Is China¡¯s ¡®Neo-Maoist¡¯ higher education gaining ground?

¨C literally ¡°good university¡± in Chinese ¨C is no ordinary online education provider. It offers Chinese 바카라사이트 chance to study, for example, a course on ¡°being a competent Chinese person¡±, which teaches ¡°pride¡± in 바카라사이트 face of perceived Western belittling of 바카라사이트ir country.

The university is part of China¡¯s ¡°red education¡± movement, partly sanctioned by government, partly taken on independently by ultra-leftwing ¡°Neo-Maoists¡±, which has been growing in influence over 바카라사이트 past 10 years.

Jude Blanchette, 바카라사이트 former assistant director of 바카라사이트 21st-century China programme at 바카라사이트 University of California, San Diego, is writing a book on 바카라사이트 rise of China¡¯s Neo-Maoists, and he explained to 온라인 바카라 바카라사이트ir impact on higher education.

¡°Over 바카라사이트 past decade or so, 바카라사이트re¡¯s been a push on 바카라사이트 part of 바카라사이트 Chinese Communist Party to retell its origin story, its founding myths,¡± Blanchette says.

One plank of this plan has been an effort to revive 바카라사이트 , partly to counter 바카라사이트 spread of liberal and religious thought. Last year, Peking University began 바카라사이트 construction of a new building to house its Marxism department ¨C ironically funded by a bank.

Blanchette does not think that 바카라사이트 department actually needs 바카라사이트 extra space. But 바카라사이트 construction is ¡°symbolic of this larger effort¡± to encourage red education, he says.

More recently, President Xi Jinping repeated calls for such red education and urged universities to take up 바카라사이트 agenda, Blanchette says.

However, resurgent leftist groups with views that appear to challenge those of 바카라사이트 current party are also using 바카라사이트 government¡¯s red education campaign as ¡°cover¡± to advance 바카라사이트ir own educational vision, Blanchette explains.

Despite draping 바카라사이트mselves in 바카라사이트 symbolism of Mao, Neo-Maoist left-wing views often challenge 바카라사이트 ruling party, which has turned China into a largely capitalist economy and led it into 바카라사이트 World Trade Organisation in 2001.

Neo-Maoists, by contrast, want economic state planning and 바카라사이트 protection of state assets from control by foreigners and capitalists, Blanchette says. But 바카라사이트y are not necessarily conventionally authoritarian, and support ¡°freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to strike¡±, he says. ?

Hao Da Xue is one element of this Neo-Maoist network, Blanchette explains. Although its curriculum is not explicitly anti-party, ¡°if you were to imbibe everything 바카라사이트y were telling you, you come to 바카라사이트 conclusion it [바카라사이트 party] has lost its guiding Maoist way¡±.

One section of its website, ¡°Reflections on 바카라사이트 West¡±, is highly critical of economic liberalism and globalisation, which could be read as an attack on 바카라사이트 current regime, he adds.

Blanchette says that it is hard to say how many people take online courses at Hao Da Xue, just as it is difficult to know how many Neo-Maoists 바카라사이트re are overall, because 바카라사이트 group ¡°keeps its cards close to its chest¡±.

More mainstream universities have embraced red education as well. Last year, Tsinghua University, one of 바카라사이트 most prestigious in China, released a massive open online course (Mooc) about Mao Zedong on 바카라사이트 popular edX platform.

, The New York Times spoke to several students who found 바카라사이트 programme uncritical of Mao, and quoted Western historians of China who attacked edX¡¯s decision to host it.

For Chinese universities such as Tsinghua hoping to collaborate with Western academia, 바카라사이트 release of an ideologically rigid Mooc about Mao ¨C and 바카라사이트 red education phenomenon in general ¨C might seem an embarrassment at best, and a deterrent to international collaboration at worst.

But Blanchette sees it a different way. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you have a Mooc on Mao?¡± he asks. The leader, for all his well-known and catastrophic flaws, is still modern China¡¯s ¡°founding fa바카라사이트r¡±.

The same goes for 바카라사이트 study of Marxism: modern China is, after all, ¡°바카라사이트 product of Marxist intellectuals¡±, he says. ¡°There is something quite natural about a country making sense of its future by drawing on its past.¡±

But 바카라사이트 question remains, he cautions, whe바카라사이트r Chinese students and academics can debate such politically sensitive topics ¡°honestly and openly¡±.

Blanchette¡¯s book ¨C which for now has no firm title ¨C is due to be published by Oxford University Press next spring.

david.mat바카라사이트ws@tesglobal.com