China Briefing | China walks fine line between stoking nationalism and seeking global engagement

A proposal by an official to cut English lessons in schools has been seen as another sign of rising nationalism spurred by mounting tensions with the West

As Beijing embarks on a strategy to boost its domestic market and tech exports, it must be careful not to let nationalist sentiment get in the way of its plans

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A production line at a factory in China’s Fujian Province. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30am, 13 Mar 2021Updated: 9:30am, 13 Mar 2021

For more than 5,000 delegates converging in Beijing and attending annual meetings of China’s parliament and its advisory body, their main task is to endorse and lend legitimacy to the Chinese leadership’s major decisions and policies on political, economic and social developments.

But the gatherings like the one which ended last week also provide them an annual platform to broadcast the issues they are passionate about to influence the government’s thinking, through giving media interviews or submitting hundreds of proposals for new laws.

While most of those ideas stand little chance of making their way into the legislative agenda, a few of them can stir up national debates which can prove awkward for the central government.

A case in point is the proposal from Xu Jin, a delegate to the advisory Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), who last week suggested that the government remove English as a core subject in compulsory education and as a requirement for university entrance examinations.

Xu said learning English, or any other foreign language, was a waste of time and resources. It took up about 10 per cent of class hours, but was only useful for less than 10 per cent of graduates at work, he told Chinese state media.

Xu also argued that mobile phones and other smart AI-enabled devices could provide increasingly sophisticated translation services that could help students better than the current English classes which focus on rote-learning and exam-taking ability instead of improving students’ language communication skills.

Understandably, his proposal went viral online and generated heated debates.