The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has demanded that government officials be prevented from “being disoriented and losing themselves” to the influence of Western ideals, a newspaper with close ties to the party reported yesterday.
A recent circular from the party’s powerful Organization Department insists that Chinese government officials reconfirm their faith in “socialism with Chinese characteristics” through an emphasis on “deepened education” in Marxist principles, the Global Times newspaper said.
“Western ideals” included constitutional democracy and civil society, the report said, though it added that other influences such as superstition and religion should also be guarded against.
The report said the circular also requires CCP schools and institutes to emphasize “traditional Chinese culture” in their pedagogy, stressing that officials must protect China’s spiritual independence and shun becoming a “yes-man for Western moral values.”
The Global Times also said that a long-term mechanism for education should be set up to deal with the problem.
The report also said that officials at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the top state-run think tank, said earlier this month that its main standards for evaluating officials and researchers are ideology and political discipline.
That came after they received a warning from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party enforcement organ.
President Xi Jinping (習近平), general secretary of the party since November 2012, has vowed to restore China to greatness, and is simultaneously pushing a much-publicized campaign to cleanse the party of corruption.
The party, the largest in the world, gained 1.56 million members last year, it said last month, though growth in membership slowed from 2012.
The party had 86.7 million members at the end of last year, the Organization Department said — more than the entire population of Germany.
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