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Amber Wang

Days after former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022, hundreds of students at a school in mainland China gathered for a lecture in which they were told how the trip represented US moves to “contain” Beijing’s rise.
“Why did Pelosi risk being condemned by the world for visiting Taiwan? Why didn’t we shoot it down?” asked a teacher at the No 10 Middle School in Liuyang, Hunan province, according to an online post by the school.
The question prompted heated discussion among the students – all clad in combat uniforms – before the teacher wrapped up the lecture.
Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which prompted Beijing to launch unprecedented military exercises around the self-ruled island, happened “against the backdrop of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict” and represented “the latest manifestation of great power competition”, the teacher reasoned.
“The intention of the US elite is to use the Taiwan issue to disrupt our development rhythm and curb our rise,” the teacher concluded.
The “national defence education class”, which according to the school was intended to “train student minds to resist the erosion of foreign ideology”, was one of many similar sessions being held around the country as Beijing ramps up efforts to raise awareness among young people about national security.
They come as patriotic fervour is on the rise – driven by Beijing – in response to geopolitical rivalries, notably with countries like the US, and as analysts express concerns about declining military recruitment levels due to factors such as falling birth rates.
Meanwhile, in recent years, drones and rocket launchers have been introduced into combat training at some universities, while groups of children as young as kindergarten age have been sent to tour military camps so that the “seeds” of a “strong military” can be planted, as military commanders have described it.
The world is not peaceful, the education on patriotism and national defence should be cultivated from an early age
Fu Qianshao, military analyst
China is also making changes to a law in a bid to boost national defence education, including exploring ways to enhance the combat skills of teenagers to prepare for potential risks in a “complex and ever-changing security and development environment”.
The trends, according to experts, underline growing concerns in Beijing over what are seen as geopolitical risks, and challenges to attract young people to join the military, all while experts attempt to extract military lessons from key battlegrounds like Ukraine.
“The world is not peaceful, the education on patriotism and national defence should be cultivated from an early age,” Chinese military analyst Fu Qianshao said.
“In the future, when war breaks out, all citizens must be mobilised, which can be seen in the Ukraine war.”
Reaching younger kids
For decades, in addition to its mostly voluntary conscription system, China has deployed a system of public military education that includes compulsory training in high schools and universities. The approach, while not common, has also been used in Russia and North Korea.
Russia revived compulsory military training for high school students in 2023, a year after it invaded Ukraine, and decades since the practice was dropped following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Most countries offer some form of national defence education for their young people through optional courses or specialised military academies, or organisations that teach values and skills.

Military training in Chinese high schools has shades of the Scouts of America, founded in 1910, which also weaves in messages of patriotism across a range of activities and educational programmes. The key difference is the Chinese version is mandatory.
But as geopolitical headwinds intensify, Beijing now believes that more must be done to rally China’s youth to support its military.
Under new amendments to China’s National Defence Education Law, the first changes since 2018, a key focus will be on military education among the country’s teenagers.
For the first time since the law was introduced more than two decades ago, primary school pupils from about age six are now required to have military “awareness” through compulsory classes, according to a draft submitted in April for first reading to the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC).
Meanwhile, according to the draft, junior high schools may, for the first time, organise military training for students ages 12-15 to master combat skills, following the implementation of the mandatory programme in universities and high schools in the past.
The amendments, which have to pass a second or possibly third reading, were part of an array of many similar policy readouts in recent years.
For example, according to rules issued in 2022 by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, national defence education should be incorporated into school curriculums and examination processes, and primary schools are urged to conduct seven-day combat training sessions.
As of January this year, 2,431 primary and secondary schools had been selected for pilot programmes to improve military awareness and skills among children.
Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at the Taiwanese naval academy in Kaohsiung, said the most important component of national defence education is learning patriotism.
“If you receive national defence education as early as possible, whether it is physical fitness, national identity, or the construction of patriotic thinking, you will have a correct view on how to protect the country,” Lu said.
“Now that the US is joining forces with allies to launch all-round containment on China, including in science and technology, strengthening defence education is very important for uniting national consciousness,” he added.
Combat training and drones
When they were first adopted in the 1980s, these short-term military training sessions for Chinese students were little more than military marching, formation drills and physical exercise.
But recently, the exercises have become much more immersive, as some training features the use of combat equipment such as drones, and the simulation of real battlefield environments, according to publicly available information.
In China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, which borders Vietnam, students at Guilin University of Electronic Technology underwent combat training with rocket launchers and simulated drone bombings, according to a report by The Beijing News last September.
That same month, students at Peking University in Beijing conducted target practice with guns, while 5,000 students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University marched at night while learning how to avoid air attacks, according to a report by The Paper.
China’s unique short-term military training programmes are unlike those of many other countries, which operate some form of conscription that requires longer stints of military service, with 32 of them requiring more than 18 months of service for men.
However, military education in China is systematically conducted across different levels of schools through courses and lectures beginning in primary schools, as well as activities such as visits to military memorial sites and military training camps.
In April, a group of kindergarten children was sent to observe the training of frontline soldiers in the Eastern Theatre Command Air Force, according to an official military post on Weibo.
Exposing the enemy’s lies by explaining the truth has become an urgent issue that national defence education in primary and secondary schools must face
Ma Dan, PLA researcher
“The zero distance” engagement between the kids and soldiers allowed the “seeds” of a “strong military” and patriotism to be planted in the hearts of the children, the post on Weibo said.
National defence education in primary and secondary schools is the “foundation” of the national security strategy, Ma Dan, a researcher with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences wrote in an article in Guangming Daily last year.
“Exposing the enemy’s lies by explaining the truth has become an urgent issue that national defence education in primary and secondary schools must face in a new era,” said Ma, who is part of the team responsible for the country’s defence education system.
Military awareness and basic combat skills should be cultivated gradually from childhood so that they can “spontaneously and proactively” react with national defence behaviours to help prevent threats like separatism and defend territorial integrity, Ma wrote in the article.
Recruitment problems
The trend to ramp up military indoctrination among Chinese youth comes as concerns grow in Beijing over having enough recruits to sustain the country’s military, as conflicts like Moscow’s war in Ukraine cast a spotlight on military preparedness.
In several addresses, Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed Taiwan’s “reunification” with the mainland as “inevitable”, preferably through peaceful means, but never renouncing the use of force to accomplish the task.


The NPC argues that the amendments to the national defence education law are necessary to cope with what has been described as a complex security environment and various growing risks, according to an explanation presented alongside the amendments in April.
Other government papers have linked military education to the overall strength of the PLA, as it becomes increasingly challenging to recruit members among China’s youth.
According to those papers, the tasks of national defence education are difficult but greatly important in safeguarding national sovereignty, and achieving the army centenary goal in 2027.
Many of China’s challenges in attracting people to enlist in military service can be traced to demographics, as the country’s population ages and the proportion of young people declines.
However, a “weak sense” of national defence is also a factor, according to a paper published in Contemporary Youth Research in 2014. Because they have grown up in an extended era of peacetime, younger generations are increasingly influenced by “hedonistic” trends in social media that steer them away from military service, according to a proposal by a Chinese local advisory body.
Fu Qianshao, the military analyst, said young people are part of the country’s reserve forces that could play roles in wartime, so it is necessary to cultivate their awareness and skills from an early age, though the enhancement of education was not “directly” related to the recruitment considerations.
But some have expressed doubts about how effective such initiatives will be in addressing Beijing’s concerns.
“The programmes aim to bolster patriotic enthusiasm and perhaps expand the ranks of potential recruits for the PLA,” said Timothy Heath, a senior international and defence analyst at the RAND Corporation, who expressed doubts that coordinated indoctrination could effectively address those challenges.
“Nor will the measures fundamentally improve the PLA’s recruitment situation, because young people do not like to experience hardship and life in the barracks in China, or anywhere else in the developed world.”


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More primary and secondary schoolchildren are participating in pilot programmes to improve their military awareness and skills


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