Patriotic Education Campaign

The Patriotic Education Campaign (simplified Chinese: 爱国主义教育; traditional Chinese: 愛國主義教育; pinyin: Àiguó zhǔyì jiàoyù) was a political campaign in China initiated in 1991 but not carried out in full scale until 1994. In May 1995, the Chinese government issued the "Notice on Recommending Hundreds of Patriotic Education Books to Primary and Middle Schools across the Country", and made a list of a hundred patriotic films, a hundred patriotic songs, a hundred patriotic books. The main goal of the campaign was to "boost the nation’s spirit, enhance cohesion, and foster national self esteem and pride".

This was done through education that was designed to construct a historical memory of what the People's Republic of China was created from, by emphasizing the role the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in securing national independence, and the influence of foreign countries on China. This aim was to boost the CCP's legitimacy, which during the 1980s had declined, particularly around the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The academic Suisheng Zhao has said the Campaign is part of a strategy to make the Party the “paramount patriotic force and guardian of national pride.”

Ideology

Guiding ideology

According to the 1994 "Outline", patriotism education focuses on young people and takes socialism with Chinese characteristics and the party's basic line as the guide. The main content covers the history of China, the traditional culture of China, and the beliefs of the CCP. The outline also promotes Chinese nationalism. In 2019 the "Outline for the Implementation of Patriotic Education in the New Era" was implemented which contains expositions by Xi Jinping, and tenets of Xi Jinping Thought such as the Chinese dream.

Background

In the post-Cold War era the Chinese Communist Party promoted a policy of Chinese Nationalism. This form of nationalism had a long history of political utilisation in China, first appearing during the Qing dynasty when China suffered a humiliating defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and growing over the course of the 20^th Century as China faced various military conquests at the hands of various colonial powers, European and Japanese.

Following the Communist Party’s 1949 victory in the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong employed Chinese Nationalism as a political tool used to bolster Chinese patriotism and party loyalty; seeking to closely align Chinese national identity with a sense of fidelity to the Communist Party. During the Cold War, Chinese Nationalism was promoted as a uniting national philosophy in Chinese cultural and educational institutions and was used to justify the Party’s suppression of separatist and secessionist movements in Western provinces.

In the 1980s a growing pro-democracy movement emerged in China, culminating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. The Chinese Communist Party, feeling increasingly threatened by the movement and the increasingly drastic lengths to which protesters would go in order to advocate political reform, sought to institute the Patriotic Education Campaign to combat the rising wave of anti-Party sentiment associated with the movement. The PEC constituted a modern iteration of the Chinese Nationalist vision and was designed to foster increased party loyalty among a generation of young Chinese students born under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping and therefore too young to remember the Communist Party, and China, of Mao Zedong.

The Chinese Nationalist-bent of the PEC was not immediately guaranteed in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Protests however. While consensus existed within the Party regarding the need for a more targeted political education of the younger generation in order to foster increased support for the CPP, two party factions, the conservatives and the reformists, emerged with competing ideological visions of the legitimisation strategy that should be employed in youth political education. Both factions agreed that Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought no longer served to sufficiently legitimised CCP rule, yet while the conservative faction argued for a strengthening of the position of Maoist ideology in political education, the reformist faction, led by Deng Xiaoping, saw Chinese Nationalism as the solution.

The Patriotic Education Campaign was commenced following a period of relative political stability in the post-Tiananmen years and Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour of 1992. It was to become an extensive youth education campaign that primarily targeted school students and intellectuals.

Content and Administration

Following the legitimacy crisis suffered by the CCP in 1989, the Patriotic Education Campaign was instituted to reorient the party’s ideological position and foster a new wave of Chinese Nationalism. The new nationalism of the campaign was proffered in direct opposition to Marxism-Leninism which had been the guiding ideology of the Mao era, and was now largely considered outmoded by party elites.

The Patriotic Education Campaign included three main components. The first was the institutionalisation of patriotic education, the second involved reforms in history education, and the third was the large-scale construction of ‘patriotic education sites.’

The Institutionalisation of Patriotic Education

The first arm of the Patriotic Education Campaign sought to modernise official CCP discourses, to reflect the party’s vision of itself as the key defender of Chinese national interests and invigorator of the nation. The change was operationalised through measures such as directives requiring the People’s Daily, the official media outlet of the CCP, to increase use of patriotic rhetoric.

Reforms in History Education

Reforms to Chinese history education were implemented following the 1989 military crackdown. The reforms sought to reframe the fundamental narrative of Chinese modern history in a manner which highlighted the national humiliations of the modern era, rather than emphasising the class struggle, as had been a priority of history education during the Cold War Era. The reformed history syllabus sought to portray the CCP as more than merely the voice of the proletariat. It credited the party with having ended China’s hundred years of diplomatic humiliation.

In 1992, the educational reforms also modified the national history curriculum, extending the study of Chinese history into high school. Previously only middle school students were required to study Chinese history, which was taught as background to the study of world history.

Large-Scale Construction of 'Patriotic Education Sites'

‘Patriotic Education Sites’ was the term employed by the CCP for the national museums and public monuments that were constructed after 1989. These memorial sites were considered vital to the broader project of national mythmaking. The sites were intended to visualise national myths which reframed collective memory as a tool to glorify the status quo and denounce enemies of the CCP. Between 1995 and 2009, 353 national-level patriotic education sites had been erected or renovated throughout the country.

Textbook Changes

The campaign was aimed at Chinese youth and had them study China’s humiliating modern history - such as China’s “century of humiliation” - and the positive changes brought by the Communist Revolution. These included a replacement of the old call-struggle narrative with a new patriotic narrative, as well as a replacement of the official Maoist “victor narrative” in which China “won" national independence with a “victimization narrative” that blames the West for China’s problems and suffering. Specific changes in the content of Chinese history textbooks can be seen at three different instances in time. In 1995, Chinese textbooks followed a Marxist, historical materialist, and internationalist ideology. Japan was seen mostly in a positive light with highlights on its positive impact on China through its own modernization. Negative aspects of Japan, such as the rise of fascism, are attributed to the elite and government and not the people. Then, in 2004, textbooks took on a more liberal and cosmopolitan ideology. Japan was still only marginally discussed with the only real mention of its influence on China coming from Japan’s role in smuggling opium into China.

The year 2007, however, saw major changes with textbook ideology becoming more nation-centric with Marxist veneer. Japan’s history and aggression against China were now covered much more explicitly. Furthermore, while Japan’s achievements are still noted, there is no longer mention of any positive impact on China. There is also no longer a distinction between the elite and the masses, meaning Japan's wartime atrocities are now being blamed on the Japanese people rather than the government or elite. Overall, Chinese textbooks were portraying a much more negative view of Japan. The new content brought forth by this campaign has become embedded in political institutions and inaugurated as the CCP’s new ideological tool. This represented a major shift in Beijing’s identity politics.