Private schools in the People's Republic of China: Development, modalities and contradictions

Chinese private schools may come across as a contradictory phenomenon: why would an authoritarian and officially socialist government, that needs to rely on education as an instrument of national unification and ideological control, allow for private schools and profit-making in the educational sector? However, seen against the background of the far-reaching privatisation processes that have been shaping the Chinese economy and society since the 1990s, one might equally wonder why this seemingly all-pervading privatisation wave had for a long time stopped short of the educational realm. This chapter outlines the development, modalities, and contradictions of private schools in the People’s Republic of China.