Tsinghua University and Peking University, are also known for their high intensity of military training. Training includes bayonet training and 20km night marches. Some universities even advertise high-intensity military training to be evaluated as prestigious.
On the other hand, in regions with strong liberal tendencies, military training was often conducted formally. During the COVID-19 period, military training was replaced by online training, and the atmosphere became more relaxed. Public opinion on military training in China is not good, as cases of cruelty and death occur every year.
However, it is reported that the intensity of military training has become particularly intense this semester. It is said that in an atmosphere where the Chinese leadership emphasizes security, each school is competitively conducting intense training. There was a death this year as well. On the 25th of last month, a female student at a vocational high school in Shandong Province collapsed and died from heatstroke during training.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China submitted a revised National Defense Education Law in April, which includes the expansion of compulsory military training to middle school students and the promotion of security awareness in elementary school students through classes. Some middle schools are already conducting military training. Schools are competing to release training videos, and elementary school students are also encouraged to participate in military camps during vacation periods.
College freshmen this year will have to undergo different security education after military training. According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP), the new semester’s college security textbooks include the content that “rock and roll, pop music, and the Internet are Western vices that can be used to sow the seeds of ‘color revolution’ among Chinese youth.”
The textbook mentions the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution of 2010 as an example of a color revolution that “caused national chaos.” It also says that the former Soviet Union collapsed because it abandoned Marxism and one-party dictatorship. The Ministry of Education held a briefing session on the 30th of last month and urged teachers to make the most of this book to raise students’ security awareness.
Color revolution refers to a series of regime changes that occurred in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demand for democratization. In Russia, it is used as a derogatory term meaning a “revolution that took place under the control of the West.” In 2018, Chairman Xi Jinping gave a speech at the National Education Conference in which he said that foreign powers were plotting color revolutions by westernizing Chinese youth.
The book aims to eliminate the distinction between 55 ethnic minorities and leave only the Chinese ethnic group as the subject of history. It is concise to describe the period of the Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms as a time when various ethnic groups merged into the Chinese ethnic group, rather than a time of chaos caused by invasions by foreign ethnic groups.
Xi Jinping has consistently emphasized security and patriotism since taking office in 2013, but there is analysis that the war in Ukraine has also influenced this recent measure. It is said that the fact that war can occur has made people realize even more that patriotism is important. The fact that young Chinese people have strong individualistic tendencies is also cited as a background for strengthening patriotic and security education.
The Chinese middle class is feeling anxious. A parent in Beijing said, “This year’s college entrance exams have seen record-breaking competition in Singaporean schools, where many Chinese students go, and the passing score has also risen.” There is also growing anxiety that Internet control will be further strengthened.
Source: Korean