The following plan lists China’s near- to medium-term priorities for its education system. The initial portions of the plan are heavily focused on the Communist Party’s use of schools and the education system as a vehicle for ideological indoctrination. A later section of the plan calls for improving basic research at universities and increasing collaboration between academic institutions and corporations to strengthen China’s technological self-sufficiency. It also advocates for improved AI education and the use of AI tools in educational evaluation and policymaking.

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at:    https://perma.cc/5K92-DLQ5

Outline of the Plan for the Construction of China into an Education Powerhouse (2024-2035)

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 19, 2025: Recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council published the Outline of the Plan for the Construction of China into an Education Powerhouse (2024-2035), and also issued a notice requiring all regions and departments to conscientiously implement it in light of their actual conditions.

The main contents of the Outline of the Plan for the Construction of China into an Education Powerhouse (2024-2035) are as follows:

This plan has been formulated to fully implement the strategic deployments made at the 20th Party Congress for accelerating the construction of China into an education powerhouse.¹

I.     Overall Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, this Plan fully implements the guiding principles of the 20th Party Congress and the Second and Third Plenums of the 20th CCP Central Committee. It comprehensively implements General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on education, thoroughly understands the decisive significance of the “Two Establishes,”² and resolutely upholds the “Two Upholds.”³ It adheres to the principle of giving priority to education in development, fully implements the Party’s directives on education, unswervingly follows the educational development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and upholds the socialist orientation in school operations. It emphasizes the political, people-centered, and strategic nature of education, and implements the fundamental task of cultivating moral people (立德树人). It aims to cultivate talent for the Party and the country, fully serve the cause of Chinese-style modernization construction, and conduct education rooted in China’s own context. The Plan calls for accelerating the development of a high-quality education system and nurturing socialist builders and successors equipped with a well-rounded moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education (德智体美劳). It seeks to accelerate the construction of an education powerhouse of socialism with Chinese characteristics with strong ideological guidance, talent competitiveness, scientific and technological (S&T) support, assurance for the people’s livelihoods, collaboration with society, and global influence, thereby providing powerful support for building China into a modernized socialist world power (社会主义现代化强国) and comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In our work, we must achieve the following: Uphold the Party’s overall leadership over education; emphasize promoting fairness and improving quality; strengthen strategic guidance and support for development; deepen reform, innovation, and coordinated integration; and remain committed to independence and self-confidence while embracing the entire world (胸怀天下). We must correctly handle the relationships between supporting national strategies and meeting people’s livelihood needs, knowledge learning and all-round development, talent cultivation and meeting social needs, standardization and order and stimulating vitality, and remaining rooted in the Chinese context and drawing on international experience. We must comprehensively build an ideological and political education system that consolidates the foundation and forges the soul (固本铸魂), a fair and high-quality basic education⁴ system, a self-reliant and excellent higher education system, a vocational education system that integrates industry and education, a ubiquitous and accessible lifelong education system, an S&T support system led by innovation, a teaching workforce system of outstanding quality, and an open international cooperation system featuring mutual learning by example. Through this, we will achieve a systemic leap from big (大) to strong (强).

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1. Translator’s note: This translation renders the Chinese word 强国 qiángguó—which literally means “strong nation”—in English in two different ways, depending on context. Where the translator judges that qiángguó is used in the general geopolitical sense, it is translated as “world power.” Where the translator judges that the text refers to a specific flavor of qiángguó, it is translated as “powerhouse,” as in the phrase “education powerhouse” (教育强国). For a more thorough discussion in English of the Chinese word qiángguó, see: https://www.newamerica.org/cybersecurity-initiative/digichina/blog/lexicon-wangluo-qiangguo/.
2. Translator’s note: The “Two Establishes” (“两个确立”) are: (1) establish Comrade Xi Jinping’s status as the core of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the core of the entire Party, and (2) establish the guiding status of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (确立习近平同志党中央的核心、全党的核心地位，确立习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的指导地位).
3. Translator’s note: The “Two Upholds” (“两个维护”) are: (1) firmly uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping’s status as the core of the CCP Central Committee and the core of the entire Party; and (2) firmly uphold the authority of and the centralized unified leadership of the CCP Central Committee (坚决维护习近平总书记党中央的核心、全党的核心地位，坚决维护党中央权威和集中统一领导).
4. Translator’s note: China follows the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) in defining basic education (基础教育) as primary and lower secondary (junior high school) education. Basic education in China is thus equivalent to K-9 education in the United States.