Mao Zedong
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China: As Xi Jinping praises free trade, critics of Mao lose their jobs
By James Griffiths Hong Kong (CNN) In a speech in Davos Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping treated his audience of world business leaders to a full-throated defense of globalization and free trade. It was a surprising move by the head of a party co-founded by Mao Zedong and which claims the "realization of communism is (its) highest ideal and ultimate goal." But as Xi positions the Chinese Communist Party as the flag bearer of liberal economics, back home critics of Mao are discovering the old ways are far from past. This month, state media has reported three high-profile incidents of people losing their jobs for criticizing Mao, as universities restrict discussion of the Party and school history textbooks are revised to emphasize the Communists' role in fighting Japan during World War II. Fired over 'devil' comment On Monday, Zuo Chunhe, a senior city official in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province near Beijing, was removed from his post and ordered to "deeply reflect on his mistakes" over comments he made on social media, according to Party mouthpiece People's Daily. Zuo called Mao a "devil" and described annual commemorations of the late leader's birthday on December 26 as "the world's largest cult activity." He also mocked ongoing government efforts to boycott Western ideas and culture. Zuo's dismissal comes after university professor Deng Xiangchao was forced to retire over similar criticisms of Mao. "The only thing he did right was die," Deng wrote on Weibo, pointing to the Great Leap Forward and other disastrous Mao policies that led to mass starvation and caused the deaths of millions of people. His account has since been deleted. Videos posted online showed a crowd of pro-Mao protesters who gathered outside the gates of Shandong Jianzhu University calling for Deng's dismissal and holding banners such as "whoever opposes Chairman Mao is an enemy of the people." In a statement, the university said Deng's "wrong" comments were a "severe problem and led to a bad public effect," according to the Global Times. TV producer Liu Yong, who worked for a regional station in the central province of Henan, was fired for posting messages backing Deng and criticizing Mao. Mao still divides opinion in China. His giant portrait hangs on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate, and thousands flock to see his embalmed body at his mausoleum in Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital. But many families suffered during political movements like the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Censored The dismissals are indicative of a wider government move to tighten control over freedom of expression, said Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang. "It's an extension of a longstanding pathology of the Chinese government to control the narratives of the country both in the past and the future," she said. The recent cases come as the Party cracks down on what it terms "historical nihilism," any attempt to question the official version of history, said Amnesty International researcher William Nee. He pointed to a recent statement by China's top court that it was considering how to tackle the issue of people "infringing on the reputation of heroes and historical figures." The Ministry of Education announced this month that history textbooks will now emphasize the "14-year Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression," a move that critics say is designed to inflate the Communist Party's role in World War II. Most sources date the start of the conflict in China to Japan's full invasion of the country in July 1937. Earlier this month, Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, one of the country's leading educational institutions, circulated a list of topics banned from class discussion, according to the South China Morning Post. These included "criticizing the constitution," "criticizing Chinese Communist Party leaders" and "spreading religion and superstition." The university did not respond to a request for comment. Previous tolerance of "pockets of discussion and greater liberty" within universities and other institutions is narrowing, Wang said. "At a time when the country is rapidly changing and facing a lot of challenges, the national discussion is being greatly limited."
China’s Chief Justice Rejects an Independent Judiciary, and Reformers Wince
By MICHAEL FORSYTHE HONG KONG — Chief Justice Zhou Qiang, China’s top judicial official, is hardly a radical reformer. But to liberal-minded watchers of the country’s evolving court system, he has nonetheless been an encouraging figure. In recent years, he has spearheaded an effort to make China’s judiciary, which is subordinate to the ruling Communist Party, more professional. He has pushed to weed out poorly trained judges and to raise the pay of those with formal legal training, which often includes a heavy dose of Western jurisprudence. So when the chief justice used warlike language on Saturday to denounce the idea of an independent judiciary and other cherished liberal principles, warning judges not to fall into the “trap” of “Western” ideology, observers in China and abroad were shocked and dismayed. “We should resolutely resist erroneous influence from the West: ‘constitutional democracy,’ ‘separation of powers’ and ‘independence of the judiciary,’” Chief Justice Zhou, the head of the Supreme People’s Court of China, said in a speech to a group of legal officials in Beijing. “We must make clear our stand and dare to show the sword.” The speech was widely seen as a bow to the strict political climate that President Xi Jinping has established in China, as a major Communist Party conclave approaches this year. Though Mr. Xi won plaudits this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, for his support of economic globalization, at home he has overseen a yearslong program to constrain civil society, promote adulation for Mao Zedong, stamp out support for an independent press and sharply limit speech on the internet. “This statement is the most enormous ideological setback for decades of halting, uneven progress toward the creation of a professional, impartial judiciary,” Jerome A. Cohen, director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University, wrote of the chief justice’s speech in a blog post. “It has already provoked some of China’s most admirable legal scholars to speak out in defiance, and, despite their prominence, I fear not only for their academic freedom and careers but also for their personal safety.” One Chinese scholar who spoke out was He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University, whose own online post criticizing the remarks was removed from the internet. In the post, he said it was wrong to call judicial independence a Western concept, citing the example of Bao Zheng, a famous Chinese judge who lived about 1,000 years ago and was celebrated for his just decisions. “This is truly a statement that wrecks the nation and harms the people,” Mr. He wrote. “It truly goes against history.” In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. He said Mr. Xi’s comments at a Communist Party work conference two days before the chief justice’s speech had made it clear that he was demanding obedience from the judiciary. “Xi said some very harsh things,” Mr. He said. “He demanded that political and legal work must safeguard the stability of the regime. So now heads of these judicial organizations must declare where they stand, to show that they support what Xi said.” In his speech Saturday, Chief Justice Zhou also exhorted judges to “safeguard by law images of leaders and heroes, and to resolutely safeguard the party and the People’s Army’s glorious history.” Mr. Cohen said that remark was consistent with Mr. Xi’s effort to whitewash the image of Mao, Communist China’s first leader. Since 2013, the Communist Party has spoken out against the notion of “historical nihilism,” which it takes to mean any denigration of the historical image of Mao and the party, including discussion of Mao’s disastrous economic policies in the late 1950s or his chaotic Cultural Revolution. In recent weeks, the government has cracked down harshly on some officials who made negative remarks about Mao. In the northern province of Hebei, a deputy director of the Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television Bureau in the provincial capital was fired after making what were deemed “erroneous comments” on his social media account, which has since been deleted. Overseas Chinese websites reported that the comments were critical of Mao. While his position is prestigious, Chief Justice Zhou is not a member of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo. Before Mr. Xi’s ascension to power in 2012, the jurist was a rising star, serving as the top official in Hunan, Mao’s home province. He was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for a top leadership position. Now he is showing his fealty to Mr. Xi, Mr. Cohen, the director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, said in a telephone interview. He said the speech appeared to be a bid for political survival before the Communist Party Congress set for late this year, which will determine who serves directly under Mr. Xi for the next five years. “People who know him find him a reasonable person who’s had a good legal education and who had been open before he became chief justice to improvements in the legal system,” Mr. Cohen said. “This must be pretty bitter gruel for him to swallow in order to try to bring the courts into a kind of militant observance of the highest party leadership.”
China’s president — a new kind of ‘Davos man’ for a new, less-liberal, era
By Emily Rauhala Chinese President Xi Jinping, "red princeling," son of a revolutionary, general secretary of the Communist Party, this week travels to a ski resort in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum to rub shoulders with what remains of the liberal elite. He is set to deliver a keynote speech on the Chinese economy and, per his loyal press corps, discuss his "global vision" of "a better world for all." Don't expect soaring oratory — Xi, an old school sort, sticks to scripted, "Socialism with Chinese characteristics"-steeped speech. While his talk is unlikely to thrill Champagne-swilling guests, his presence at the annual conclave is revealing — for two reasons. First, it tells us something about China. Xi was born in the desperate aftermath of the Chinese civil war, spent the Cultural Revolution living in a cave, then climbed the ranks of the Communist Party to become the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. He's made it his personal mission to oversee the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," a plan that sees China, having endured a century of humiliation, taking its rightful place at the center of the world. Since taking power in 2012, Xi has stepped up China's global presence, spending billions on far-flung infrastructure projects, strengthening the country's role in multi-lateral organizations and, with the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, creating international institutions of its own. But China's efforts to step confidently on to the world stage have been hurt by questions about its economic fitness. Over the last year and a half, the surprise devaluation of the Chinese currency and a stomach-turning string of stock market interventions spooked the global economy and called attention to stalled economic reforms. Xi, China's "chairman of everything," responded by taking more direct control. For those reading the economic tea leaves, it is therefore significant that it is Xi, not premier Li Keqiang, who is representing China at Davos. "In the past, the premier controlled the economy and the president controlled politics, but that no longer exists," said Zhang Lifan, a Chinese historian. "I am not surprised that Xi is attending the World Economic Forum; he controls the economy and Li Keqiang is just his assistant — it shows his power has increased." Second, it seems significant that it is the dissent-crushing head of a nominally socialist state, not the United States or its allies, that will lead the call for global cooperation on issues like trade and climate change. For years, critics have questioned the use of bankers and celebrities playing politics on the ski slopes, casting World Economic Forum attendees as symbols of an obscene and out-of-touch transnational class. The late Samuel Huntington dubbed these private plane-riding plutocrats as the "Davos man." They have "little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite's global operations," he wrote. This year, voters in the United State and Europe delivered what feels like a death blow to the Davos man — nationalism is on the rise and President-elect Donald Trump, who knows a thing or two about private jets, has promised a retreat of the elites. With the U.S. and the U.K. looking inward, Xi, an authoritarian nationalist, will step in — a new and different kind of Davos man.
Knowledge Graph
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1 Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung, also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as an autocrat styled the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949, until his death in 1976.
2 Mao Zedong's Marxist–Leninist theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
3 On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a one-party state controlled by the CPC.