With Tanks and Soldiers: This is How Chinese Kids Are Taught Patriotism!

This is the dramatic moment a huge armoured fighting vehicle carrying weapon-equipped military personnel rolled past thousands of pupils during a school assembly in China.

The primary school in eastern Chinese province Ningbo brought the military carrier to the campus to teach its students about patriotism on their first day back to the classroom, reported state media.

Footage shows four uniformed soldiers and three schoolboys stationed on top of the giant combat vehicle as it moved past other students standing in a military-style formation.

The event is said to have taken place at the Wangshengling primary school in the county of Yunlong on Tuesday when hundreds of millions of Chinese students began their autumn semester.

The infantry fighting vehicle was brought to the campus as part of a flag-raising ceremony for the school’s reopening following the coronavirus outbreak.

The school wanted to educate its pupils about national defence and patriotism by displaying the military carrier with fully geared personnel.

Three schoolboys on the moving carrier are seen waving Chinese national flags as four uniformed soldiers crouched down while holding weapons.

Two of them remained in an aiming position as if they were ready to shoot.

All the Year 1 students at the Ningbo school will also receive a four-day military training before they start the classes, according to state media Xinhua.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese web users appeared to have been stunned by the dramatic school assembly after the video was uploaded by the local government on TikTok-like Douyin.

One commenter wrote: ‘This is no doubt the best patriotism education. When young people are strong, a country is strong. This kind of ceremony should be promoted across the country!’

Another replied: ‘Wow, this is awesome. The love for our country and home should be implanted into the blood of our children.’

The news comes as around 280 million students across China are returning to the campus this month after the Chinese officials gave a go-ahead for most schools in the country to open again.

Xinjiang in north-west China is the only region that has ordered its students to start the school year online after seeing a surge of coronavirus cases in recent months.

Wang Dengfeng, an official leading the anti-virus efforts at the Ministry of Education, said China had achieved a decisive victory against the virus after successfully cutting large-scale transmission and resuming the country’s economy.