Chinas education minister has vowed to ban university textbooks which promote western values, The Guardian reports, quoting state media, "in the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping."
Never let textbooks promoting western values appear in our classes, minister Yuan Guiren said, according to a report late Thursday by Chinas official Xinhua news agency, the Guardian reported.
The signal comes at an awkward time for Chinese college education, as the country struggles with how to produce more college graduates who are capable of innovation and original thinking.
Last year the New York Times took note of China's ambitious plans to pump $250 billion a year into expanding college access access to tens of millions beyond the narrow elite who currently have the opportunity.
But the Times report sounded some notes of caution and skepticism: "Much depends on whether Chinas authoritarian political system can create an educational system that encourages the world-class creativity and innovation that modern economies require, and that can help generate enough quality jobs," the Times noted, adding that China "faces formidable difficulties in dealing with widespread corruption, a sclerotic political system, severe environmental damage, inefficient state-owned monopolies and other problems."
The problem is brought into focus by a Business Insider report, which quotes Beijing Foreign Studies University senior Sue Su, recalling an economics class in her freshman year, the first time she realized that her peers struggled to develop original ideas.
"We were discussing a commercial case," she said. "Almost all of my classmates raised the same solution. No one raised opposite ideas. No one wants to argue with others."
The stifling of original thought impacts teachers as well as students, the Guardian notes, observing that a "Chinese province last month announced plans to install CCTV cameras in university classrooms, sparking an outcry from lawyers who say the move would further curb academic freedom."
The threat is real, the Guardian notes: Last September, Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life in prison for separatism in September. The evidence used to convict him was drawn from close circuit cameras monitoring his classroom.
Never let textbooks promoting western values appear in our classes, minister Yuan Guiren said, according to a report late Thursday by Chinas official Xinhua news agency, the Guardian reported.
The signal comes at an awkward time for Chinese college education, as the country struggles with how to produce more college graduates who are capable of innovation and original thinking.
Last year the New York Times took note of China's ambitious plans to pump $250 billion a year into expanding college access access to tens of millions beyond the narrow elite who currently have the opportunity.
But the Times report sounded some notes of caution and skepticism: "Much depends on whether Chinas authoritarian political system can create an educational system that encourages the world-class creativity and innovation that modern economies require, and that can help generate enough quality jobs," the Times noted, adding that China "faces formidable difficulties in dealing with widespread corruption, a sclerotic political system, severe environmental damage, inefficient state-owned monopolies and other problems."
The problem is brought into focus by a Business Insider report, which quotes Beijing Foreign Studies University senior Sue Su, recalling an economics class in her freshman year, the first time she realized that her peers struggled to develop original ideas.
"We were discussing a commercial case," she said. "Almost all of my classmates raised the same solution. No one raised opposite ideas. No one wants to argue with others."
The stifling of original thought impacts teachers as well as students, the Guardian notes, observing that a "Chinese province last month announced plans to install CCTV cameras in university classrooms, sparking an outcry from lawyers who say the move would further curb academic freedom."
The threat is real, the Guardian notes: Last September, Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life in prison for separatism in September. The evidence used to convict him was drawn from close circuit cameras monitoring his classroom.