The Chinese Communist party is introducing a new form of National Defense Education to its kindergartners this summer.
Across China, military boot camps are training children as young as five to handle firearms and act like soldiers, sparking concern from experts across the world.
This summer Chinese kindergarteners are practicing "rifle tactics" and running around playing squad-based skirmish games shooting each other at National Defense Education boot camps that @Dailycaller reported on
Watch this video: pic.twitter.com/FkubmCC9O4
— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) July 10, 2023
These boot camps feature combat training for boys and girls with toy weapons such as knives, grenades, rifles and shoulder-fired missiles.
The children must adopt military behavior such as saluting and following orders given by PLA (People’s Liberation Army) soldiers who oversee the activities.
Locations include major cities like Beijing, Nanjing and Shenzhen, plus more than half a dozen provinces including Anhui, Fujian and Guangdong.
According to school social media accounts reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation, the sequence of activities remains consistent throughout: beginning with basic military etiquette then progressing through different levels of combat training – from close combat to emergency medical care – followed by weapon instruction.
During these sessions kids use toy guns for “skirmish exercises” in which they pretend to shoot each other while singing songs about building a powerful country.
They also use various types of explosives such as “potato smasher” hand grenades, foam rocket launchers and mortars. All whilst being instructed on famous PLA heroes and martyrs along the way too.
As @DailyCaller reported, to support National Defense Education, Chinese kindergartens are showing children propaganda like the computer-animated "Long March Heroes" —
Have a look: pic.twitter.com/hV66CyQyxD
— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) July 10, 2023
Russell Hsiao from the Global Taiwan Institute believes these measures are part of an ideological campaign designed to gain legitimacy in China amongst its citizens: “the CCP has been hardening its ideological line over the past decade…so it is no surprise that youths are singled out as an important target of CCP’s National Defense Education program” he said.
Brandon Weichert adds that these efforts suggest China is prepping for war: “their kids aren’t talking about boys becoming girls… their kids are talking about ‘let’s go out with bayonets…. pretend like we’re killing Americans.’ That’s where this is headed.”
Check out this video from @Dailycaller's report:
Chinese kindergartens, like this school in Guangdong province, are teaching kids to emulate military martyrs like Dong Cunrui who blew himself up taking out a bridge in 1948 pic.twitter.com/hxRoouzUuA
— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) July 10, 2023
Solomon Yue co-founder of Republicans Overseas recalls his own experience growing up in Shanghai during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution when students were subjected to Long March Exercises simulating a retreat under attack by America:
“Kids were asked to march 20 miles a day with food and blankets on one’s backs for a week” he said.
It appears times have not changed much since then either, with children now learning how to revere PLA martyrs through animated videos depicting Red Army battles against Imperial Japan forces or stories about Dong Cunrui who sacrificed himself during Chinese Civil War battles in 1948.
