This study takes a political approach to English Language Teaching (ELT) in China. It was prompted by two parallel developments in China during the past twenty years or so：the expansion of ELT and changes in ideology. The study looks intothe hitherto scarcely explored political aspects of ELT and finds that ELT has significant impact on both the official ideology andthe people's belief system. It fills in a gap in the research of contemporary Chinese politics by revealing the political consequences and implications of ELT. Findings of the study onthe one hand de-mythologize the political innocuousness of ELT,and on the other hand throw light on the more general questions regarding the causes and process of ideological change.