According to the official news agency, Xinhua, the CCP CC issued Document No:30 last week instructing universities to “enhance guidance over thinking and keep a tight grip on leading ideological work in higher education” and reinforcing warnings that Western-inspired notions of media independence, “universal values” and criticism of Mao threaten the party’s survival.
Reports state that in internal discussions Chinese President Xi Jinping has been tougher and attacked liberal thinking as a pernicious threat that has contaminated the Communist Party’s ranks. He called on officials to purge the nation of ideas that run counter to modern China’s Marxist-Leninist foundations. In comments appearing on Party and university websites since October 2014, Xi Jinping wrote “Never allow singing to a tune contrary to the party center” and “Never allow eating the Communist Party’s food and then smashing the Communist Party’s cooking pots.”
Zhang Hongliang, a prominent neo-Maoist, said in an interview. ““It’s a golden period to be a leftist in China, Xi Jinping has ushered in a fundamental change to the status quo, shattering the sky.” Separately, retired Major General Song Fangmin discussed Document No: 30 with dozens of veteran party officials and hard-left activists at a meeting in Beijing in November. He said that Directive No: 30 was a sequel to Document No. 9, which had been authorized by Xi Jinping in April 2013, and launched an offensive against ideas such as “civil society.” Major General Song Fangmin said “These two documents are extremely important, and both summarize speeches by the general secretary. They identify targets so we can train our eyes on the targets of struggle.”
In November, The Liaoning Daily, reported that said universities were troubled by ideological laxity. Chinese academics, it complained, were comparing Mao Zedong to an emperor, praising Western notions such as a separation of powers, and “believing that China should take the path of the West. It has become fashionable in university lecture halls to talk down China and malign this society.”
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