Beijing has issued a new set of "patriotic education" guidelines, vowing to ramp up efforts to unite the country's 1.4 billion population amid continuing social unrest in Hong Kong.
Compared to the previous guidelines, published in 1994, the new framework goes a step further in emphasizing the role of the party in the country.
The new document explicitly defines patriotism as not just love of the country but also of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and its official political ideology.
"The fates of the country and the party and socialism are inseparable," the guidelines said, echoing previous remarks by President Xi Jinping.
The guidelines, jointly issued by the Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council, cover a broad range of areas for patriotic education, including schools, Communist Party activities, the media, new technologies and mass entertainment.
Currently, patriotic education is a requirement for students in mainland China and usually taught through party-led organizations and mandatory courses in school. Most Chinese primary students are asked to wear red scarves, a symbol of socialist revolutions.
While the 4,400-character document features only one reference to Hong Kong, Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong law at Nankai University in Tianjin, said the reference on Hong Kong was a response to the recent protest movement, which "exposed serious problems in Hongkongers' national identity education."
"Hong Kong youth born after 1997 … see many conflicts in the special administrative region's relationship with the central government. That has damaged the building of their national identity," Li said, referring to the year Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule.
"But it is never too late. We should not only make up for the inadequate national education for the last 25 years, but also find new ways to shape their future," Li said.
The notion that Chinese patriots must also love the party pits potential efforts to instill patriotism in Hong Kong against a generation of youth increasingly disassociating themselves with Chinese identity and resenting the party's authority over the city.
In anti-government rallies since June, many citizens in the former British colony have rejected what they perceive as an erosion of its considerable political autonomy from Beijing.
The protests were sparked by a now-withdrawn plan to allow extradition to mainland China, which protesters feared would expose Hongkongers to a legal system ultimately controlled by the party.
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