Reported by Dhondup Tashi
Edited by Pema Tso
Translated By TenGyal
A school in the Tibetan region of Chen Tsa County, Qinghai Province, has been renamed the “China Workers and Peasants’ Chen Tsa County Xi Zhongshun Nationalities Unity Red Army Primary School”
Aiming to perpetuate the ideology and history of communist expansionism to a newer generation, the Chinese government began establishing a wide network of Red Army Elementary Schools or Red Army Schools from 2007 onwards. Some of these schools have been named after the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s late father, Xi Zhongshun. Currently, there are more than 424 Red Army Schools in the areas referred to as “ the Old Revolutionary Base(s)” in China. Many new Red Army schools are also being set up, and old schools are being renamed in Tibet, Mongolia and Xinjiang.
Red Army Primary Schools in Tibet
In 2008, the so-called “China Red Army School Construction Committee ”, purporting ‘the profound and deep connection established between the Chinese Army and the Tibetan proletariat as members of the same family and being inseparable as milk and water’, started to set up these Red Army Primary schools and rename old schools. As such, there are at least 11 Red Army Primary or Red Army Schools in the Tibetan regions.
In the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), At least three such schools were set up between 2007-2013: the Lhasa Tibet Nationalities Unity Red Army Primary School, The Tibet Military Command Office 8-1 Red Army Primary School and the Nyingchi 8-1 Red Army Primary School.
The Nyingchi Red Army Elementary School is located in Sum Zom (Songzong) village, Pome County. It used to be the military base of the 18th Battalion of the People’s Liberation Army ( PLA). Zhang Guohua, a commander of the West Battalion of the PLA, is said to have resided in Sumzom (Songzong) village, Pome County. The Battalion was formed specifically in Lhasa in 1952. Citing this obscure historical account, the “ Red Army School Construction Committee of China” renamed the Sumzom Village Elementary School the “ Nyingchi 8-1 Red Army Primary School” in November 2011. With the backing of the Tibet Military District office, the school faced significant pressure to overhaul the curriculum, replacing it entirely with Communist literature and education. The facilities and amenities in the school are said to be better compared to others.
Similarly, in the Chinese-controlled Qinghai Province, at least five Red Army Schools were set up between 2008 to September 22nd, 2013: the Chentsa County Xi Zhongshun Nationalities Unity Red Army Primary School, the Pema County Red Army Primary School, the Xining City Red Army Primary School, the Xinghai County Red Army Primary School and the Kyegudo Kalsang Metok Red Army Primary School.
The Qinghai Kyegudo Kelsang Metok Red Army School was set up with the financial assistance of the China Mobile Group Guangdong Company Limited as part of the Chinese government’s expansive rebuilding initiative after the great Kyegu Earthquake on April 14th, 2010.
Similarly, the Chen Tsa County Markhu Thang Township No 2 Primary School, established in 1982, was renamed the “ China Workers and Peasants’ Chen Tsa County Xi Zhongshun Nationalities Unity Red Army Primary School ” by the Red Army Construction Committee in December 2021.
On April 29th, 2022, a local official named Tu Tan Min in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture stated that the Red Army schools must develop “qualified stewards of Communism” by laying the foundations of “patriotic education, and the students must be brought up to be healthy from a young age.”
There are also a substantial number of Red Army schools named after President Xi’s late father, Xi Zhongshun, in mainland China. In Hanzhong, Kansu (Gansu) Province, there is a Xi Zhongshun Red Army Primary School. The primary school is said to have been founded by the older generation of Chinese peasant revolutionaries, such as Xi Zhongshun, for manufacturing and agriculture in the region in 1936. The school was renamed in 2007 as the Xi Zhongshun Red Army Primary School.
In the Tibetan regions of Sichuan Province, at least five Red Army Primary schools were set up between 2007-2019: the Tsenlha County Red Army Primary School, the Dzoge County Red Army Primary School, the Bathang Hang Xin Tin Red Army Primary School, the Dherong County Chithao Town Red Army Primary School and the Serta County Red Army Primary School.
According to the Chinese government reports, in June 1936, the Red Army reached Serta County during the Long March and “established a loving and profoundly deep connection between China and Tibet”. In November 2018, the China Red Army School Construction Committee renamed Serta County Primary School No: 2 as Serta County Red Army Primary School. The school was one of the 300 Red Army Primary Schools in the whole of China in 2019 and the third such school in Karze (Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture).
The school project was initiated in 2007 by some of the older generation leaders led by Li Rui huan, who was a standing member of the Central Executive Committee and the former chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. They are strongly pushing to construct these schools as a symbol of communist education through the government’s educational programs. In May 2017, a decade after the Red Army Construction project was started, there were already 231 Red Army Primary Schools in the 29 cities and provinces of these so-called Old Revolutionary Base areas. By December 2022, almost 424 such schools had been established.
By exhorting the students to sing communist songs such as “Follow the Party” and “ The Red Star Shines Brilliantly”, these schools instruct them to remember their origins. It is the ultimate aim of these schools, as reflected in the daily curriculum, to promote and uphold the “red spirit” in all aspects of education at all times.
