Draw the Line Between Learning Advanced Things from the West and Worshiping Things Foreign

Abstract

Since the Third Plenary Session of the Party's Eleventh Congress, by opening up to the outside, we have learned and drawn upon the advanced science and technology and advanced business methods and management experience of the Western nations, enhanced foreign economic and cultural exchanges, promoted China's economic prosperity, and raised the people's material, cultural, and living standards. At the same time, however, Western capitalism's decadent ideology and culture have taken advantage of this opportunity to stream in, and the "worship-things-foreign mentality" and "worship-things-foreign phenomenon" have quietly developed and spread in some people's minds and in many domains of social life. In order to draw a line between learning advanced things from the West and worshiping things foreign, we must clarify such issues as why we should learn from the West, what we should learn from the West, and how to learn from the West in a truly enterprising fashion, drawing upon, and making use of Western advances without unduly underrating ourselves and blindly worshiping things foreign.