My Take | Communist Party's Western xenophobia is more opportunism

Mainland Education Minister Yuan Guiren used to be unafraid of "Western values". Now he has condemned their corrupting influence.

He wants to ban school textbooks that "promote Western values" and especially singles out those that "attack or defame the nation's leaders and undermine socialism". "Young teachers and students are key targets of infiltration by enemy forces," he wrote in the Communist Party journal Seeking Truth. "Some countries are fearful of China's rise ... [and] have stepped up infiltration in more discreet and diverse ways [into our classrooms]."

Many critics have pointed out the obvious futility and incoherence of Yuan's edict when socialism itself is a Western idea. President Xi Jinping has voiced support for constitutionalism and the rule of law, which are part and parcel of a Western liberal political tradition.

So, are Yuan and Xi really against Western values, or any values, whether Chinese or non-Chinese, that might be cited to challenge authorities in general? If a clever Confucian scholar could formulate a revolutionary interpretation of the sage's philosophy as a challenge to the party's authority, would he or she be left alone or persecuted?

Being a loyal party apparatchik requires not so much the mental ability of holding two contradicting ideas together than being able to favour and condemn alternately the same ideas at different times, depending on the ideological climate. Where Yuan truly stands is perhaps best gauged from a briefing he gave to a government advisory panel four years ago.

As reported by the state-owned Jinghua Times at the time, he said: "No matter how many foreign resources we import, we won't be at risk, because we're on Chinese soil," he said. "We even sent so many people abroad and they weren't affected in the nest of capitalism, so why fear they would be affected here?"