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China is desperately trying to hide the fact they murdered millions of their own people during the "Cultural Revolution" just like they try to hide the deaths in Tienanmen Square and blocking the Internet from "the People's" free access.
China buries memories of violent Cultural Revolution 50 years later
BEIJING — When Zhang Hongbing was a young man during China’s Cultural Revolution, his loyalty to Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong knew no bounds. He even denounced his mother for speaking ill of the iconic leader and sent her to death.
Zhang, a 62-year-old retired lawyer, no longer toes the party line, at least regarding those 10 violent and chaotic years from 1966 to 1976, when Mao died.
As Monday's 50th anniversary of the start of the revolution approached, Zhang and other witnesses, victims and participants of that era wanted an open discussion about what occurred to make sure nothing like that happens again. But China’s current Communist leaders want to snuff out any memory of the embarrassing period.
“Our nation has no future if it doesn’t learn the lessons of the Cultural Revolution," said Zhang. "If I don’t allow people to criticize me for what I did to my mother, I have no chance of making amends. The same applies to the country as whole.”
The revolution began when Mao declared that intellectuals and secret backers of capitalism were trying to undercut the ideals of his Communist Revolution of the proletariat. More than 1 million alleged traitors were imprisoned, killed or committed suicide. Mao ordered schools closed to force young people to leave cities to work in remote villages. Amid the upheaval, the economy collapsed, causing hardship for hundreds of millions.
In 1981, five years after Mao's death, the Communist Party issued a resolution blaming the chairman and his "Gang of Four" political subordinates for the “error” of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, few Chinese leaders have ever mentioned it, and Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping, launched China on its current prosperous path that combines free-market economics with authoritarian political rule.
The government has no plans to mark the anniversary and the only museum dedicated to the Cultural Revolution in southern China has been ordered to cover its exhibits with modern propaganda posters and scaffolding.
Zhang’s story is typical of those caught up in the revolution. He was 12 when Mao issued the May 16 order for the masses to “criticize and repudiate those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the party, the government, the army.” Within a year, he had joined the ranks of the fanatical student movement known as the Red Guards.
A resident of the tiny town of Guzhen in China’s eastern Anhui province, Zhang saw his job as protecting Mao, routing class enemies and perpetuating the revolution.
He denounced his father as bourgeoisie for buying his sister face cream, participated in the destruction of pre-revolutionary items, such as an antique ceramic vase, and changed his name from Zhang Tiefu to Zhang Hongbing — "Zhang the Red Guard."
The moment he regrets most came one night in February 1970, when his mother, Fang Zhongmou, criticized Mao for unleashing the wave of chaos and violence.
USA TODAY
Voices: I survived China's horrific Cultural Revolution
Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, was a member of China’s ruling Communist elite but had a falling out with Mao and was sent to manage a tractor factory in Luoyang in central China before being imprisoned in Beijing.
Xi has never spoken publicly about the impact of the Cultural Revolution.
Experts say the current leadership wants to avoid a close examination of the period for fear it might weaken their grip on power.
“Chinese leaders have been able to blame the outside world for most of their ills in the last few decades,” Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at Kings College London, wrote in Diplomat magazine recently. “But with the Cultural Revolution …China has a disaster that it visited on itself, with no one else to blame," he said. "This makes it more than simply a bad event; it means that in Chinese national psychology, it was also a colossal loss of face, an embarrassment, something that China and China alone has to face up to.”
Chinese scholars want the government to allow more study of the period. “The more you try to bury history the bigger the problem will be,” Ma Yong, a researcher in modern history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in February, according to Phoenix News. “History should not be manipulated by politicians.”
Former Red Guard Zhang is doing his part to keep memories of the Cultural Revolution alive by writing his memoirs, Confessions of an Unfilial Son. He said he hopes that one day there will be a proper state-funded museum to the revolution that lists his and other people’s crimes and losses.
Zhang also has one humble wish: to erect a gravestone to his mother and have it classified as an immovable cultural relic to warn other of the horrors extreme ideology. He is currently trying to secure that right through the Chinese courts.
“I cannot reverse what I did to my mother but I can keep fighting to win recognition of her case," Zhang said. "Maybe that way something good can come of her death. Maybe that way we can prevent a cultural revolution happening all over again.”
China buries memories of violent Cultural Revolution 50 years later
BEIJING — When Zhang Hongbing was a young man during China’s Cultural Revolution, his loyalty to Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong knew no bounds. He even denounced his mother for speaking ill of the iconic leader and sent her to death.
Zhang, a 62-year-old retired lawyer, no longer toes the party line, at least regarding those 10 violent and chaotic years from 1966 to 1976, when Mao died.
As Monday's 50th anniversary of the start of the revolution approached, Zhang and other witnesses, victims and participants of that era wanted an open discussion about what occurred to make sure nothing like that happens again. But China’s current Communist leaders want to snuff out any memory of the embarrassing period.
“Our nation has no future if it doesn’t learn the lessons of the Cultural Revolution," said Zhang. "If I don’t allow people to criticize me for what I did to my mother, I have no chance of making amends. The same applies to the country as whole.”
The revolution began when Mao declared that intellectuals and secret backers of capitalism were trying to undercut the ideals of his Communist Revolution of the proletariat. More than 1 million alleged traitors were imprisoned, killed or committed suicide. Mao ordered schools closed to force young people to leave cities to work in remote villages. Amid the upheaval, the economy collapsed, causing hardship for hundreds of millions.
In 1981, five years after Mao's death, the Communist Party issued a resolution blaming the chairman and his "Gang of Four" political subordinates for the “error” of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, few Chinese leaders have ever mentioned it, and Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping, launched China on its current prosperous path that combines free-market economics with authoritarian political rule.
The government has no plans to mark the anniversary and the only museum dedicated to the Cultural Revolution in southern China has been ordered to cover its exhibits with modern propaganda posters and scaffolding.
Zhang’s story is typical of those caught up in the revolution. He was 12 when Mao issued the May 16 order for the masses to “criticize and repudiate those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the party, the government, the army.” Within a year, he had joined the ranks of the fanatical student movement known as the Red Guards.
A resident of the tiny town of Guzhen in China’s eastern Anhui province, Zhang saw his job as protecting Mao, routing class enemies and perpetuating the revolution.
He denounced his father as bourgeoisie for buying his sister face cream, participated in the destruction of pre-revolutionary items, such as an antique ceramic vase, and changed his name from Zhang Tiefu to Zhang Hongbing — "Zhang the Red Guard."
The moment he regrets most came one night in February 1970, when his mother, Fang Zhongmou, criticized Mao for unleashing the wave of chaos and violence.
USA TODAY
Voices: I survived China's horrific Cultural Revolution
Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, was a member of China’s ruling Communist elite but had a falling out with Mao and was sent to manage a tractor factory in Luoyang in central China before being imprisoned in Beijing.
Xi has never spoken publicly about the impact of the Cultural Revolution.
Experts say the current leadership wants to avoid a close examination of the period for fear it might weaken their grip on power.
“Chinese leaders have been able to blame the outside world for most of their ills in the last few decades,” Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at Kings College London, wrote in Diplomat magazine recently. “But with the Cultural Revolution …China has a disaster that it visited on itself, with no one else to blame," he said. "This makes it more than simply a bad event; it means that in Chinese national psychology, it was also a colossal loss of face, an embarrassment, something that China and China alone has to face up to.”
Chinese scholars want the government to allow more study of the period. “The more you try to bury history the bigger the problem will be,” Ma Yong, a researcher in modern history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in February, according to Phoenix News. “History should not be manipulated by politicians.”
Former Red Guard Zhang is doing his part to keep memories of the Cultural Revolution alive by writing his memoirs, Confessions of an Unfilial Son. He said he hopes that one day there will be a proper state-funded museum to the revolution that lists his and other people’s crimes and losses.
Zhang also has one humble wish: to erect a gravestone to his mother and have it classified as an immovable cultural relic to warn other of the horrors extreme ideology. He is currently trying to secure that right through the Chinese courts.
“I cannot reverse what I did to my mother but I can keep fighting to win recognition of her case," Zhang said. "Maybe that way something good can come of her death. Maybe that way we can prevent a cultural revolution happening all over again.”
