China stops usage of English in educational institutions to counter 'Western influence'

China is rejecting the use of the English language in its educational institutions as a part of a battle against Western influence.
The impact of English is reshaping China's social, cultural, economic, and political landscape, according to Li Yuan, writing in The New York Times.

China's reform and opening-up policies, which transformed a poor and reclusive nation into the world's second-largest economy, are nearly synonymous with English. The education officials in Shanghai prohibited local elementary schools from holding final exams on the English language last month, according to the New York Times. 

China banned the use of foreign textbooks last year

China's education administration banned the use of foreign textbooks in primary and junior high schools last year. This year, a government consultant suggested that the country's annual college admission exam stopped evaluating English.

According to the New York Times, new regulations on for-profit after-school tutoring franchises took effect this summer, affecting companies that have been teaching English for years. According to instructors who spoke on the condition of anonymity, original English and translated texts are discouraged at colleges as well, particularly in more sensitive fields like journalism and constitutional studies. Three of them claimed that the quality of some government-approved textbooks had decreased as a result of some authors being chosen based on their seniority and party loyalty rather than their academic credentials.

Foreign texts are being replaced by Communist Party doctrine, according to Li. Shanghai's basic schools may not be administering English tests, but beginning this month, a new textbook on "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" will be obligatory in the city's elementary, middle, and high schools. For a semester, each student is expected to take a weekly class. Last week, Chinese government media widely disseminated a nationalistic article that cited "the barbaric and ferocious attacks that the US has started to launch against China."

China's ties with the rest of the world being broken

English has now become a telltale marker of suspected foreign influence, a worry fueled by nationalist rhetoric that has only gotten louder since the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, China's ties to the rest of the world are being broken one by one, according to the New York Times.

(Inputs from ANI)

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