aAt the Beijing Jiaotong University Primary School, kids around age 6 or 7 line up in a rainbow-painted corridor. One boy holds a replica handgun while students behind him grip unwieldy fake assault rifles. Fake police bulletproof vests cover blue-and-white track suits, and heads bob in oversized artillery helmets. In other photos, students drill, salute visiting soldiers or line up on the playground chanting, “I am [heart] The Chinese flag has the letter “u” next to it.
This post includes: photographThe report, published online in April, said the school had worked hard in recent years to “sincerely promote the core theme of patriotism and make it an important part of the school’s ideological, political and moral education.”
“We will create a strong atmosphere of national defense education, carry out rich and diverse activities, cultivate students’ patriotism, love for the army and organizational discipline, and foster their ambition to build and defend the motherland from an early age,” the statement said.
The school is one of thousands designated as a “model school for national defense education” as China works to raise military awareness and skills among its citizens from a young age.
Further designations, announced by the Ministry of Education and the Central Military Commission in January, have nearly doubled the number of “model schools.” This will likely be followed by legal changes to expand compulsory education to include “cadet activities” to students under the age of 15. A bill proposing amendments to the National Defense Education Law had its first reading at the National People’s Congress, where it was approved in April.
The changes make the guidelines more prescriptive, stressing the need for basic military training in high schools and higher education institutions and, for the first time, extending it to younger students.
“All state organs and the armed forces, all political parties and public organizations, all enterprises and institutions, and grassroots autonomous organizations of a mass character must organize national defence education in their respective regions, departments and units in the light of their respective specific circumstances,” the draft states.
“Rebuilding the Power of the Chinese Communist Party”
The emphasis on military training for civilians reflects rising nationalism in today’s China under President Xi Jinping, who has also made clear his distaste for what he sees as a decline in masculinity in China and the growing risk of China plunging into war over Taiwan.
“Allowing children to participate in performative military education activities at an increasingly younger age could normalize China’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy and psychologically prepare the country for an eventuality in which China enters armed conflict,” said Bethany Allen, director of the China program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
China-based analysts also noted that Spoke to the media The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has learned from the war in Ukraine and recognises the potential need for a population that can be mobilised quickly into conflict.
China’s growing militarism under the Xi Jinping administration has raised the risk of conflict and hostilities with other countries, particularly over Taiwan. At the same time, the Chinese military is reportedly struggling with corruption issues and low recruitment rates, despite undergoing major reform and modernization.
In September 2023, primary and secondary schools across the country began the new semester with defense education classes, “instilling in students’ hearts a deep sense of patriotism, respect for the military and an interest in national defense,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
It’s not clear whether the classes have led to improved recruitment, and China’s punitive culture of censorship makes it nearly impossible to study the classes’ effect on public opinion. Most of the published comments echo those of Feng Shangguo, a former soldier who helped teach the classes at his child’s school, Neijiang No. 13 School in Sichuan province.
“It will help children develop tenacity, courage and hard work,” Feng told state media.
But Katja Drinhausen, director of Merix’s China Policy Studies program, said military education is just one aspect of a broader campaign to shore up the Chinese Communist Party’s power as it faces many challenges, including a struggling economy, sporadic social unrest, multiple regional conflicts and worsening natural disasters due to climate change.
“It’s important to bring together different parts of a broader ambition,” Drinhausen said.
“There is a new focus on military training and building national identity and support for the military’s work. This also helps build unity within the party at a time when the party needs to find new sources of social and political legitimacy because the economy is no longer delivering on that,” she said.
“First, there’s been a renewed focus on patriotic education in schools and ‘Chinese greatness.’ Second, national security education has been launched not only in mainland China but also in Hong Kong. I see these as part of a broader strategic refocusing to rebuild the power of the Chinese Communist Party within China.”
Drinhausen also noted that the People’s Liberation Army is officially the military of the Communist Party of China, not the military of the Chinese state or people, and that it has been used violently to put down protests across the country in the past.
“When it comes to military and defense-focused education, it’s useful to see the developments [in the context of different possible scenarios] “If you think about it that way, all these measures are not necessarily a precursor to war, but will help the party manage any kind of crisis going forward,” she said.
