BEIJING — Western values are a “ticket to hell,” a newspaper published by China’s Communist Party said in a recent editorial that held up Ukraine and some Arab countries as examples of outside ideas causing turmoil.
It was the latest colorful example of a rising level of invective targeting critics of the authoritarian government. In the two-plus years since President Xi Jinping took the helm of the ruling party, state media have become more strident in defending the one-party system and stoking nationalism.
Recent events have accelerated the trend. Last fall’s pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong opened floodgates of disdain against “anti-China” forces. Last week, the party tabloid Global Times laid into well-known blogger Ren Zhiqiang for questioning official warnings against Western values infiltrating Chinese college classrooms.
The newspaper pointed to turmoil in Ukraine and the Arab world to show how any adoption of Western models by non-Western countries “basically amounts to the copying of failure.”
“No matter how beautiful they appear on the surface, they are in fact a ticket to hell and can only bring disaster to the Chinese nation,” the newspaper said.
