Communist Party ‘exerting stronger control over universities,’ says professor (Wall Street Journal) – China may have poured billions into making its universities more globally competitive, but its idea of a quality education is guided more than ever by the Communist Party. In a drumbeat that…
Communist Party ‘exerting stronger control over universities,’ says professor
(Wall Street Journal) – China may have poured billions into making its universities more globally competitive, but its idea of a quality education is guided more than ever by the Communist Party.
In a drumbeat that has accelerated ahead of October’s twice-a-decade Party Congress, President Xi Jinping’s campaign to rein in civil society, online media and speech has extended to the classroom.
Top universities seen as insufficiently rigorous in their ideological work are being shamed. Professors who speak out are punished. The government is sending observers to nearly 2,600 universities to monitor mandatory ideology classes, which include staples like “ Mao Zedong thought.”
“What they most want to see is whether what you’re saying is in line with the official demands on ideology and values,” said Xiao Wei, who will be sitting in on classes in Shanghai this fall as part of a group of some 100 professors examining the quality of ideological education in the city. “They also want to understand how effective [the classes] are,” said Mr. Xiao, a professor of Marxism at Shanghai’s elite Fudan University.
Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the party has kept colleges on a tight leash, fearing a reprise of student-led demonstrations. Nevertheless, there had been some room to deal with sensitive topics in the classroom. Under Mr. Xi, that narrow space is closing.
For years in his class on China’s Cultural Revolution at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, Tang Shaojie played “red” songs from the era and showed the movie “Nineteen Eighty-Four” based on George Orwell’s novel. The goal, he told students, was to teach them what brainwashing looked like, former students said.
Mr. Tang told them it was a sign of academic freedom that Tsinghua allowed him to teach the class, said Aaron Feng, who took it in 2015 and is now studying at Vanderbilt University. “He said it really proudly.”
The class was canceled this fall. Tsinghua didn’t respond to questions about why.
“It’s not enough just to have economic development,” said Mr. Xiao of Fudan University, explaining the country’s recent emphasis on ideological education. “You need a sense of values and morals.”
The shift in the classrooms comes as President Xi moves to extend his dominance ahead of the Party Congress, a conclave set to anoint him for a second five-year term.
