China’s Crackdown on its World Class Education System to Resolve its 'image problem'

In the post-pandemic ideological warfare, China's Communist Party crackdown on the education system, the commencement of 'regulatory reforms' in key institutions and the disappearance of tech giants seem to be the modish tactics of Xi's China to resolve its 'image problem' globally and locally.

 China’s Crackdown on its World Class Education System to Resolve its 'image problem' 
[Courtesy: Reuters]

The world was shocked when the authoritarian regime demolished Ant Financial, the world's biggest IPO (Initial Public Offering), taking drastic actions by ordering a multi-dollar anti-trust fine against Alibaba and deleted its browser from app stores. There was a lot of fuss going on when Jack Ma, owner of both the firms, disappeared for weeks. Tech giants like DiDi, Tencent and Baidu also had to face regulations and fines. 

On the occasion of the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping said to have called the expanding private tutor industry a "chronic disease." 

To achieve its political and social goals. The immediate response of the Chinese government was to repress the booming $100bn-a-year private education industry. China's growth in the education parameters has been remarkable. In 2018, China topped the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), a global test administered every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess 15-year-old schoolchildren's academic performance. 

Indian students ranked at 72nd position out of 73 in 2009, after which India decided not to engage. In the same year, China also came first in the list of countries with the most scientific and technical journal articles, with 5.28 lakh articles, 4.22 lakh from the United States and 1.35 lakh from India. 

With the falling birth rates, soaring education expenses, and pressure on students to succeed in the exhausting university entrance examination, the Gaokao — has raised concerns of the CCP to address the social problems that threaten the tomorrow of the party. In the pandemic, like the rest of the world, Chinese students were adopting the online method of learning and turning to private tutors to score good marks. But the new rules have disrupted the business model of online education platforms. 

Authorities have directed private tutoring for primary and middle school can only be based on a non-profit basis
[Courtesy: Reuters]

Authorities have directed private tutoring for primary and middle school can only be based on a non-profit basis. According to Goldman Sachs, the new regulation can cost the reduction of the industry's annual earnings from $100bn to less than $25bn. 

The Chinese government had launched programmes to hinder the role of private institutions. It includes government-sponsored summer daycare programmes costing less than private platforms, including meals, 10 hours a day. 

The classes focus more on extracurricular activities like drawing, sports rather than the traditional subjects needed to qualify Gaokao. All these efforts had made to restrict private education in the hope of eradicating education inequality. 

But China's frequent crackdowns on dissent, education and businesses cannot deny the fact of China's constant struggle for ideological control, especially in the pandemic. The findings of the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic deaths could have resulted in distrust towards the government and social unrest. However, the tightening of media, internet regulation and constant economic growth immunized the idea of China. 

Xi Jinping's latest massacre of Uighur Muslims and shipping them to concentration camps reveals the true insecure face of the Communist Party of China. Let's go back to the repression of 1989 Tiananmen for a moment. 

When the revolution was at the brink of midnight hours of June 4th, 1989, on tyrants' commands, 200,000 inhuman troops surrounded Beijing and then marched to its heart. Tanks and armoured vehicles cleared the way, wiping out the barricades, gun flashes towards the crowd, scything the innocent protesters down like grasses. 

The massacre they committed in Tiananmen Square shook the whole world, yet accepted by the new world order. From that day, the Chinese economy grew at a frantic pace. Every innocent death seemed to contribute to tremendous economic growth. Globalization bought a lot of fortune to China. Western Scholars thought it would also bring democratic reforms and make the butchers democratic. As soon as the screams of June 4th faded, here we are doing business deals. 

The leadership of Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping: new occult tyrant overthrows the old. It seems that to survive and thrive in China. People have learned to live with fear. Their suppression of freedom has reached its limit, but fear of their government has passed onto generations and generations — it is genetic. 

The ministry of education of China issued guidelines in April to primary and middle schools warning them not to hoard their libraries with any books that dishonour the party's ideology, principles and policies or disseminate false views such as individualism, neoliberalism and worship foreign ideologies. 

Author: 

Abhishek Bhattacharyya