ABSTRACT. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been denounced by the West for its inflexible political indoctrination. However, the ideological function of political education is not necessarily a hallmark of a state socialist society. Even before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in 1949, China had a time-honored tradition of Confucianism that stressed the value of political conformity and social order. In this regard, the need for contextualization comes to the fore. On the other hand, since the reform period onwards, important changes in political education have been made to keep pace with China’s incorporation into the globalized world. Central to these changes is the diluted ideological function that has dominated Chinese political education over centuries. The Chinese case calls the meaning of genuinely democratic political education into question in the age of globalization. pp. 45–54

Keywords: China, political education, globalized world, democracy