National security studies are going mainstream in China. Will it breed a new Chinese elite?
- China’s Ministry of Education is taking the lead to ramp up the studies deemed essential to guard the country against perceived external threats
- But the new university discipline risks creating a generation that sees the world through a ‘securitised’ mindset, experts say
China is in the midst of a sweeping pivot to ramp up its national security – a massive undertaking led by its president, Xi Jinping, who has deemed the changes essential for China’s survival amid elevated geopolitical tensions with Washington and its allies.
Over the past five years, more than a dozen Chinese universities – seven of which are general universities – have established national security studies departments, and more schools are expected to follow, billing the new field of studies as “safeguarding the country”.
The initiatives first introduced in 2018 have turned the once-specialised subject into a discipline that is now accessible to the wider public and admits students from diverse academic backgrounds.
Previously, the curriculum was mostly focused on academic training for military, security and law enforcement officials. National security courses in Chongqing’s Southwest University of Political Science and Law, for example, have been offered since the 1980s.
In 2021, China’s Ministry of Education explained the rationale for the initiative as an “urgent need for a large number of national security talents” as China faced “complex and severe” international and domestic challenges.
Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly warned citizens about the “worst and most extreme situations” and to be prepared for “high winds and waves” – likely references to geopolitical headwinds from Washington and its allies.
