China's propaganda chief has said the teaching of communist ideology at universities is lacking, ahead of the anniversary of the 1989 crushing of the Tiananmen democracy protests, state media said Monday.
Li Changchun, who ranks fifth in China's political hierarchy, pledged to step up political education in order to teach a future generation of leaders, the People's Daily said.
"There remains a rather large gap between the political ideological education of university students and the demands and undertakings of the Communist Party and state," Li was quoted as saying in a speech Sunday.
"We must continue to raise the level of political ideological education work at universities in order to train… and develop qualified builders and successors of socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Li's speech comes days ahead of Friday's anniversary of the brutal suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, when the military ended six weeks of student-led protests on the vast square in central Beijing.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of students and citizens were killed in the bloody quelling of the demonstrations, seen as the biggest challenge to one-party communist rule since 1949.
"University students are a cherished source of talent for the party and state," Li said.
"We must support the core task of ideological education by placing patriotic education at the centre and the building of ideological morality as the basis."
Last year, Li was ranked as the world's 19th most influential person by Forbes Magazine, which said that he "controls what 1.3 billion Chinese see, hear, speak".
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