China Decoded is Newsweek’s in-depth newsletter about China’s growing influence on the world. It goes beyond the headlines to examine how Beijing thinks, how its policies travel beyond China’s borders, and what they mean for the United States and its allies. The newsletter is written by journalists with deep experience covering China.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Senior Correspondent for International Affairs and Investigations, has reported extensively on Chinese politics, influence and security. John Feng, China Editor, is based in Taiwan and covers China’s domestic politics, foreign policy and the strategic competition between Beijing and Washington. Below, for Newsweek Members, we are reproducing the latest edition of China Decoded in full: When one of my children was at elementary school in Beijing, the principal’s car drove over a student playing hide and seek under a pile of coats in a playground that doubled as the teachers’ car park.
The boy was badly injured but survived. Parents were terrified, and furious. We demanded the school ban vehicles from the playground.
Teachers countered: “Where shall we park?” We threatened to demonstrate outside the school gate. That frightened the school leaders, since the local government prioritized “stability” and would punish those who failed to deliver. Chinese schools have a Communist Party secretary as well as a principal and the CCP position is more powerful.
Under pressure, they drew up a plan to address this—desperately serious—safety problem. Point No. 1 was: “Hotly love the motherland” (re’ai zuguo; 热爱祖国). It is a standard CCP loyalty phrase.
Worried that the effort would collapse under the weight of CCP-style political correctness and self-prioritizing, I asked how that was relevant. The question shocked the room. Yet the playground-as-a-car park problem was never quite solved.
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