Rock ’n’ roll, pop music and the internet are Western vices that can be used to sow the seeds of “colour revolution” among Chinese youth, according to China’s latest college textbook on national security.
The textbook, which was officially launched last week, represents the latest move from Beijing to strengthen ideological control and promote national security among young Chinese.
It will be used in the foundational course on national security education in universities, according to Community Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
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According to the book, university students must remain vigilant against Western popular culture and beware of “colour revolution” traps when surfing online.
“Colour revolution” is Beijing’s code for subversion instigated by Western powers, and their attempts to infiltrate various sectors of society and fuel unrest with the purpose of overthrowing the ruling establishment.
“The internet is a key channel of communication; popular culture like pop and rock music are often used as covers for [colour revolution],” the textbook warns.
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 President Xi Jinping and includes several essays tailored for university students.
The Ministry of Education, which held a symposium on Friday to mark the launch of the book, has urged teachers to make full use of it to boost awareness of national security risks.
“Comprehensively promote the use of the textbook, effectively equip university students to have a proper understanding of the concept of overall national security, guide them to become the firm practitioners of national security,” the ministry said in an announcement on the launch.
Students are also required to study the meaning of “overall national security” – a concept put forward by Xi in 2014 about raising such awareness and written into the National Security Law a year later.
The book argues that the internet is a crucial platform for shaping public opinion, and China must defend cyberspace as it is a key battleground for national security in its ideological struggle with the West.
It also says that failure to safeguard national security was the main reason behind the collapse of the former Soviet Union, which had abandoned Marxism and one-party rule.
Xi has repeatedly called on his party to learn from the lessons of the Soviet Union’s disintegration to avoid a similar fate.
It uses quotes from ancient Chinese texts to argue that university students should have a sense of crisis about national security, saying that they must be conscious about their roles in safeguarding national security, actively participate in related activities on campus and be vigilant against foreign infiltration.
“It’s imperative to heighten sensitivity about national security on campus, and individuals must take the initiative and dare to struggle”.
Primary and junior high schools have also been issued new textbooks that emphasise national security and traditional culture, state broadcaster CCTV reported as the autumn semester began on Sunday.
Since Xi came to power over a decade ago, the leadership in Beijing has stepped up national security education in school as a defence against what it calls infiltration by Western forces among Chinese youth.
In 2015, China designated April 15 as National Security Education Day, with numerous related activities organised in schools every year on this day since then.
In a speech delivered at the National Education Conference in 2018, Xi attacked Western countries for their attempts to “westernise” Chinese youth and orchestrate colour revolutions, as he stressed the importance of ideological education in classrooms. The speech was recently published in the party journal Qiushi.
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