Chinese students ‘brainwashed by western theories’, say scholars

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**reds8n**

https://www.ft.com/content/f5bc9fac-27dd-11e6-8ba3-cdd781d02d89

China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses.

The rise of western thinking in degree courses, alongside the waning of Marxist content, has “severely deviated college economics education from the socialist direction”, the professors wrote in a letter to the ministry of education.

He Ganqiang, a retired economics professor at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics and one of the letter’s authors, said they had written the letter because “the westernisation of economics was one of the reasons for the Soviet Union’s collapse”.

Although officially communist, China started to abandon centrally planning the economy in the late 1970s and gradually embraced market reforms that have spurred almost four decades of breakneck economic growth.

The letter makes no mention of Karl Marx’s German origins or the fact that he spent much of his life in the UK.

The scholars’ intervention comes amid a broader backlash against western influence in Chinese studies after the education minister last year said textbooks promoting western values had no place in China’s classrooms.

In their letter dozens of professors call for universities to reinstate a 50/50 split between Marxist political economy and western economics in the new academic year.

Beijing is grappling with rising debt and an economic slowdown and is pushing supply-side reforms that have been compared to the policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Last month President Xi Jinping gave a speech in which he called on academics to modernise Marxism to advance China’s development.

Ha-Joon Chang, an economics lecturer at Cambridge university, said: “Marxist economics has shaped the world economy. The architects of the east Asian economic miracles in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan were all schooled in Marxist economics, which sees industrialisation as a way of generating surplus.”

The waning of Marxist influence is not unique to China’s universities. Until the 1980s, it was the norm for economics departments in elite universities such as Harvard and Stanford to have one or two Marxist scholars. However, they have since retired without being replaced.

China’s top economics departments, such as Beijing University’s China Center for Economics Research, have embraced western syllabuses while Renmin University has a department dedicated to translating American economics textbooks into Chinese.

However, moves to limit western thinking in Chinese education are increasingly in vain: more than 300,000 Chinese students moved to the US to study in 2014-15 — a 10 per cent increase from the year before, according to the Institute of International Education.

uh huh.

we'll drag'em down with us !

we have loads of Chinese students at work, there's been a somewhat noticeable shift in their behaviour and attitudes over the last 5-10 years.

**BigWaaagh**

Yep, the brain eating amoeba that is Western Society just can't be cured once it gets in you.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

"China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses."

I'm not good with history, but I'm pretty sure that Marxism was created by, er, Karl Marx

who was born in Germany (Europe) was European

again Europe, and who wrote his Communist Manifesto in London, which I beleive is in England, which is also Europe...

I've only been to London a few dozen times in my life, so I'm not 100% sure where it is

I'm also sure that Europe is Western, that China is Communist, and that China got Communism from Europe, which is Western?

If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me

**BigWaaagh**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
"China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses."

I'm not good with history, but I'm pretty sure that Marxism was created by, er, Karl Marx

who was born in Germany (Europe) was European again Europe, and who wrote his Communist Manifesto in London, which I beleive is in England, which is also Europe...

I've only been to London a few dozen times in my life, so I'm not 100% sure where it is

I'm also sure that Europe is Western, that China is Communist, and that China got Communism from Europe, which is Western?

If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me

I'd comment again, but it sounds like a strictly European thing!

Actually, I just returned from brunch with my wife and son and mentioned the story from the original post of this thread. My boy attends a private Upper School(High School) and they have about 2 dozen Chinese exchange students. My son is friends with quite a few of them as they're on the Soccer team together. He jumped at the point of the article and said there's not one of them that doesn't want to stay in the US for college after graduation and then get a job/career and live over here.
It's true what they say, there's no going back on the collective farm once you've seen the city, as it were.

**tneva82**

Well about only thing they get it right is saying western economy theory isn't all good. Since it's not going to hold(being founded on at least 2 obviously false assumptions. nevermind EVERYTHING disapears eventually anyway) getting too hold to that idea isn't smartest idea.

But then again holding to another flawed idea isn't best idea either. Would be better if they would at least try to create the next idea to replace when western economic system goes away rather than try to hold to another system that's already flawed.

**hotsauceman1**

I did a group project with some chinese exchange students once. I asked them their plans after they graduate. Their answer?
Get Pregnant. That way they can stay in the country and not be force to send a tithe back. Its bad there that these girls want to have a kid they are not planning on to get out of it.

**Crazy_Carnifex**

Weird. Normally the complaints I hear about Western Universities involve indoctrination to Marxist theory...

**hotsauceman1**

Which is funny. Because sociologists have stopped teaching Marx in anything but historical perspective.

**LordofHats**

Well someone clearly doesn't know why the Soviet Union collapsed, which makes me wonder if they should be teaching economics, let alone offering an opinion on other people teaching economics

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
Weird. Normally the complaints I hear about Western Universities involve indoctrination to Marxist theory...

That's because there's a whole band of people in the western world who equate anything but unabashed praise of glorious capitalist society and the power of bootstraps with socialism/communism/whatever.

**NinthMusketeer**

Well I don't think they should be promoting western values as much as presenting the various ideas and letting students decide what's good, but that's an evidence-based approach that simply isn't favored anywhere.

**welshhoppo**

Breaking news!

People pick up traits from countries they move to. In other news, water is confirmed to be a liquid.

**Vaktathi**

China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses.

...yes...because Marxism totally isnt a western theory born from an industrialized western European community

**LordofHats**

Vaktathi wrote:

China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses.
...yes...because Marxism totally isnt a western theory born from an industrialized western European community

This is Chinese Karl Marx Vak. Everyone knows Chinese Karl Marx is Chinese, and any claim to the contrary is just Western Propaganda, just likes claims that Jesus wasn't Asian

**Ahtman**

It is all part of the Liberal Agenda and Conspiracy.

**Ustrello**

LordofHats wrote:
Vaktathi wrote:

China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses.
...yes...because Marxism totally isnt a western theory born from an industrialized western European community

This is Chinese Karl Marx Vak. Everyone knows Chinese Karl Marx is Chinese, and any claim to the contrary is just Western Propaganda, just likes claims that Jesus wasn't Asian

But jesus did have a younger brother who lived in china

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan

**oldravenman3025**

reds8n wrote:
https://www.ft.com/content/f5bc9fac-27dd-11e6-8ba3-cdd781d02d89

China must stop its university students from being “brainwashed by western theories”, according to a group of Chinese scholars who have urged Beijing to reinstate more Marxism in economics courses.

The rise of western thinking in degree courses, alongside the waning of Marxist content, has “severely deviated college economics education from the socialist direction”, the professors wrote in a letter to the ministry of education.

He Ganqiang, a retired economics professor at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics and one of the letter’s authors, said they had written the letter because “the westernisation of economics was one of the reasons for the Soviet Union’s collapse”.

Although officially communist, China started to abandon centrally planning the economy in the late 1970s and gradually embraced market reforms that have spurred almost four decades of breakneck economic growth.

The letter makes no mention of Karl Marx’s German origins or the fact that he spent much of his life in the UK.

The scholars’ intervention comes amid a broader backlash against western influence in Chinese studies after the education minister last year said textbooks promoting western values had no place in China’s classrooms.

In their letter dozens of professors call for universities to reinstate a 50/50 split between Marxist political economy and western economics in the new academic year.

Beijing is grappling with rising debt and an economic slowdown and is pushing supply-side reforms that have been compared to the policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Last month President Xi Jinping gave a speech in which he called on academics to modernise Marxism to advance China’s development.

Ha-Joon Chang, an economics lecturer at Cambridge university, said: “Marxist economics has shaped the world economy. The architects of the east Asian economic miracles in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan were all schooled in Marxist economics, which sees industrialisation as a way of generating surplus.”

The waning of Marxist influence is not unique to China’s universities. Until the 1980s, it was the norm for economics departments in elite universities such as Harvard and Stanford to have one or two Marxist scholars. However, they have since retired without being replaced.

China’s top economics departments, such as Beijing University’s China Center for Economics Research, have embraced western syllabuses while Renmin University has a department dedicated to translating American economics textbooks into Chinese.

However, moves to limit western thinking in Chinese education are increasingly in vain: more than 300,000 Chinese students moved to the US to study in 2014-15 — a 10 per cent increase from the year before, according to the Institute of International Education.

uh huh.

we'll drag'em down with us !

we have loads of Chinese students at work, there's been a somewhat noticeable shift in their behaviour and attitudes over the last 5-10 years.

I consider this hilarious, considering that their bloody-handed founder was influenced by "decadent" Western philosophy. And the modern regime is influenced by "decadent" Western capitalism and consumer economies.

This just reinforces a hard fact that some forget: Under the shiny veneer of free enterprise and modernity, the "Peoples Republic" of China is still a dictatorial thugocracy.

**SagesStone**

"Stop brainwashing our people so we can brainwash them" - Chinese Government

**Kovnik Obama**

reds8n wrote:
https://www.ft.com/content/f5bc9fac-27dd-11e6-8ba3-cdd781d02d89

The waning of Marxist influence is not unique to China’s universities. Until the 1980s, it was the norm for economics departments in elite universities such as Harvard and Stanford to have one or two Marxist scholars. However, they have since retired without being replaced.

I call BS on that line. Alan J. Ryan retired last year. The relevancy of Marxist studies can survive without PHI-330 being presented for two sessions. Stanford and Harvard aren't about to turn it's back on Hegel and Marx.

Not if they want to retain any legitimacy, anyways.

edit : ah, economic departments. Still, that leaves either Sociology or Philosophy as possible seats. Contrary to what they think, not everything revolves around

economics.

**sebster**

From the OP,

Beijing is grappling with rising debt and an economic slowdown...

That'd be a pretty crazy if it came from one of the communist numpties who wants to return to Marx to the universities. But its from the author of the piece, as he's trying to give the issue some context. He's written that because when writing about economics it seems to be an absolute rule that you only ever talk about the bad stuff.

I mean, yeah, China has rising debt. This debt is driven by the massive growth in the new middle class, coupled with the corruption of the party that sinks government money in to well connected but incompetently managed businesses.

And yeah, there's an economic slowdown. But 'slowdown' in this sense means no longer double digits, and still double and even quadruple growth under the old communist system.

I mean, seriously, lthis is the GDP per capita...

Who in the feth looks at that and thinks rising debt is the primary story?!

Of course, it should be nothing short of incredible that anyone, anywhere would call for a return to communism. But when outside observers fall for the nonsense of only ever looking at the bad economic indicators of the moment, and ignoring stuff like China's incredible expansion... it's no surprise that people within China can double down on that mistake and see it lead them back to Marxism.

**LordofHats**

Kovnik Obama wrote:

edit : ah, economic departments. Still, that leaves either Sociology or Philosophy as possible seats. Contrary to what they think, not everything revolves around economics.

I know there are still quite a few die hard Marxist historians still bouncing around (Marxist historiography is still used time to time). Fredrick Jameson is the only one I can name though, and I think he's pretty old.

**sebster**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
edit : ah, economic departments. Still, that leaves either Sociology or Philosophy as possible seats. Contrary to what they think, not everything revolves around economics.

It's true that not everything doesn't revolve around economics. It's just that nothing revolves around sociology or philosophy

**Ahtman**

sebster wrote:
Kovnik Obama wrote:
edit : ah, economic departments. Still, that leaves either Sociology or Philosophy as possible seats. Contrary to what they think, not everything revolves around economics.

It's true that not everything doesn't revolve around economics. It's just that nothing revolves around sociology or philosophy

I think you mean no thing revolves around philosophy.

**A Town Called Malus**

Ahtman wrote:
sebster wrote:
Kovnik Obama wrote:
edit : ah, economic departments. Still, that leaves either Sociology or Philosophy as possible seats. Contrary to what they think, not everything revolves around economics.

It's true that not everything doesn't revolve around economics. It's just that nothing revolves around sociology or philosophy

I think you mean no thing revolves around philosophy.

I think you mean that no thing which can think has thoughts which revolve around philosophy, therefore I am.

**sebster**

Ahtman wrote:
I think you mean no thing revolves around philosophy.

I guess... What?

I'm just going to retreat back in to economics. Ceteris Paribus. Arbitrage. Ricardian equivalence.

**the Signless**

Eh. . . This is not really news. These people have no real sway in the politics of China and are pretty much the equivalent of the United States' old, crazy Libertarians calling for the cessation of all taxation or government spending. They spew nonsense knowing that it will get nationalists riled up (durned Westerners are the reason why I am not as rich as I could be) and guarantee that they will keep their positions for years to come as no university will want to be involved in the trouble of firing an outspoken supporter of the Communist party. There are real issues in China, and then there is listening to the crazies.

**LordofHats**

I think most people are just having a laugh at the "brainwashed by western theories" bit, in reference to Marxism/Communist ideals in China. Its pretty funny.

This is DakkaDakka. If we're anything, we're connoisseurs of crazy talk

**Lone Cat**

Didn't Mao Zedong 'brainwashed' an entire generation of mainland Chinese and tried to root out the Confucian mindset in the first place? didn't his ideology clinge one way or another with the western phillosophy? were Marx and Engel chinese????