One of China’s top universities is facing a change in charter, forcing communist ideology into their education program.
The communist ideology
Serious discussions circulated in Fudan University last Tuesday after an announcement regarding a change in the university’s charter.
Fudan University, one of the top-performing universities in China, has a long tradition of practicing “freedom of thought.” The liberal university is now being part of a major reform by the government towards the communist ideology.
With the reform in hand, students, on a rare occasion of defiance, started an intellectual debate on the removal of their freedom of thought.
Limits of social media in China
Just a few hours after the amendment got released, Weibo (China’s leading social media platform) exploded with discussions about the scope and effectivity of the Fudan amendment.
A deleted post from one of the users at Weibo quotes the following,
If I may dare to ask those who initiated the amendment. How do you expect our generation to face the ancestors of Fudan?
The post, along with other similar contents, were deleted by the users Wednesday afternoon.
Since 2012, President Xi Jinping has clamped the use of the internet, especially social media, to limit the involvement of Chinese citizens in various aspects of civil society. The campaign increased censorship on political matters and shrunk the space for protest from university campuses.
In line with the Hong Kong protests
The rising involvement of students in the Hong Kong protest triggered the proposed revisions of the university charter.
According to Fudan university,
The new charter will weaponize the minds of teachers and students towards the communist party framework under the Xi Jinping regime.
Fudan University is ranked 109th globally in the Times Higher Education world university rankings.
There are two other universities included in the change to the communist ideology, namely, Shaanxi Normal and Nanjing University. The new charter in the three universities took effect since last December 2.
The government expects a stronger sense of patriotism towards the communist ideology from the mentioned universities.
