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Although engineering education has played important roles in China’s growing power and influence on the world stage, engineering education policy since the Reform and Opening-up in the late 1970s has not been well documented in current English-language scholarship. Informed by historical and sociological studies of education, engineering and engineering education, this paper attempts to address this scholarly gap by relating contemporary Chinese engineering education policy-making to its broader historical, cultural and ideological contexts. Based on analysis of policy documents and reports released by the Chinese government and engineering schools, and drawing on prior scholarship of Chinese (engineering) education policy, this paper employs the concept of ‘past/forward’ as an analytic lens to interpret and understand four major areas of engineering education policy change in contemporary China: institutional reform, disciplines and majors, training objectives, and curriculum reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the Chinese government's efforts to develop Y-10 commercial airplanes from the 1950s through the 1970s. The role that the Chinese ruler Mao Zedong's government policies, including China's economic policy, played in China's failure to develop Y-10 airplanes is discussed. The article relies heavily on what is referred to as the Determinant Model of the economist Michael Porter. The relationship between China and the Soviet Union, including the former's purchasing of high technology from the latter, also discussed. An overview of the impact that Mao's education policies had on China's ability to develop commercial airplanes is provided.