On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, in February, under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China published the latest edition of “A Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party,” some of the contents of which have caused an uproar in overseas public opinion. Song Yongyi, a Chinese political historian and professor at California State University, Los Angeles, who has studied the Cultural Revolution in depth, has published an article in the media arguing that this is a dangerous signal for Xi Jinping to reopen the case of the Cultural Revolution. The following is an interview with Song Yongyi by our reporter Wang Yun on this issue.
Why do you say that “A Brief History” is reversing the case of the Cultural Revolution?
Reporter: You mentioned that “A Brief History” is reversing the case of the Cultural Revolution, but I read in chapter 6 of this “Brief History” that the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party adopted the Resolution on Certain Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic (hereinafter referred to as “the Resolution”), which fundamentally negated the “Cultural Revolution” and the ” Obviously, the Brief History acknowledges the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution, so why do you say that it is reversing them?
Song Yongyi: Xi Jinping’s version of “A Brief History” contains three to four pages on the Cultural Revolution, and only one of them mentions the Resolution of the Sixth Plenum, which admits that the Cultural Revolution was a mistake. But again, in these three to four pages, the conclusion of the Resolution is effectively abstracted out. It is an abstract affirmation of this conclusion and a virtual denial.
It describes the Cultural Revolution as an exploration, as providing valuable experience for the exploration of socialism in the new period. This one is completely different from the spirit of the entire Resolution. Deng’s version of the Resolution says that the Cultural Revolution was an all-round, long period of left-leaning mistakes, so it has nothing to affirm.
But the new Brief History describes the Cultural Revolution as an “experience”, which is a logical and philosophical trick. The Resolution uses lessons for the Cultural Revolution, while the Brief History uses experience for the Cultural Revolution. It is just intentionally confusing.
If the Cultural Revolution provided valuable experience, original theoretical achievements and great achievements that had never been made before, how else can you deny the Cultural Revolution?
Reporter: I compared the new Brief History with the old one in 2012, and one of the major differences is that the old version mentioned that Mao Zedong was mainly responsible for the “leftist” mistakes of the Cultural Revolution. However, the new edition removes this statement and only mentions that Mao’s main consideration in launching the Cultural Revolution was to prevent the restoration of capitalism and to find China’s own way to build socialism. What, in your opinion, is the main difference between these two statements?
Song Yongyi: The main spirit of the Resolution is not only that the Party made mistakes, but also that Mao Zedong, the initiator of the Cultural Revolution, was mainly responsible for it. In the new edition of the Brief History, this article is completely missing, replaced by the tireless exploration and struggle carried out by Mao Zedong. And if you say that Mao was motivated by the fight against corruption, people will think, “It’s always good to fight against corruption. And since you say it is exploration, exploration will inevitably have twists and turns, inevitably have failure, then how do you trace the responsibility of the ruling party, the responsibility of the leaders? You see, it flip-flops on the responsibility of the leaders.
Reporter: The new version of the Brief History also emphasizes the economic achievements in the Cultural Revolution, what do you think about this?
Song Yongyi: When the Resolution says that there were economic achievements in the Cultural Revolution, it first talks about the huge economic losses caused. Former Chinese President Li Xiannian once made a speech, which is recorded in the Party history approved by the Chinese Communist Party, saying that the economic losses caused by the Cultural Revolution amounted to 500 billion RMB. What is this concept? In the 30 years from the founding of the Chinese Communist Party to the end of the Cultural Revolution, China’s entire national economy was only 4800 billion yuan. This is equivalent to the loss of all the family assets of the Cultural Revolution in the past 30 years.
At that time, the notes of the Resolution written by the Documentation Office of the CPC Central Committee mentioned that the Cultural Revolution made China’s science and technology lag behind the world by twenty years. In fact it was more than twenty years.
It is worth noting that Xi’s version of the Brief History is a self-contradictory repudiation of the Cultural Revolution. You see that it retains here the characterization of the Cultural Revolution in the Resolution of the Sixth Plenum. This shows that Xi Jinping and the editors of the Brief History are panicking. Of course they want to rehabilitate the Cultural Revolution, but they also know that publicly rehabilitating the Cultural Revolution is unpopular, and even unpopular with the Party. They still kept the phrase from the Resolution in the hope of getting A Brief History over the line. It is important to note that this place is written in a way that is expressive, while the rest of the writing contradicts this sentence.
Why do you say that “A Brief History” is not a real history?
Reporter: In your article, you say that this Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party is not a true history, why do you say that?
Song Yongyi: There has been a problem with the history of the Chinese Communist Party, which is that it equates the history of the Party with the history of the state. For example, it writes a lot of economic achievements of the Communist Party in the party history, but writing about economic issues should be the responsibility of the government work report, not the party. In effect this is substituting party for government. So, it replaces the history of the state with the history of the party here, and on this point, I would say that the Brief History is not a real history.
Secondly, this ruling party is most famous for distorting history and blocking information. How can you believe the history written by such a party? After Xi Jinping came to power, even the past party history has taken a big step backwards.
Moreover, the CCP’s party history often follows the first in command. When the first in command changes, it changes its narrative. Some hands are also particularly interested in reworking party history. There are two people who are most interested. The first is Mao Zedong. During the Yan’an period, the Communist Party’s party history was completely based on Mao Zedong to set the tone. Now there is another Xi Jinping.
Reporter: This brief history was released at the end of February this year, while the old edition of A Brief History of the Communist Party of China was released in 2012. Why did you release such a new history at this time and make so many major changes?
Song Yongyi: First of all, it was for the occasion, because this year is the centennial of the founding of the Communist Party of China. But most importantly, it depends on the key leaders. The leaders of the Communist Party who are more interested in history generally have greater political ambitions. Stalin, for example, who was then the leader of the worldwide communist movement, made a history of the United Communist Party to unify the understanding of the Soviet Union, and then he advanced into the world. Mao Zedong did the same thing. The same is true of Xi Jinping now.
In fact, if you look at the Brief History now, and the new Party Constitution, he thinks he has set things right at home. He is now trying to unify the whole Party, and the whole country, and then make him the great leader of the world. The touting of Xi Jinping in A Short History is not even close to that of Mao Zedong. Xi Jinping is now working in that direction. He’s now getting involved in the academic world. He wrote a letter to Wen Shi Zhe a while ago, and these are some of the signals.
Is the Cultural Revolution being restored?
Reporter: Now there are some arguments that the Cultural Revolution is being restored. Do you agree with this statement? What is the essence of the Cultural Revolution?
Song Yongyi: I agree with this statement, but it is a work in progress, not a completion.
In retrospect, what is the essence of the Cultural Revolution? In terms of these several aspects. First, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in order to change the leadership structure of the top leadership of the Communist Party, changing the Politburo from collective leadership to individual leadership. Mao Zedong did this in the Cultural Revolution. At that time, the first thing to talk about was not the Party Central Committee, but Chairman Mao. Has Xi Jinping done this now? He has probably done 60%. Now you can see that there is no collective leadership in the Politburo anymore, and everyone in the Politburo has to report to him.
Second, very important in terms of national ideology is the cult of the individual. This was obvious in the Cultural Revolution, asking for instructions early and reporting late, doing the loyalty dance, etc. Now Xi Jinping has engaged in the most personal worship of him as well. The boasting of Xi Jinping in the Party Charter is not too far removed from the boasting of Mao Zedong. It is fair to say that Xi Jinping has also engaged in 60 percent of the cult of the individual.
The remaining 40 percent has not been achieved, not because Xi Jinping does not want to make it happen, or because the imperial literati do not try. Rather, his own bottom line is insufficient. There is no way to compare him with Mao Zedong. Mao did, after all, lay down Red China.
Third, the Cultural Revolution was a mass political movement that mobilized the masses to storm the Party bureaucracy. This is something Xi Jinping did not do. Xi Jinping and Mao thought differently. Mao wanted to rebel through the masses below, to replace the class, and to go from chaos to rule the world. Xi Jinping did not have the guts to do that. He is trying to get the people below to listen. So, I say, Xi Jinping’s restoration of the Cultural Revolution is still a work in progress, not a completion.
Reporter: Thank you for giving me this interview.
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