China’s secrecy about its past could stifle its future
With China stumping assertively on the world stage, one might think Beijing would be open, even gracious, about the country’s past. To the contrary, history remains an exceedingly sensitive subject here, drawing relentless attention from authorities anxious to keep all skeletons safely in closets.
As a university professor in China, I face the consequences of this official apprehension every day. My young, bright students know little about their country’s recent past. What they do know tends to agree with government-sponsored discourse on the pride and glory of China’s rise after a century of humiliation by Western powers. Library and bookstore shelves tell, with enviable conviction, this same story of national grandeur. And it is hard to get around that government-approved tale. Some of us at the University of Nottingham at Ningbo recently attempted to order a standard Western work on China’s history, Jonathan Spence’s “The Search for Modern China.” Our efforts ran aground when customs officials refused to allow the book shipment into the country. The agent courteously proposed to manually cut out the censored sections — including photos of the T1annamun Square massacre and Spence’s account of the Cultural Revolution — to get the customs clearance. These are things the Chinese people are not supposed to know.
Historians of China face secrecy and restrictions everywhere as the key archives remain largely inaccessible, even though the Chinese archives law provides for the opening of official documents to the public after 30 years. Some progress has been made with declassification, notably at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, to appease international scholars. Academics can now read, though not print, digitized memos and telegrams from 1949 through 1965. Still, even these documents have been pre-selected to avoid potential embarrassment for the government. The party archives, which host the records of the Communist Party’s holy of holies — the Politburo — are closed. Anyone in China interested in studying the origins of the Korean War, which took place more than 60 years ago, will not get very far. The Great Leap Forward? The Cultural Revolution? Same story. Uncomfortable episodes of China’s recent history have become a subject of official amnesia and a victim of the government’s monopoly on truth.
Consider the case of Lin Biao, a hero of the Chinese Civil War, and later Mao Zedong’s comrade in arms during the Cultural Revolution, who died in 1971. Lin, who is well remembered for his appearances atop T1annamun Square, the Little Red Book in his hand, supposedly conspired to kill the Chinese leader, even though he was Mao’s anointed successor. When the plot was discovered, he fled to the Soviet Union, then China’s archenemy, but he never made it: His plane crashed in Mongolia after allegedly running out of fuel.
This is the official story; this is as much as the Chinese government is willing to say 40 years on. We do not know whether Lin Biao really planned to kill Mao. Their fallout could have been a personal feud or, as the chairman later claimed, a policy disagreement (Lin Biao is said to have opposed the Sino-American opening).
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The culture of Big Brother sponsored by Minitrue.
The only ones at a disadvantage due to China's censorship of history of Chinese history is the Chinese themselves. Much of the seething Nationalism displayed by your average ZhongGuo Ren is a direct result of the governments unending campaign to control the past for their own benefit today.
What this translates to is a country of eager ignorant young people willing to support The Party regardless of the consequence which will result in cultural stagnation and backwardness. In many ways the CCP of today is acting exactly as the Emperors of old. Public thought control to legitimize the rule of the emperor and backward Confucian values of submissiveness to its authority. The Emperor (read the CCP) is infallible. As the representative of Heaven, all things good come from it's initiative and all things negative from belligerent outside forces. In such a sociocultural environment real development for China and its people has stagnated.
We are constantly inundated with "we are a developing country" mantra whenever something positive or negative is discussed. From new skylines to rampant environmental degradation, the repeated mantra is one of "we are developing" Unfortunately the exact opposite is true. China is as backward as it has always been. The sick-man of Asia hasn't been cured. And unfortunately this is exactly what the Party wants, a state of backwards existence and understanding for the populous under its iron-fisted control.
Though there may be short-term short-sighted benefits for The Party and National Pride, in the long term, it will lead to the ultimate undoing of The Party and the nation. Chinese historical discourse is built on a mountain of lies. Every year that the CCP remains in power leads to ever greater elevations of The Party and it's lies. As the old saying goes, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall.", and the lies legitimizing the CCP rule of this nation are whoppers. From the very footing of their claim to power, "We beat the Japanese." to their modern economic management, "We are responsible for China's economic development." are based on lies and half truths. The truth is the evil West beat the Japanese and it has been the evil West that kick-started China's rise to economic prominence. The Party bears no responsibility.
So what is The Party responsible for in regard to the average person's life in the Middle Kingdom? Rail disasters, illegal land confiscation, poison milk, and denial of basic human rights, not to mention a complete corruption of the history of New China. From Mao's great leap, to the crack own in 1989, to the ongoing food scandals and imaginary air quality readings, the CCP does nothing but lie to Chinese people. In short, they have done nothing that to endear The Party in the hearts of the Chinese. If Chinese people are ever made aware of even one truth concerning their Party and the history of New China, everything else they say, whether truthful or not, will be questioned spelling the demise of the Party and New China along with it. Will this happen? Inevitably. When? Only time will tell, but as time marches on, with each passing moment, a new stone is added to the mountain of lies. The higher it goes, the farther it will fall. The bigger it is, the bigger the crash will be.
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Criticizing the governments economic policies mostly. I've not seen/heard that before. in fact, I have rarely heard anyone discuss politics public, let alone, blatantly criticizing the Party. A good sign. If Chinese people ever hope to achieve freedom, they'll have to stop being afraid. Fear and freedom are antonyms ans can never co-exist.
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