Over the past decade or so, “red tourism” has become a uniquely Chinese phenomenon, according to People’s Daily Online. Hu Heping, minister of culture and tourism of the Communist Party of China, said that from 2004 to 2019, the number of people participating in red tourism grew from 140 million to 1.41 billion annually. Yan’an, Shaanxi province, has always been known as a revolutionary shrine and is naturally a hot spot for “red tourism. Hu Heping said that in 2019, Yan’an received more than 73 million visitors.
There is a red song from the Cultural Revolution called “Back to Yan’an”, in which the old revolutionary sings: “Thirty years of separation, today back to Yan’an”. At that time, I wondered why it took me thirty years to return to Yan’an. Then I remembered that when we were in middle school, there was a long poem “Back to Yan’an” written by He Jingzhi in 1956 in the language textbook, which said: “Ten years of separation and back home again. I suddenly thought of a question: How come Mao Zedong never returned to Yan’an?
Yan’an is the birthplace of Mao Zedong. Since Mao Zedong came out of his hometown Shaoshan, until 1949 to the capital as the emperor, which lived the longest time is Yan’an, from 1935 to 1948, up to 13 years. It was during the Yan’an period that Mao won supremacy within the Communist Party. In the four volumes of Mao’s Selected Works, 70 percent of the articles were written in Yan’an. By definition, Mao was the most deserving to return to Yan’an. But strangely enough, from the time Mao entered Beijing in ’49 to his death in ’76, a full 27 years, Mao never once returned to Yan’an. Why is that?
In my opinion, one of the reasons is that the Chinese Communist Party was rooted in Yan’an and got along too badly with the Yan’an people. Think about it, Shanbei was already poor, but now it has to support a huge government and army, the burden can be imagined. The Communist Party of China (CPC) was oppressing the people of Yan’an so much that it could be imagined that there were many harsh taxes and Latin dispatches.
Then there is the feud between Mao Zedong and the Shanbei gang.
In those days, the Central Red Army in Jinggang Mountain was besieged by the national army and forced to abandon the land and flee, and on the way to escape learned that there was a communist base in northern Shaanxi, so the remnants of the rate defected to Yan’an. Liu Zhidan and Gao Gang in the base area of northern Shaanxi took in the Central Red Army, and this was the “Northern Shaanxi to save the Central Committee”. Although the Shaanbei gang has done a lot of credit to the CPC, it was the first casualty in the internal struggle of the party.
Not to mention the suspicions of Liu Zhidan’s death, especially Gao Gang, who became vice chairman in 1949 and was highly valued by Mao Zedong. But Mao Zedong went back on his word, and later, for his own political needs, gave Gao Gang the label of “usurping power” and criticized him severely; Gao Gang was forced to commit suicide and was expelled from the Party after his death. Several of Gao Gang’s generals were also purged. In 1962, Xi Zhongxun of the Northern Shaanxi Gang was criticized and deposed for supporting the “anti-party novel” Liu Zhidan, and was branded a gangster during the Cultural Revolution. The Shanbei gang was almost completely wiped out.
Mao Zedong knew he was sorry for the Shanbei gang. Mao knew that he could not face the relatives and ministers of Liu Zhidan, Gao Gang and others, so he had to avoid them and never returned to Yan’an. During the entire Mao era, only Zhou Enlai returned to Yan’an in 1973 among the CCP leaders. At that time, Zhou Enlai had been diagnosed with an incurable disease and knew that his days were numbered. When he met with local officials in Yan’an, Zhou Enlai said: “The people of Yan’an have nurtured us and enabled us to achieve national revolutionary victory. But the agriculture in Yan’an is still very backward, the people’s life is even more miserable than in the war years, we are sorry to the people of Yan’an.
“After the collapse of the Gang of Four, the Chinese Communist Party authorities vigorously vindicated the wrongdoings, and several of Gao Gang’s cadres and Xi Zhongxun were reappointed. Hu Yaobang advocated for the vindication of Gao Gang, but was overruled by Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping denounced Gao Gang, and after Gao Gang’s suicide, Deng Xiaoping joined the Politburo and became General Secretary immediately afterwards. Deng Xiaoping took the lead in fixing Gao Gang and later gained the most benefit from it, no wonder he was adamantly opposed to the reversion of Gao Gang.
In the era of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the Communist authorities reviewed Gao Gang’s case and then told Gao Gang’s widow Li Liqun that Gao Gang’s case “is not suitable for correction now. If it were now, he would not have been handled that way.” On August 29, 2009, a bronze bust of Gao Gang was completed in Gao Gang’s hometown in Gaojiagou village, Wuzhen Township, Hengshan County, Shaanxi Province.
When Xi Jinping, a descendant of the Shaanxi gang, came to power in 2012, many people thought that Xi would always vindicate Gao Gang publicly, right? The reason for this is that Xi Jinping did not give Gao Gang a public vindication. The reason for this is also very simple, because Xi Jinping is bent on giving the Communist Party a cover-up. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good idea of what you are doing. This is what Xi does not want to see, so he also wants to downplay the matter and try to cover it up. The newly published history of the CPC is surprisingly silent on the Gao Gang incident. Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need to oppose historical nihilism, yet he dares not even face a 70-year-old case within the Communist Party. In fact, he is the biggest historical nihilist.
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