Beijing: A new textbook cautions that rock ‘n’ roll, pop music, and the internet can be exploited to incite a “colour revolution” among Chinese youths, aligning with President Xi Jinping’s push for stronger ideological controls.
“Colour revolution” is Beijing’s code for subversion instigated by Western powers, and their attempts to infiltrate various sectors of society and fuel unrest to overthrow the ruling establishment.
The textbook on national security which was officially launched last week is seen as Beijing’s latest move to strengthen ideological control and promote national security among young Chinese.
The book, National Security Education Readier for College Students, will be used in the foundational course on national security education in universities, according to the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Primary and junior high schools have also been issued new textbooks that emphasise national security and traditional culture, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.
According to the textbook, university students must remain vigilant against Western popular culture and beware of “colour revolution” traps when surfing online, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.
“The internet is a key channel of communication; popular culture like pop and rock music is often used as covers for [colour revolution],” the textbook warned.
It cites the 2010 Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the Arab Spring movement that followed as examples of colour revolutions, arguing that these movements led to national turmoil.
The new textbook is based on various speeches on national security by Xi, 71, who highlighted the threat from “subversive” “foreign forces” trying to influence China’s youth in a speech at the National Education Conference in September 2018 organised by the CPC to devise strategies and blueprints based on the theme “education in the new era”.
The CPC’s ideological journal Qiushi on last Saturday released the excerpts of Xi’s speech in which he accused those forces of trying to “westernise” China’s youth and plot a “colour revolution”, stressing the need for ideology education in classrooms.
“For a long time, various hostile forces have never stopped implementing strategies to Westernise and divide our country,” Xi told the conference, according to the excerpts published by the Qiushi magazine.
“They have never stopped carrying out subversive and sabotaging activities against the leadership of the party and our country’s socialist system, and they have always attempted to plot a ‘colour revolution’ in our country. The area where they focus most is in the fight over our young people,” Xi said.
In his speech, Xi quoted party founder Mao Zedong who said that the activities of the imperialists would not affect the first and second generations after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, but they might hope to influence the third and fourth generations.
“Currently, our college students are the third and fourth generations…In the future, there will be dozens of generations. The fight over the youth is long-term and difficult, we cannot lose, and cannot afford to lose,” Xi said in his speech.
Xi called for cultivating “successors to socialism” and “establishing firm ideals and beliefs”, especially the “ideals of communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
“Today’s young people have lived in peace for too long, they have not experienced the pain of a nation struggling between life and death, have not been tested through blood and fire, and have not taken part in difficult battles,” he said.
“If we do not guide them and educate them, it is difficult for them to hold the correct ideals and they might even go astray,” Xi said.
