(Minghui.org) Education has always been an important battlefield for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its quest to consolidate its control of the Chinese people – it was so crucial, in fact, that Mao Zedong once remarked that, “Education must serve proletarian politics.”
In other words, it must serve the interests of the CCP.
Recently, “red education” has infiltrated the curricula of public schools across China, starting as early as kindergartens and primary schools. The following are just a few examples.
A kindergarten in Hebei province once gave each student a “badge of Chairman Mao” in memory of the “great savior of the Chinese people” – who in fact caused the death of tens of millions of Chinese people during his reign.
Students attending a kindergarten in Yongxiu County in Jiangxi province were assembled at a flag-raising ceremony, where a teacher led them in swearing their undying loyalty to the CCP and its leaders.
A man who has returned to China from the United States said he was also rather disappointed with the way children are brainwashed at school. His son was born in the States and was already a primary school kid when the family returned to China.
His son's new school in China required all of its students to watch movies, such as “Tunnel Warfare” and “Landmine Warfare” to boost patriotism and their love for the CCP while inciting hatred against foreign invaders. The children were also required to recite poetry singing the praises of the CCP.
“In less than two years, my son's brain has already become the same as other Chinese kids,” the man said.
“When he heard me sharing my views on the Wuhan coronavirus (which was a bit different from what the official media propagated), he turned to his mom and asked, ‘How come Dad doesn't love China?’ At school, they're taught that if you say something good about the U.S., that means you ‘don't love China.’”
Another kindergarten in Jiangxi Province required all kids to don the uniforms of the “Red Army” or the “Eighth Route Army” for an event. Their parents must also wear military uniforms, as well as worker's and peasant's clothing, to restore the spirit of the large-scale production movement in Yan’an (a prefecture in Shaanxi Province, which served as the base of the CCP headquarters from 1935 to 1947).
The kindergarten's administration claimed that such activities were aimed at teaching the kids to listen to the Party and follow the Party from childhood.
Similar “red education” campaigns are being pushed forward and promoted across China to instill the CCP's sense of “patriotism” in young children.
Parents were shocked during a parent-child event, organized by Jinshan Kindergarten in Jiangxi, when a tiny little boy holding a wooden pistol yelled loudly, “I'm going to kill all the Japanese!”
“The kids are taught hatred at such a tender age. Such a ‘red education’ doesn't help them in any way,” a concerned parent said.
Another parent said, “Such extreme ‘patriotism’ is the most evil kind of brainwashing.”
Sadly, despite the fact that many parents do not approve of this type of education for their children, pulling their children from such an education environment is very difficult for a family of average means. As a result, these children become more and more extreme in their thoughts over time and become incapable of independent, critical thinking.
In today's CCP-controlled China, many believe that Wuhan coronavirus was brought to China by Americans, since that's what the CCP's media outlets have dictated as the truth.
Recently, a poem was published in “Middle School Student Guide,” a newspaper for students with national circulation. In the poem, the anthropomorphic “virus” said that it regretted coming to China and had to return to the U.S. since it was no match for the Chinese government (CCP) and its healthcare workers.
Going Back to the “Cultural Revolution”
What's happening in China's education system reminds many people of the “Red Guards” movement during the “Cultural Revolution.” The then-CCP leader Mao Zedong greeted millions of Red Guards on Tiananmen Square and encouraged them to follow him as their “Red Commander-in-Chief” in the new stage of the proletarian revolution. The Red Guards’ fanatical worship of Mao reached an unmatched level at the time, blindly believing that Mao was leading them into a new revolution and would make China a true communist society in 15 years.
A couple of years later, however, Mao changed his tune and encouraged the educated youth, including the Red Guards, to go to the countryside and mountainous areas to receive “re-education from the poor and lower-middle-class peasants.” This came as a big blow to Mao's impassioned Red Guards, to say the least.
The drastic change of environment also offered the youngsters an opportunity to reflect and think about issues from a different perspective.
One person recalled the “big shock” he experienced when the Party secretary of the production brigade in the village said to them, “Tilling the land is for ourselves.”
“I was really shocked upon hearing this, thinking: everything we do, including attending school, is for the ‘revolution,’ how could you say tilling the land was for ourselves!”
Another one said, “We started asking questions: What role can we actually play, working in the fields in the countryside? Should we stick it out in the countryside for the rest of our lives? We were confused and didn't know what to do.”
It was not until a few years later when some secret documents were revealed, did they learn that Mao sent them to the countryside as a form of “reform through labor.”
The educated youth had been used during the “Cultural Revolution” by Mao and the CCP as violent tools in getting rid of their rivals and in the destruction of traditional culture and ethical values; once the CCP achieved its goals, the youngsters were dumped to the remote areas to receive “re-education,” as a way to solve the difficult employment problem caused by the massive political upheaval and social and economic destruction during the Cultural Revolution.
It was a bitter lesson. This entire lost generation paid for the catastrophic disaster imposed upon the Chinese people by the CCP with their youth.
Unfortunately, ideas of the “Cultural Revolution,” once officially recognized as a “catastrophe” in the 1980s, are being replicated, promoted, and fermented again in schools and kindergartens across China, and the Chinese people are once again facing grave danger.
Rejecting “Red Education” and Embracing Truth
While some people fell victim to the CCP’s decades of red education, there exists a group of people in China who have freed themselves from the tight grip of the CCP and are using their lives to uphold their principles.
These people are Falun Dafa practitioners, who refuse to sing the same tune of the CCP; instead, they think independently and search for truth and the meaning of life by conducting themselves according to the universal principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” as well as improving both their physical and mental well-being.
Because of their independence, Falun Dafa and its practitioners have been persecuted by the CCP since July 1999. Countless practitioners, young and old, men and women, have suffered unlawful arrests, detentions, torture, and imprisonment. Many have lost their lives at the hands of police.
But even in the face of this unprecedented tyranny, Falun Gong practitioners have responded with great compassion.
To give an example. Ms. Liu Zixuan, a 27-year-old Falun Gong practitioner who lost her mother and was brought up by her grandparents, grew up untainted from this red education.
Ms. Liu was unlawfully arrested by police on August 7, 2019, together with her roommate, also a Falun Gong practitioner. Their place was ransacked and their personal belongings confiscated.
The police tried to force them to write a “statement” to renounce their faith and told them that someone had reported them because they were seen on the surveillance camera going in and out residential buildings distributing Falun Gong materials.
When her grandpa went to see her at the police station, he said to the police in tears, “My granddaughter is a good girl. She graduated from a prestigious university, and always strives to be a good person by following the principles of 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.' It's wrong to persecute Falun Dafa. I hope you can figure out right from wrong; you can't send good people to jail.”
“Don't worry about me,” Ms. Liu said to her grandpa and her dad, “Please don't resent the people who reported me. They did so because they didn't know the truth. Please treat them with compassion.”
Ten young Generation Z Falun Gong practitioners from Beijing published an article on the Minghui website recently, titled “Cultivation by Practitioners Born in the 90s.” In this article, they wrote about how they had changed from self-centered individuals to people who are considerate, who always treat others with broad-mindedness and tolerance.
“We were all born in the 90s, and like most young people our age, we used to be self-centered and competitive. We enjoyed going to movies and indulging in computer games; we were afraid to lose face in front of others and tried to validate ourselves, and of course, always tried to keep up with new fashions and appearances. We stood up for our buddies and argued with our parents, harboring much resentment towards anyone in our way,” they said.
“However, in each of our different situations, we all came to know the truth about Falun Dafa and learned that Falun Dafa is good!”
When these young people learned the truth from their favorite teacher or found out that their best friends are Falun Gong practitioners, they began reflecting upon themselves and what was happening around them in society.
They then made up their mind to take up the practice as well, and since then, they have been completely changed for the better both physically and spiritually, while being blessed by following the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
“During the current coronavirus outbreak, when the entire society is undergoing unprecedented changes, we do not feel fearful, sad or hopeless like many people around us, and just carry on doing what we should do in a calm and down-to-earth manner,” they said.
Epilogue
The young are the hope of a nation. When the CCP injects its “red education” into China’s youth from the time they are in kindergarten, it is turning many of these young minds into die-hard warriors for its regime. These young minds will go out into the world bearing tremendous hatred for other nations while being deprived of universal values and the ability to discern good from bad.
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Category: News Commentary
