Mainland Schools Removing 'inappropriate' Books

As schools reopened in China after the Covid-19 outbreak, they have thrown themselves into a nationwide exercise to remove books deemed politically incorrect, deepening President Xi Jinping's push to instil patriotism and ideological purity in the education system.

A directive from the Ministry of Education last October called on elementary and middle schools to clear out books from their libraries including "illegal" and "inappropriate" works. Now teachers have removed books from schools in at least 30 of mainland China's 33 provinces and municipalities, according to a Reuters review of social media posts, publicly available school and local government documents, and interviews with teachers.

From western Gansu province to Shanghai, the review of publicly announced measures pointed to books being cleared by the hundreds of thousands.

Censorship in China has been intensifying under Xi, but analysts say this is the first national campaign aimed at libraries in decades. It comes as government employees in Hong Kong last week removed books by pro-democracy activists from public libraries to see whether they violate a new national security law.

"This is the first movement targeted at libraries since the Cultural Revolution," said Wu Qiang, a political analyst based in Beijing and former political science lecturer at Tsinghua University. In the late 1960s, zealous teenagers driven by Mao Zedong carried out a nationwide campaign targeting libraries and destroying or burning what they could get their hands on, as part of a wider destruction of traditional culture.

This campaign is more selective, and directed from the top, with schools putting groups of teachers in charge of interpreting the order. The books removed have mainly been out-of-date, shabby or pirated texts, but the drive has also covered those which, while they may be legally available, are sensitive.

The ministry directive did not list titles, but said illegal books are those "that damage the unity of the country, sovereignty or its territory; books that upset society's order and damage societal stability; books that violate the Party's guidelines and policies, smear or defame the Party, the country's leaders and heroes."

Inappropriate books are "not in line with the socialist core values; that have deviant world views, life views and values" or are books "promoting religious doctrines and canons; promoting narrow nationalism and racism."

Neither the Ministry of Education nor the State Council Information Office, which acts as a spokesperson for the central government, responded to requests for comment. (Reuters)