On May 9, Xi Jinping sent a letter to the editorial board of Shandong University’s “Literature, History and Philosophy”, proposing the purpose of running a good philosophy and social science journal: “to strengthen the backbone and bottom of being Chinese, so that the world can better know China and understand China.” This is not only the purpose of the journal, but also a summary of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party, the whole Party’s campaign to learn the “four histories” (the history of the CPC, the history of New China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of socialist development), as well as instructions for the work of propaganda and foreign affairs departments.
If we call this supreme instruction “the latest Xi Thought”, it can be simplified into four words, that is, “erase the Cultural Revolution”. If we extend it further, it means erasing the June Fourth Incident, erasing the famine, erasing the anti-rightist movement, erasing the crackdown, and “erasing all the mistakes and dark sides of history.
Xi’s instructions had an immediate impact, and the introduction of a pair of Song Dynasty stone lions in front of the south gate of Zhongshan Park on the west side of Tiananmen was changed. The original text read, “In the 1960s, during the Cultural Revolution, park employees buried the stone lions to protect them until 1971, when they were able to meet visitors again.” The words “during the Cultural Revolution” were removed.
By erasing the “history, words and phrases” related to the Cultural Revolution, can we really erase the history of this decade of the Chinese Communist Party? It’s like “cutting off the water with a knife”, because the spirit of the Cultural Revolution is being carried forward. Kong Qingdong, a professor of Chinese at Peking University who specializes in contemporary literature and popular literature, made a video of a speech during the May 1 holiday that is being widely circulated on WeChat. He said, human development for thousands of years, “I think the most valuable spiritual wealth is Mao Zedong Thought, so far there is no (more). Like I said in the field of literature and art, I said the peak of human art, which is the model play, cannot be surpassed (applause).”
If we call Kong Qingdong’s touting of Mao Zedong’s thought and Jiang Qing’s model plays the “positive energy” of today, the “negative energy” of erasing the memories of the Cultural Revolution inspired by it is far more overwhelming than Kong Qingdong’s, not to mention that this year is the 55th anniversary of the launch of the Cultural Revolution. The Voice of America published “Bao Tong remembers the Cultural Revolution”, which was reprinted by the Western mainstream media. A public website of NetEase has taken Liu He’s article “The Miracle of Growth Without a Closing Date” from the book “China’s Economy in 30 Years” published by China Economic Press in 2008 and changed the title to “China’s Economic Growth Today Would Not Have Been Possible Without Reflection on the Disaster of the Cultural Revolution”, which was reprinted by several public websites. The Internet Information Office was afraid of the article and did not harmonize it.
In Shanghai, there was also an incident that shook up public opinion. Zhou Zhengyi, the former richest man in Shanghai, held his 60th birthday party at a five-star hotel on the Bund on the evening of April 18, with a banner that read “Never forget your original heart, return to your true nature”, and six hosts from the Shanghai Radio and TV station attended, infuriating the authorities. A few days later, the six hosts were disciplined. The party committee of the TV station announced: “stop the hosts involved in major live events at all levels, and program recording work, and stop broadcasting the hosts involved in the program, image endorsement and public welfare film, cancel the annual evaluation of merit qualifications, the six hosts involved in a written examination, and in the relevant units held a regular meeting of management cadres and hosts to inform the warning and special education. ” The briefing also said, “Now the implementation of the matter of party discipline and political affairs case, will be based on the facts found in accordance with the rules of party discipline and political sanctions.” At the same time, the briefing also clarified that the network about “each received 100,000 yuan” appearance fee rumors are rumors.
Party-controlled media spreads to Hong Kong
Commenting on the birthday banquet, the Communist Party’s major foreign media said that as a private entrepreneur, Zhou Zhengyi’s future fate will be the same as that of Jack Ma, who will be “socially dead”.
The authorities’ handling of the six media people shows that the current control of the Party over the media is not only that the media follows the Party, but also that the media people sell themselves as slaves of the Party, and that the so-called strengthening of political quality is nothing but “class struggle as the platform”. To attend Zhou Zhengyi’s birthday party and support him is a treason.
In Hong Kong, Apple Daily founder Lai Chi-ying was sentenced to prison and RTHK TV editor-director Choi Yuk-ling was convicted, and on May 5, Carrie Lam said the government was studying legislation to curb fake news. The Hong Kong police distributed a 12-page special edition of Police Voice to news organizations, including foreign media, describing the police’s efforts to counter disinformation, essentially a self-justification and intimidation for the crackdown on media people in the anti-amendment campaign. The fact that Hong Kong, once known as the world’s center of press freedom, has fallen to 80th place in this year’s press freedom list is the inevitable result of Lam and the police’s crackdown on the Hong Kong media in the manner of the Cultural Revolution. If the fake news law is implemented, then Hong Kong will degenerate to the same level as the mainland, becoming the biggest enemy of press freedom.
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