{"id":181822,"date":"2015-03-05T23:42:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T07:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=181822"},"modified":"2015-04-28T11:33:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T18:33:09","slug":"unraveling-chinas-campaign-western-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2015\/03\/unraveling-chinas-campaign-western-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Unraveling China’s Campaign Against Western Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent flurry of translations at Fei Chang Dao tracks the development of China’s current campaign against “Western values” in education<\/strong><\/a>, from accusations last summer of infiltration at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences<\/a>, through its spread to universities<\/a> in the fall, to the controversy over statements by education minister Yuan Guiren<\/a> in January. Following the attack on his own institution, CASS dean and Party secretary Wang Weiguang summed up the underlying fear in the Party journal Seeking Truth. From Fei Chang Dao:<\/p>\n

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Certain countries in the West advertise their own values as “universal values,” and claim that their interpretations of freedom, democracy, and human rights are the standard by which all others must be measured. They spare no expense when it comes to hawking their goods and peddling their wares to every corner of the planet, and stir up “color revolutions” both before and behind the curtain. Their goal is to infiltrate, break down, and overthrow other regimes. At home and abroad certain enemy forces make use of the term “universal values” to smear the Chinese Communist Party, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and China’s mainstream ideology. They scheme to use Western value systems to change China, with the goal of letting Chinese people renounce the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership and socialism with Chinese characteristics, and allow China to once again become a colony of some developed capitalist country. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Criticism of minister Yuan’s calls for ideological control in university teaching has crystalized around three questions posed by Shen Kui, former vice dean of Peking University Law School<\/a>: how to distinguish Western from Chinese values and attacks on the Party from legitimate criticism, and what legal and constitutional basis exists for the measures Yuan proposed. In a blog post at Caijing, later deleted, property mogul Ren Zhiqiang echoed the first of these, adding<\/a>: “If our own value systems are superior to Western value systems, if China wishes to see the world accept China’s value system, then why can’t the two value systems be allowed to openly compete on the same platform? Why is it necessary to fear Western value systems?” The three questions also formed the apparent basis of a freedom of information application to the Ministry of Education by nine lawyers<\/a>, reiterating the suggestion that Yuan’s proposals were unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

In response, search engines blocked terms related to Shen’s inquiry, while a pair of commentaries<\/a> on the Communist Youth League’s website accused him of “harboring evil intentions.” Editorials in the People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, and the China Education Daily, and on Xinhua’s website, propounded some of Yuan’s key points:<\/p>\n

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