Document 9: Stop Calling Them Western Values

Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail examines the use and promotion of "western values" in Chinese propaganda.

This sort of language has long been a familiar part of the Chinese state-controlled media, whose opinion articles frequently contrast these dangerous “Western” values with the “Confucian values” of deference to authority, social order, harmonious co-operation, common endeavour and unquestioning loyalty. Eastern and Western values, in this popular formula, are fire and ice.

Pointing out that the core tenents of Chinese communism is taken, lock, stock and barrel from a western idea determined by Western values in the first place, the arguement that the CCP is pursuing "Confucian values", like most ideologies that emanate from the Party these days, doesn't hold much water.  Saunders cites the now infamous "Document 9", a top secret memo that was leaked to the New York Times as an example of the short sighted attitude taken by the CCP in it's "anti-Western" stance.

A copy of Document No. 9 seen and verified by The New York Times places “Western constitutional democracy” at the top of its list of perils, then follows with more “subversive currents” to guard against: “promoting ‘universal values’ of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation (and) ardently pro-market ‘neo-liberalism.’” Across the country, cadres and mandarins are taking part in education sessions to fight against these threats.

 

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