Textbooks change: China’s war against Japanese aggression lasted 14 years instead of eight
Letter instructs schools to extend timeline of ‘eight-year war of resistance’ in primary and secondary teaching materials
The Ministry of Education has ordered a nationwide revision that expands the timeline of the war against Japanese aggression in primary and secondary education in its latest move to boost nationalism.
A letter was sent to provincial education authorities throughout the country from a department under the ministry overseeing primary and secondary schools, The Beijing News reported yesterday.
Dated January 3, the letter reads: “In accordance with our spirit of implementing ‘the 14-year war of resistance’, the department requested different levels and types of teaching material be amended.”
It advised all departments to check their teaching materials and replace the term “eight-year war of resistance” with “14-year war of resistance”, and said only the amended materials should be used by spring.
The People’s Daily reported that the curriculum used should fully reflect “the instrumental function of the Communist Party in the resistance against aggression” and that China was a main battlefield in the war against fascism.