On September 4, 2026, a teacher named Tang Jiafeng published a post on Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms and a counterpart to X in the United States. The post argued that English should be removed as a core school subject. Within one day, it prompted wide discussion across China, and a topic based on the post became the number one trending search on Weibo.

Tang is a math teacher. He specializes in preparing university students for competitive graduate school entrance exams. His post raised two questions. Why do Chinese students spend so much of their education on English? And why did a single post on the subject provoke such a large national debate?

This article examines the historical and structural context of English education in China, the reasons for its current decline in universities, and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in that shift.

English in China's Examination System

English holds a central place in China's education system. It is treated as a core subject alongside Chinese and mathematics in the gaokao, the national college entrance examination. Out of a standard total score of 750 points, English can account for 20% of a student's overall gaokao score.

English remains part of the educational path after the gaokao. Millions of Chinese students who pursue master's degrees must sit a national examination, and English is commonly among the required subjects, even when their field of study is unrelated to English.

As a result, a typical student can spend more than a decade studying English. Instruction begins in elementary school as part of the official national curriculum.

Historical Background: From Isolation to Opening

Russian and the Cultural Revolution

English was not always the dominant foreign language in China. In the 1950s, when China was closely aligned with the Soviet Union, Russian was the main foreign language taught in many schools and universities.

In 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. Mao led the Chinese Communist Party, which took control of mainland China and founded the People's Republic of China in 1949. The campaign targeted people and ideas considered a threat to his revolutionary vision. Teachers and intellectuals were persecuted. Schools and universities suspended normal classes, and university entrance exams and regular admissions were halted for years.

Associations with the capitalist West became politically dangerous, including foreign-language education. English was not formally banned, but schools stopped regular classes, which meant English classes ceased as well. Foreign-language teachers could be persecuted or removed from their posts. When English education resumed, its materials were often politicized. They consisted largely of Chinese propaganda translated into English rather than content about English-speaking countries.

During this period, foreign companies did not operate widely in China, and ordinary citizens rarely traveled abroad. China was far less integrated into the global economy than it is today.

Diplomatic Change and Reform

Several events marked a shift in China's relationship with the West:

Nixon's visit followed decades of hostility. The two countries had fought on opposite sides in the Korean War.

Deng Xiaoping became China's most powerful leader after Mao's death. He concluded that China had fallen too far behind developed countries. His strategy called for China to learn from the outside world, especially from advanced economies such as the United States. Learning from abroad required people who could read foreign research, study overseas, and work with Western companies. English became the most useful language for these purposes.

Expansion of English in the Gaokao

From 1979, China gradually increased how much the foreign-language exam counted toward the gaokao. The weight rose from 10% to 30%, then 50%, then 70%. By 1983, the entire foreign-language score, which for most students meant English, counted toward the gaokao total. This score could affect admission to a Chinese university.

In 1983, Deng summarized his vision for education with a phrase calling for education to "face modernization, face the world, and face the future."

Public Promotion of English

Several initiatives expanded English learning among the general public in the 1980s:

• Follow Me: In the early 1980s, Chinese state television broadcast Follow Me, a English-learning program produced by the BBC. The program reportedly attracted around 10 million viewers, roughly equal to the total number of television sets in China at the time.
• English Corner: Groups of people began gathering voluntarily in parks and public spaces to practice English. By the early 1980s, Shanghai's People's Park drew students, teachers, workers, office employees, and retirees on weekends. Participants also approached foreign visitors to start conversations.
• Jack Ma: Alibaba founder Jack Ma began learning English in this environment. Starting at about age 12, he rode his bicycle for about 40 minutes each morning to West Lake in Hangzhou, a major attraction for foreign visitors. He offered to show tourists around the city for free in order to practice English. He continued this for about eight years. Ma has said the conversations exposed him to perspectives that differed from his teachers' and books' accounts. He described himself as "more globalized than most Chinese" as a result. He has also credited Nixon's 1972 visit to West Lake with helping put Hangzhou on the map for foreign tourists.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics

Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the government launched a citywide campaign to teach foreign languages, mainly English, to ordinary residents. The target groups included taxi drivers, police officers, civil servants, hotel and restaurant staff, and elderly residents. Beijing established more than 700 community foreign-language training sites and over 400 community language corners. The government-backed "1,000 Days to Speak 1,000 Sentences of English" campaign encouraged residents to learn one new English sentence each day before the Games.

Why English Education Did Not Produce Speakers

Despite decades of investment, many Chinese students who studied English for years struggled to speak it. Li Yang, an English teacher, built his fame on this problem. He developed a method called Crazy English, which encouraged students to overcome their fear of speaking by shouting English sentences aloud. The Washington Post described Li as China's most famous English teacher. He turned his method into a multimillion-dollar education business. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, his events drew tens of thousands of people to stadiums.

Several structural factors help explain this gap.

1. The Examination System

In 2001, the government sought to make English education more practical and communication-focused. However, the examination system did not change. Students still had to compete for places in better high schools and universities, where English scores carried weight.

Around age 15, students take the zhongkao, a major examination that determines admission to senior high schools. English is one of the tested subjects. The test measures reading comprehension, grammar, writing, and listening. It does not directly assess the ability to hold a natural conversation. Parents and teachers focus on the skills that affect exam results.

2. Teacher Capacity and Regional Disparities

When the government expanded English education nationwide in 2001, many elementary schools lacked qualified English teachers who could speak the language confidently. A gap emerged between the government's goals and what schools could deliver.

Regional differences widened this gap. A student in a tier 1 city such as Shanghai or Beijing could access experienced English teachers who spoke the language fluently. A student at an under-resourced rural school in a province such as Sichuan, hundreds of miles from major cities, could have a very different experience. A teacher who lacked confidence in spoken English and faced a large class with limited resources might rely on memorization, textbook exercises, and written practice. This approach was easier than teaching pronunciation and spontaneous conversation. The source does not claim that all rural teachers were unqualified. It does state that the same national curriculum produced different learning outcomes depending on region.

3. Hukou and Provincial Admission Quotas

Place of registration can affect university admission. China's hukou system is a household registration system that formally ties residents to a specific location. Universities also allocate admission places to each province through provincial quotas.

Peking University, located in Beijing, allocates different numbers of places to applicants from different provinces. Students from Beijing have historically had a much better chance of admission than students from other provinces. Students from less-developed regions therefore compete for a smaller number of places relative to the number of applicants. Studying harder or improving English alone does not always overcome this disadvantage.

4. Parents and the Private Tutoring Industry

Parents have strong incentives to help their children perform well academically, especially when English scores determine access to good schools. Many parents enroll their children in private English tutoring and extra lessons. As other families follow, the pressure spreads. Parents begin investing in English earlier, because children who start later could appear to fall behind when formal instruction begins.

The private tutoring industry expanded before the 2001 reform. New Oriental, one of China's largest private education companies, was founded in 1993. It initially helped Chinese students prepare for English exams for overseas study. In 2025, New Oriental reported annual revenue of almost 35 billion RMB, or roughly 5 billion US dollars, with millions of course enrollments.

Families also pursue different paths. Families following the public school system often use private lessons to prepare for competitive entrance exams. Wealthier families may enroll children in private bilingual or international kindergartens from age three or four. These families often intend for their children to attend international schools and study abroad. In 2025–2026, one premium international school in Beijing charged the equivalent of more than 3,000 US dollars per month for its kindergarten program. The average monthly salary of an employee in Shanghai in 2025 was about 1,770 US dollars, which makes the tuition roughly 1.7 times the average monthly wage. The source describes this tuition as the upper end of the market. Such costs are beyond the reach of most families.

Mute English

These factors combined to produce a phenomenon known in China as "Mute English." Students can study English for years, memorize thousands of words, and perform well on written exams. When they meet a foreigner, however, they often cannot speak. Some freeze and cannot produce a single word.

Government Restrictions on Tutoring

In 2021, the government introduced the Double Reduction Policy to reduce academic pressure on children and the financial burden on families. The policy banned for-profit tutoring in academic subjects, including English, for elementary and middle school students. It also prohibited tutoring academies from holding classes on weekends, public holidays, and school vacations. By the end of 2021, the government reported that the number of offline academic tutoring institutions had fallen by almost 84%.

According to a Beijing English tutor interviewed for the AB VOICES livestream, many businesses continued operating by renaming their courses, for example as "Young Learners Talent Development." Some weekend classes moved to residential buildings, and their locations changed to avoid scrutiny.

The government also introduced a whitelist system in Beijing. Only tutoring agencies that met strict requirements could operate under specified conditions. In the district where the tutor worked, only two agencies appeared on the list. The tutor stated that this gave them a near-monopoly over the approved market. He believes that the restrictions may have increased the cost of private English tutoring. Research published in 2025 found that some underground tutoring arrangements had become more expensive. Parents increasingly paid for one-on-one or small-group lessons rather than regular classes. Demand for private English tutoring remains strong.

Universities Cut English Programs

Despite high demand for English tutoring, universities have begun reducing English and other foreign-language programs. Several cases illustrate this trend:

• University of Science and Technology of China: On October 8, 2023, the university announced plans to eliminate its English undergraduate degree program. It stated that it no longer needed to offer English as a standalone undergraduate major.
• Shenyang Aerospace University: In May 2024, the aviation and engineering university announced that it would no longer accept new students into its English undergraduate program.
• Guilin Institute of Information Technology: In May 2026, the institute abolished its School of Foreign Trade and Foreign Languages as a separate department.
• Shenzhen: A university in Shenzhen announced in 2026 that it would begin phasing out traditional English classes for some students.

The decision by multiple universities to eliminate foreign-language schools became the number one trending search on Weibo.

Factors Behind the Shift

The source identifies three broad developments that help explain the decline of English programs: changes in China's national priorities, changes in the job market, and advances in AI translation.

National Priorities

After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China's economic position grew stronger:

• In 2009, China overtook Germany as the world's largest exporter of goods.
• In 2010, China overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, behind the United States.
• Around the same period, China overtook the United States as the world's largest manufacturing economy.

In 2013, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative. The initiative committed billions of dollars to railways, highways, ports, and other infrastructure projects across Asia, Europe, and Africa. Its aim was to expand trade and economic influence.

In August 2013, China's leadership set a related objective for its international communication strategy. The country would do a better job of "telling China's story well and communicating China's voice."

This objective influenced English education. Before the change, much of the cultural content in English textbooks focused on English-speaking countries. A 2015 study of ten sets of English textbooks found that only around 3% of passages addressed Chinese culture. Students learned about other countries, their cultures, and ways of life through stories and everyday situations set in English-speaking countries. The source notes that this approach broadened students' perspectives.

In 2017, new national high school English curriculum standards placed greater emphasis on students' ability to communicate Chinese culture to the outside world. Studies of newer high school textbooks found that Chinese culture accounted for roughly a quarter to nearly a third of the cultural content in certain editions.

A tutor interviewed for the AB VOICES livestream reported a shift in attitudes among some younger students. They said they had no interest in studying abroad because they considered China a better and safer place to live.

The Job Market

For decades, English skills offered a clear advantage in China's job market, especially as foreign multinational companies expanded in the country. A 2002 report found that at Beijing Foreign Studies University, one of China's leading foreign-language universities, there were more than ten job openings for every English graduate. English graduates could work in translation, international trade, education, and tourism.

The market has changed. According to China's 2025 Graduate Employment Report, graduates who majored in foreign languages such as English earned an average of about 820 US dollars six months after graduation. Engineering graduates earned about 960 US dollars. Graduates of certain specialized technology majors, such as information security, earned more than 1,000 US dollars. In 2024, all ten of China's highest-paying undergraduate majors were engineering-related.

A livestream guest who majored in English translation before completing a master's degree at Tsinghua University reported that many former classmates worked in unrelated fields. He also noted that domestic English graduates now compete with Chinese students who return from universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Those students often have extensive experience using English and navigating foreign cultures.

Employment conditions for foreign companies have also weakened:

• In 2023, employment at foreign companies in China fell by 15%, dropping below 10 million for the first time since 2009.
• Between 2008 and 2023, employment at foreign-funded industrial companies fell by roughly 47%.

Rising labor costs and geopolitical tensions have led some multinational companies to move parts of their operations outside China. Meanwhile, large Chinese companies, including Huawei, BYD, Tencent, and ByteDance, offer competitive salaries. A 2026 survey of nearly 50,000 Chinese university students ranked Huawei as the most attractive employer among engineering and science students. Many roles in domestic sales, product development, and operations serving Chinese customers require little or no English.

Major Chinese companies still need staff who can communicate with international teams, overseas customers, and business partners in English in real time. The job market therefore does not fully explain the reduction in English programs.

AI Translation

AI translation has improved rapidly. Google Translate and other translation applications were available several years ago, but their accuracy was limited. By 2026, Apple's AirPods Pro offered real-time translation. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, developed an AI system that translates Chinese and English speech almost simultaneously, with a delay of two to three seconds. The system can also reproduce characteristics of the original speaker's voice.

Students and universities face a new question. If AI can help read foreign research, write business emails, and communicate with overseas customers, students may question how much of that work they need to learn themselves.

The Limits of AI and the Changing Value of Language Skills

Translation accuracy does not fully replace language skills. Governments continue to rely on trained human interpreters for sensitive diplomatic discussions. Interpreters must understand context, cultural nuance, and what a speaker chooses not to say.

International business presents similar challenges. An AI system may translate each sentence accurately. It may not identify when a counterpart is politely dismissive, when they are genuinely interested, or when a phrase that sounds reasonable in Chinese could be considered offensive in English. These distinctions can determine the outcome of a business relationship.

The source suggests that routine translation work may become automated, while skilled interpreters and professionals with cross-cultural understanding may become more valuable. A person who grew up navigating both Chinese and American cultures holds an advantage based on how they understand people's thinking, communication, and relationship-building in both contexts. This understanding cannot be gained solely through memorizing vocabulary or passing English examinations.

Some universities are adapting to this distinction. In July 2026, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology replaced conventional English courses with cross-cultural communication courses in two experimental classes. The university did not simply eliminate English. It tested a different approach to teaching students how to communicate across cultures.

If AI becomes capable enough that almost anyone can translate between languages instantly, the main competitive advantage may shift. The advantage may come less from knowing another language and more from understanding the people who speak it.