by URBAN LEHNER
In his 10 years as“paramount leader,” Xi Jinping has done his best to control what 1.4 billion Chinese think. A great firewall restricts internet users to government-approved content. Expressions of non-conforming opinion are punished. So is uttering forbidden words and phrases. Security cameras are everywhere, some with hidden microphones.
It feels like a throwback to an earlier era. China under Communist Party rule has never been free, but in the ’90s and aughts dissent was more tolerated. Under Xi, China is clamping down again.
Socialist values and the need for a strong ruling party are being reemphasized. Just as Chinese of an earlier era were forced to study Mao Zedong Thought, students in China today take courses in Xi Jinping Thought, which isn’t so different from Mao’s.
Is the indoctrination working? Do the Chinese people believe what their rulers are telling them? Have they bought into the propaganda line? Have the limits on free expression stifled critical thinking and creativity?
These are not academic questions. Whether Americans regard the Chinese as enemies or customers, they need to understand what they think.“Know thy enemy,” counseled the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu in The Art of War. Modern marketing experts say the same about customers.
Among our sherpas in the quest for this knowledge are Chinese-speaking Americans with experience in the country, like the author and New Yorker writer Peter Hessler. Hessler has done two stints as a teacher at Chinese universities in Sichuan province, the first as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1990s and the second from 2019 to 2021.
His recent New Yorker article ,“A Teacher in China Learns the Limits of Free Expression,” paints a fascinating picture of his second-stint Chinese students. Far from being sheep docilely following the Communist Party line, many of them come off as clear-eyed about the faults of China’s political system. Upon cool calculation, they reckon its flaws are outweighed by its advantages. But most aren’t rabid enthusiasts.
To be sure, some are. Early in 2020, Hessler was vilified on Weibo, a Chinese social media site, for a comment he had written on a student’s essay. The student had argued that governments should limit free speech, asserting that in“civilized” countries, people were not allowed to question national sovereignty. Hessler had pointed out that this description of other countries was wrong.
On Weibo, Hessler’s comment was described inaccurately, implying he had endorsed violations of sovereignty. It was“treasonous” for Hessler to be teaching at the school, one of seven posts declared.“I think he’s gonna die soon,” said another. The posts were removed from the site and Hessler continued to teach, but when his contract expired in 2021 it wasn’t renewed.
Yet compared with his 1990s teaching gig in China, Hessler found his recent students less worshipful of their leaders. When he assigned the earlier students to write about someone they admired, Mao had been the most popular choice.
This time his students mostly wrote about scientists or entrepreneurs:“Out of sixty-five students, only one selected Xi Jinping, which left the President tied with Eminem, Jim Morrison and George Washington.”
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