China will introduce the Chinese president’s political ideology into its national curriculum.

“Xi Jinping Thought” will help “teenagers establish Marxist beliefs”, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said in its new guidelines.

The ideology will be integrated into learning from primary school through university.

This is Xi’s latest effort to consolidate the role of the ruling Chinese Communist Party across different areas of society.

In a statement, the Ministry of Education said it aimed to “cultivate the builders and successors of socialism with a comprehensive moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic foundation”.

The guidelines include labor education “to cultivate the spirit of hard work” and education on national security.

In 2018, China’s top body enshrined “Xi Jinping Thought” in the Constitution.

Since then, it has been introduced in some universities and among young politicians taking part in extracurricular activities and in schools.

“Xi Jinping Thought” has 14 principles that emphasize communist ideals and also:

• Calls for “comprehensive and deep reform” and “new development ideas”
• Promises “harmonious living between man and nature”
• Emphasizes “the absolute authority of the party over the people’s army”
• Emphasizes the importance of “‘one country, two systems’ and reunification with the motherland”

However, the new guidelines will have a much broader rollout.

“Primary schools will focus on cultivating love for the country, the Communist Party of China and socialism. In middle schools, the focus will be on a combination of perceptual experience and knowledge study, to help students form basic political opinions and judgments”, reported the state media outlet Global Times.

“At university, there will be more emphasis on establishing theoretical thinking”, it added.

The ministry is also working on including topics such as party leadership and national defense education in the curriculum, Tian Huisheng, an official at the Ministry of Education, told the Global Times.

In the past, Chinese leaders have created their own political ideologies that have been incorporated into the Constitution or into party thinking.

But no one, other than party founder Mao Zedong, has described their ideology as “thought”, which sits at the top of the hierarchy, and only Mao and Deng Xiaoping have had their names attached to their ideologies.

But no one, other than party founder Mao Zedong, has described their ideology as “thought”, which sits at the top of the hierarchy, and only Mao and Deng Xiaoping have had their names attached to their ideologies.

Source: BBC