Using English to Realize “the Chinese dream”: the political-economic ideology of language planning in China

This paper examines how "the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" as a state's ideology has influenced the global spread of English in China and how the political economy of this ideology has affected the state's foreign language planning. To do so, it investigates two recently promulgated foreign language education policy documents, namely, the 2017 version of the English Curriculum Standards at the senior secondary education level and the 2022 version of the English Curriculum Standards at the compulsory education level. These documents were drafted, implemented and revised over the past decade, along with the advocacy of the fulfilment of the Chinese Dream. Through the lens of the global political economy and drawing upon the perspective of the modern world system, this paper uncovers the different layers of this state ideology towards global English and English learning over the past decade in relation to the evolving political and economic contexts of China on the international stage. It will also reveal, more broadly, how state ideologies towards English may evolve in contestations for economic and political power in the modern world system and how they could affect language planning.