Why China is turning away from English
President Xi Jinping wants his country to show more “cultural confidence”
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20220416_CND001_0.jpg)
WHEN CHINA made English a compulsory primary-school subject in 2001, the same year it joined the World Trade Organisation, it was taken as a sign that the once-insular country was opening up. The education ministry said the new language requirement was part of a national strategy to “face modernisation, face the world and face the future”.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Lingua no thank ya”
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