China Moves to Ban After-School Programs in Effort to Monopolize Communist Brainwashing

The after-school education market in China was shaken after the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping criticized profit-making after-school programs in mainland China during the “Two Sessions.”

The “Two Sessions” are annual plenary sessions of China’s National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that make national-level political decisions.

A high-quality and balanced basic public education service system is needed, said Xi at the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC in Beijing on March 6, 2021, according to Xinhua News.

On March 8, Ni Minjing, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, joined a discussion on “a complete ban on after-school training institutions,” during a live program of the “Two Sessions.”

Soon after, official documents circulated online, issued by Beijing authorities of Chaoyang District, Changping District, and Haidian District, indicating scrutiny and reopening suspension, targeting after-school institutes teaching foreign languages, primary school subjects, and university entrance examination courses.

It was not only limited to Beijing.

Ms. Zhang, who runs a private school in Shanghai, told RFA that almost all after-school institutes in Beijing, Shanghai, and even across the country have recently been called off.

“This has not happened before,” she said.

By the closure of NYSE equity markets at 16:00 EST on March 10, stocks of after-school training institutions such as TAL Education Group, GSX Techedu Inc, and New Oriental Education & Techno were down 11.64 percent, 8.59 percent, and 14.08 percent respectively.

The Beijing Municipal Education Commission denied the complete ban on after-school institutes on March 12 through a public post on its WeChat platform, ascribing the shutdown to bad pandemic control, false advertising, and low-quality teaching.