What values should we learn from the West?

At a national conference on strengthening ideological education, Yuan Guiren, China's minister of education, said: "Textbooks that spread Western values should never appear in our universities." Comments:

In contemporary China, Western values mainly refer to wrong political ideas that aim at ideologically transforming China, such as the West's narrow definition of constitutional democracy. But in fact, we have always been absorbing the correct Western values, among the most significant of which is Marxism-Leninism that our Party holds as its belief.

Zhu Jidong, deputy-director of the State Cultural Security and Ideological Construction Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Jan 31

A true university of socialist China should be confident enough to accept the cultural legacies of all human societies. Why exclude them? Throughout China's modern history, it has always learned from Western countries and tried to catch up with them. Catching up with the West won't ruin our unique identity.

Ma Yong, a researcher on modern and contemporary Chinese history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Feb 1

Western political values do not suit China; they will erode China's political base and cause serious political instability if they are introduced into China. However, the West's soft power is superior to ours, so whenever the authorities try strengthening political education, the media and scholars tend to oppose it. This contradiction must be resolved.

Global Times, Jan 31

It is better to say "promoting socialist values" instead of "resisting Western values", because the latter is rather hard to define. Socialism, which is the guiding principle of the Party, originated in the West; no one can deny this historical fact and resist everything from there.

Wang Zhanyang, a professor at the Central Institute of Socialism, Feb 1