The guns appeared real enough. And then we found out that’s because they were. Brought along to a local school on its first day back, the intention was national defence education for children as they began their 9 years of mandatory schooling.
Grade one students heading to their first day at one particular school in Qingjiangpu District of Huai’an City in our very own Jiangsu Province yesterday, 6 September, got quite the surprise.
A military parade. There to greet the students and their parents was a mock military display put on by senior students. Lining each side of a red carpet, dressed in camouflage, armed with weapons and standing to attention they shouted in unison, “Welcome new students”.
The bizarre, and to western eyes, unnerving, “educational activity” took place at Jijialou Primary School in Huai’an. There, a giant anti-aircraft gun was also present to provide the appropriate backdrop.
Excitedly standing in line, the children then had their chance to fire what appears to be the Chinese QBZ-95 assault rifle, or a mock up thereof. The widely-issued, infantry small-arms-weapon is the official rifle of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
“What’s going on here? Where did my bullet go? Did it fly?”, one little girl said strangely. When they were done, it was the turn of their parents. By all accounts, they did not want to go home.
Then the children had their chance with the rocket launchers. Thankfully, as a video released by the Yangtze Evening News shows, when the children pulled the triggers there was less of an enormous blast and more of a loud pop; the launchers had been loaded with paint grenades.
Such an activity is called a “national defense education program”. Feng Xinghua, President of the School, told reporters that on 1 September, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission had issued the “Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the National Defence Education of the Whole People in the New Era” (关于加强和改进新时代全民国防教育工作的意见).
Pointing out that it is necessary to strengthen the national defence education of young people, the Opinions stress the use of existing-military-training weapons, equipment and personnel to carry out national defence education for parents and children who have just entered the first grade.
Whether the “weapons” used in the activity were real or not is beside the point. It was the children’s first day of school. Surely the phrase to take home today is “existing-military-training weapons”. At least there is some solace in the fact the 6-year olds weren’t using live rounds.