Anti-Western sentiment

Anti-Western sentiment in China has been increasing since the early 1990s, particularly amongst the Chinese youth.[5] Notable incidents which have resulted in a significant anti-Western backlash have included the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade,[6] the 2008 demonstrations during the Olympic torch relay[7] and alleged Western media bias,[8] especially in relation to the March 2008 Tibet riots.[9] Whilst available public opinion polls show that the Chinese hold generally favourable views towards the United States,[10] there remains suspicion over the West's motives towards China[10] stemming largely from historical experiences and specifically the 'century of humiliation'.[11] These suspicions have been increased by the Communist Party's "Patriotic Education Campaign".[12]

There is a history of criticism of the so-called West within the history of thinking in the culture of Japan.[13]

Anti-western sentiments were common at one point in Colonial India during the Indian independence movement.[14]

Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, argues that East Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam should be based on "Asian values".[15] Countries such as the Four Asian Tigers should aspire to have Western-style standards of living, but without accepting liberal democratic social institutions and principles.

Together with political salafists, jihadists (also called militant salafists) view Europe as lands inhabited by infidels (Dar al-Kufr). For jihadists this also legitimizes Europe as a target for armed jihad in terms of acts of war or terrorist attacks. Such lands go under the name of Dar al-Harb (lands of war).[16] Jihadists themselves motivate their attacks in two prominent ways: as a way to resist and discourage Western military intervention in Muslim countries and what is called "insults against Islam" such as Muhammad Cartoons.[17]

John Calvert writes that in their critique of the West the Islamists use Western thinkers like Alexis Carrel, Oswald Spengler, Arnold J. Toynbee or Arthur Koestler.[18]

Terrorist groups Al-Qaeda and ISIS are both anti-western, and promote terrorism in Western countries.[19]

"America thinks of modernity as all good — and it has been almost all good for America. But for the Arab world, modernity has been one failure after another. Each path followed — socialism, secularism, nationalism — has turned into a dead end."[20]

During the Ottoman period of Turkey a tradition of anti-Western idea commenced development.[21][22]

In Amsterdam's secondary schools, about half the students of Moroccan descent do not identify with the Netherlands: they see their identity as 'Muslim', and regularly express anti-Western views but, nevertheless, do not want to return to their ancestral homeland.[23]

Russian President Vladimir Putin with religious leaders of Russia, 2001. Putin has promoted religious traditionalism and the rejection of some Western liberal principles, like toleration of homosexuality.

Anti-Western sentiment in Russia dates back to 19th century from an intellectual debate between Westernists and Slavophiles. While the former deemed Russia to be a lagging Western country, the latter rejected these claims outright and dubbed West to be 'rotten'. An important figure in Western criticism under reign of Alexander the Third was Konstantin Pobedonostsev, a former liberal who eventually denounced and thoroughly criticised his former views.

Under the Communist rule 'the West' eventually became synonymous with 'the capitalist world', resulting in appearance of famous propagandist cliché 'corrupting influence of the West'.

After Cold War, a number of politicians in the Russian Federation have supported an explicit promotion of Russian Orthodox traditionalism, and a rejection of Western liberalism.

Some ultra-nationalist politicians, such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an anti-communist, express the most anti-Western sentiment.

Vladimir Putin has promoted explicitly conservative policies in social, cultural and political matters, both at home and abroad. Putin has attacked globalism and neoliberalism,[24] and promoted new think tanks that stress Russian nationalism, the restoration of Russia's historical greatness, and systematic opposition to liberal ideas and policies.[25] Putin has collaborated closely with the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Church, endorsed his election in 2012 stating Putin's terms were like "a miracle of God."[26][27] The Russian Orthodox Church sometimes is host to groups that promote nationalist and anti-Western tendencies.[28][29]

The Russian government has restricted foreign funding of some pro-liberal Non Governmental Organizations. Pro-Russian activists in the former Soviet Union frequently equate the West with homosexuality and the gay agenda,[30] and Russian gay propaganda law was welcomed by nationalist and religious political figures in Russia as a bulwark against Western influence.

The Yarovaya Law prohibits evangelism by religious minorities, which was used to ban the U.S.-based Jehovah's Witnesses.[31]