Opinion | The Trojan horse threat behind China’s tutoring and tech crackdown amid US rivalry
- Both industries have become increasingly powerful and could be capable of destabilising society and Communist Party rule as China engages in an existential contest with the US
China’s intensifying rivalry with the United States appears to be the catalyst for reducing neijuan and increasing efficiency. But the story is much more complicated. Keeping the ruling party at the centre of everything is behind almost every decision in China.
Tutoring companies create business by triggering competition between middle-class parents. They create demand by forcing ever-younger children into academic study. With sought-after kindergartens and primary schools designing their entrance tests for the well-tutored, everyone must do it – or risk leaving their child behind from the start.
This is a quintessential case of neijuan. Resources are wasted and children’s lives ruined in cram schools. It is also a clear case of profit-driven education causing harm.
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Further, private tutoring companies may not advance Communist Party priorities in learning. As reliance on these companies grows and the tutoring industry expands, it poses a long-term threat to party rule.