[1] As the selection from a writing by James Dorn (below) concerning the Communist Party's handling of topics from the Cultural Revolution below shows, the CCP in China is not into public discussions on the past.
The CCP's monopoly on power leaves little scope for independent thought or freedom of expression, especially in the political realm. Open criticism and discussion are a threat to the CCP's supremacy. The Party's powerful propaganda department, headed by a politburo member, hides the truth by distorting both facts and language. Orwellian "Newspeak" is pervasive, from the "Cultural Revolution" and "market socialism" to the very name of the nation -- the "People's Republic of China."
The CCP does not want people, especially young people, to openly examine its past. Although the Party has called the Cultural Revolution a serious mistake and a national disaster, it has not allowed full disclosure of the facts or publication of critical accounts of that period. The reason is obvious: the Party's legitimacy would be tested and found to be fraudulent. The "mandate of heaven" would dictate a new political order based on the consent of the people -- a constitutional order of liberty. Nien Cheng, in her best-selling book Life and Death in Shanghai, describes how Party officials dodged responsibility for the violent tactics used by the Red Guards: "When there was excessive cruelty that resulted in deaths, the officials would disclaim responsibility for an 'accident' resulting from 'mass enthusiasm'." The truth about the Cultural Revolution, as historian John King Fairbank wrote, is that it "fed upon ... public dependence on, and blind obedience to, authority. There was no idea of morality's being under the law." That truth must not be forgotten.
The CCP's deliberate attempt to hide the truth about the Party's role in the Cultural Revolution, by banning books by Cheng and others and by romanticizing Mao, may protect the Party's hold on power in the short run but not in the long run. Eventually, economic liberalization, a growing middle class, and the global flow of information through the Internet will generate increasing pressure for political reform. China's new mantra should be "Seek truth from freedom." Global competition has driven China's economic development since 1978; now it is time to apply that same force to politics and to constitutional change. Truth cannot come from facts if the facts remain hidden by a supreme CCP. What China needs is freedom and transparency: a government whose power is strictly limited and whose fundamental purpose is to protect life, liberty, and property.
The major lesson of the Cultural Revolution is not that it was "fun," as a former Red Guard recently told his college-aged son. Rather, in the words of Cheng, "Unless and until a political system rooted in law, rather than personal power, is firmly established in China, the road to the future will always be full of twists and turns."
From http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3206
So, perhaps this reticence to talk-about-the-past by the CCP will lead to the downplaying of the 1911-1912 revolution's anniversary (over the next 26 months).(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
