I’ve never been to Shantou, but if I ever do this new museum will be the first place I visit. (Do you think it was intentional that China’s first memorial to the CR is hidden away in a most obscure location?)

Nothing but the faint sound of birds nesting on surrounding hilltops can be heard inside this new mountaintop site — part museum, part monument — that is the first public commemoration of one of the darkest chapters in China’s recent past.

Inside the circular pavilion that is the site’s centerpiece, the walls are lined with a series of gray tablets, each starkly engraved with images depicting the Cultural Revolution, China’s decadelong descent into madness, beginning in the mid-1960s….

There is the arrest and humiliation of the state president, Lui Shaoqi, who was denounced as a “capitalist roader” and beaten severely. He “died under tragic conditions,” in the delicate wording of the museum, a private institution opened earlier this year without the blessings of a government that still prefers to suppress discussion of past atrocities.

There is the smashing of priceless antiquities and the burning of books by Red Guard militias, part of a heedless rush to sweep away the old and build a new society from scratch. There are the denunciations and beatings of teachers, and later of the students by students themselves, as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution began to devour its own children.

Read this funny-sad article to see how the government has hushed up the museum’s existence to a bare whisper, and how the crowds aren’t exactly pouring in. Read it to see how futile the reporter’s efforts were to get anyone to comment on the new memorial.

A visitor at first found the museum at Shantou abandoned but for a lonely guard, whose teeth were stained by constant intake of tea and tobacco. The hilltop is home to a pagoda; steles in honor of Communist leaders, like Liu, and Deng Xiaoping, who were victims of Mao’s purges; and, at the summit, a large cement ink brush and book, apparently intended to symbolize freedom of speech.

On a return visit the next morning, the site was overrun with laughing schoolchildren, but their teachers insisted the Cultural Revolution’s history was not being taught to them and said the outing was merely intended to give the students some fresh air. Pressed to say how she would explain the killings and purges if a curious student inquired, one teacher said, “I’d just say every country makes mistakes.”

Later, a couple of elderly women who acknowledged living through the period dodged questions about their impressions of the museum, and walked away when asked about their experiences of the 1960s and 1970s.

Three local men in their 30s, one of them using a video camera, also toured the site. “Every family had some kind of experience of this history,” one of them said. Asked if he had heard the stories of his parents and grandparents, he said, “They only say China is growing now, and it is better to look to the future.”

Even the museum’s founder, Peng Qian, a former deputy mayor of Shantou who raised money for it from private donations including one from the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, dodged a reporter’s requests to meet, saying he was too busy and later turning his telephone off to avoid further calls.

My favorite line cites one of the few statements in the Chinese press about the museum, which artfully fudges Mao’s role in the great social catastrophe, claiming that all in all Mao did the right things for China about 70 percent of the time. I guess the CR, the Great Leap Forward, the ruin of China’s environment and all the other misery that came in Mao’s wake can just be dismissed as minor indiscretions in an otherwise illustrious career.

Well, at least they erected this museum, even if it’s in the most obscure place. It’s at least a step in the right direction, if a very small and timid step.

A reader writes:

just wanted to let you know that I think your tiananmen post is creating serious difficulties accessing The Peking Duck in china. it’s strange because the post comes up (no picture at present) and ends at the words “especially the back and forth arguments about what happened and what its”. And then you can’t see any other entries on the page… strange because other people seem to have written about it w/o problem and also I’ve never seen a page only partially load up the way yours is doing.

Any others experiencing the same? I’ve been told in the past about partial loading of my posts when I write about the TSM, but not in recent months. Are there any words in the photo below that are controversial (maybe in the sign the woman is holding)?

UPDATE:

Martyyn just wrote:

I thought it was just my isp but my Peking Duck page
is only partially loading up as well (in Guangzhou).
I’ve never seen anything like it before.

I also can’t access the comments nor any of the links.

Martyn

Damn. If this keeps up this site will be ruined. Most of my readers are in China. If I change the name of that place to “Ti@n@nmen” do you think everything will return to normal?

He says it’s because of China’s relentless repression of dissidents.

A senior Chinese diplomat has sought Australian government protection for himself and his family, claiming he faces persecution if he goes home, Australian officials said on Sunday.

Analysts said Chen Yonglin’s defection could muddy Canberra’s relations with Beijing, its third-largest trading partner with annual exchanges now worth A$28.9 billion ($22.7 billion).

The Weekend Australian newspaper said Chen, 37-year-old consul for political affairs at China’s consulate in Sydney, had applied for political asylum but officials had ruled this out.

It said Chen was now seeking a protection visa that would enable him, his wife Jin Ping, 38, and their six-year-old daughter to remain in Australia.

The newspaper said Chinese consular security staff were searching for Chen, who had walked out of the mission a week ago, saying he could no longer support China’s persecution of dissidents.

“They are searching for me. I heard they are looking for me everywhere, especially in the Chinese community,” it quoted him as saying.

“I feel very unsafe, so I seek protection.”

This could be a real mess for Australia, where trade with China is soaring. And we may find out there’s more to it than this initial article implies. Still, what Lenin referred to as the “vote by foot” is an exceptionally powerful statement. When people exercise that option, you know they’re pretty desperate.

NOTE: I have altered this post, removing a picture and re-spelling T.S. becuase the great cybernanny apparently didn’t like this post. Let’s hope it helps.

Last year, for the 15th anniversary of modern China’s most shameful moment, I put up post after post about how important it is not to forget. I participated in the usual debates here and on other blogs about what it all meant and whether the demonstrators were good or bad and whether there was a massacre, whether the students’ defeat wasn’t a good thing for China ultimately, etc.

I have to admit that this year I felt a sort of fatigue about the whole thing, especially the back and forth arguments about what happened and what its implications are. Like the Taiwan issue or the anti-Japanese demonstrations or the “liberation” of Tibet, everyone seems to hold a strong position and there’s a lot of fighting but little persuading.

I guess that’s just my way of apologizing for not focusing on the TSM this year. Readers sent me links to very cool stories about how the CCP must come forward with the truth about the “incident” and others, but I don’t have the stamina to do what I did the last two years with this subject. (And thanks a lot for sending me the links.)

Let me just say that I know every argument, pro-CCP and pro-demonstrators, and every interpretation and analysis. I’ve read the Ti@n@nmen Papers and too many books and articles, and I watched transfixed as the episode unfolded in real time on television news. I know how devious and elitist and dictatorial many of the demonstrators were, and I know how conflicted members of the CCP were, even some who ultimately took a strong stand against the Chinese people. It is a very un-black-and white event and the near-total misunderstanding in the US (in the West?) of what actually happened speaks to our own system of propaganda, which painted the sides as good and evil, as we Americans are wont to do.

But I also know it was an event the likes of which we see only rarely in history, and one fact arose as indisputable: nearly everyone in China felt the government was corrupt, unjust and in desperate need of reform. When so many people join in, from soldiers and policemen to peasants and day laborers, you no longer have a demonstration, you have a revolution. The way the leaders ultimately responded put a permamnent stain on them, and no matter how they try they will always be surrounded by the ghosts of the TSM — at least in Western eyes.

I said I wasn’t going to write about this, but it looks like I’m compulsive about it. My final point is that while I remain sympathetic to the demonstrators and not the CCP (by a long shot), I remain ambivalent about the whole episode, exhilirated by some aspects, disappointed and disillusioned by others. And I’ve worked hard to consider every viewpoint and see the tragedy from every side.

If you are relatively new to this site, I urge you to read my interview with a 1989 demonstrator, who saw things almost the opposite as I did. He gave me a deep insight into the modern Chinese psyche and underscored just how difficult is is to make definitive statements of Good or Evil when it comes to Ti@n@nmen Square.

Donald “See-no-evil-in-Abu-Ghraib” Rumsfeld started his tour of Asia today with a strong condemnation of China’s human rights policies, which he contrasted with those of the world’s second-most populous nation.

SINGAPORE-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, arriving here today for a conference on Asian security, drew a sharp distinction between two of the region’s major powers, predicting that ties with India would strengthen while urging China to let political freedom grow there along with its economy.

“It would be a shame for the people of China if their government did not provide the opportunities that freer economic and political systems permit,” he said, describing a tension “between the nature of their political system and the nature of their economic system.”

….

In a brief survey of the region before landing here, Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States has “an excellent relationship with India,” but noted that China is a major purchaser of weapons on the international arms market, in particular from Russia.

I remember a time when we could condemn China’s human rights record with a straight face. Not anymore. For sure, the US is nowhere close to China in this regard, but with the news today about Gitmo and with new Abu Ghraib photos (which supposedly make the earlier ones look like a picnic) about to be released, we’re hardly in a position to take the moral high ground. What a tragedy.

Update: Funny, how in the wake of the new revelations announced by the US Army that our soldiers at Gitmo did indeed abuse Korans and splash them with urine, there’s not a single world about it over at Charles Johnson’s or Michelle Maglalang’s respective cesspools. They are the two who more than any others fomented the jihad against Newsweek for its retracted quote about the Koran being flushed down toilets. Now it turns out Newsweek was pretty much on target, certianly not a crew of lying liberals out to villify our soldiers. So why the silence? Selective blogging by warbloggers who want us to think all Moselms are evil and all Americans are good?

Heh.

From the same source, don’t miss these astonishing real-life photos of Chinese people.

No wonder the CCP was so nervous about Ching Cheong getting hold of these documents. What a bombshell.

A SECRET manuscript Beijing is desperately trying to stop from being published outlines purged leader Zhao Ziyang’s plea for China to abandon one-party rule and follow the path of democracy.

It also airs Mr Zhao’s opinion the government blundered in its crackdown on the 1989 democracy protests that led to hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens being killed, the author says.

The sensitive manuscript is now at the centre of the arrest of Hong Kong-based Singapore Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong.

He was detained while trying to obtain a copy of the manuscript that has yet to make its way out of mainland China.

China on Tuesday said Mr Ching was arrested for spying and had confessed.

Its authorities have pressured author Zong Fengming, an old friend of Mr Zhao’s, not to publish the book.

The 85-year-old, who compiled the manuscript from conversations he had with Mr Zhao while he was under house arrest, said what makes it so threatening to Beijing is the late Mr Zhao’s belief China must have democracy in order to prosper, and economic reforms are simply not enough.

“He said China’s development must be on the path of democracy and rule of law. If not, China will be a corrupt society,” Mr Zong said.

And he was copmpletely right.

The media have apparently woken up to the political reality of today’s China, i.e., the phenomenon of the Hu-Wen regime reaching out to the rural poor while ramping up oppression of dissidents, real and imagined. This piece in the LA Times is the latest in a series of recent articles to pick up on this topic.

Two years after coming to power, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have staked out a two-pronged strategy for political control: projecting a kinder, gentler image while cracking down on those disseminating unauthorized information.

The news this week that a prominent Hong Kong journalist had been detained on spying charges, the third such case in nine months, is the latest entry on the hard side of the ledger, analysts say. Recent months have seen a series of actions against the media, scholars, Internet users and dissidents.

This contrasts with efforts by the Hu administration to burnish a down-to-earth image on other fronts, in part through such policies as cutting taxes for farmers and increasing local subsidies in hope of reducing the yawning gap between rich and poor.

Hu and Wen have also made symbolic gestures, such as Chinese New Year trips to eat dumplings with coal miners, shaking hands with an AIDS patient and ensuring that a migrant worker got paid.

“The Chinese expression is ‘The soft get softer, the hard get harder,’ ” said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at UC Berkeley. “They’re trying to get closer to the grass roots in terms of people marginalized, to balance a bit the increasing wealth gap.

“But they’re becoming even tighter on centralized, top-down controls,” Xiao said. “Their media oversight, state security agency and propaganda machine are only getting stronger. It doesn’t speak much for political reform.”

No, it really doesn’t, and that’s from the mouth of someone who was born there and lived there for many years until he fled after the 1989 “incident.”

The focus of the rest of the article is the suppression of the media, especially the recent arrest of Ching Cheong. Predictably, this move has sparked a global media firestorm, and anyone who complains about media bias in the foreign press toward the CCP has to understand that this sort of thing doesn’t engender warm and fuzzy feelings with international editors.

Hu and Wen, according to the reporter, have made some real strides in certain areas, but these changes are more cosmetic than substantive, and may not be enough to ensure stability.

Analysts say China has a positive story to tell these days with its booming economy, growing diplomatic clout and improved living standards. And Hu and Wen, they say, have done a much better job than previous leaders in appealing to the Chinese people, all of which would seem likely to give the leadership more confidence and a greater willingness to tolerate criticism.

“Many people think Hu and Wen should be confident. But they only see the superficial things,” Tsoi said. “China has a big and growing social crisis, masses of exploited workers and lots of social conflict. Chinese society is under great strain, and the leadership is not confident.”

That’s quite a statement, that the Chinese leadership is under so much strain it’s “not confident.” They are a vibrant, fast-rising star in the ascendant, basking in the glow of an unparalleled economic boom. Why shouldn’t they be gushing with confidence — unless there’s more unrest and trouble brewing in China than most of us suspect?

Pretty devastating. Don’t miss that American flag.

Be sure to see Running Dog’s magnificent obituary of Israel Epstein and some of his friends. I used to watch Epstein on CCTV-9, wondering how on earth this old Jewish man came to be a walking, talking billboard for the CCP. An odd, antique monument to apologism.

It would have been interesting to know what Epstein actually thought about current economic and political realities in China, and about the inexorable withering-away of the revolutionary spirit that has taken place since the assumption of power by the pragmatist Deng Xiaoping. It would have been interesting to know what Epstein, who was presumably inspired by a sense of injustice at the systematic exploitation and subjugation of the masses, would have made of the current Communist Party, which has taken the capitalist road with unrivalled gusto.

There are other survivors of the idealistic exodus. The translator, Sidney Shapiro, arrived in China in 1947 and became a Chinese citizen in 1963, an undertaking he still seems to regard as an act of romanticism, intimately connected with the fact that he fell in love and married a beautiful and politically-sound Chinese actress.

Another figure, Sidney Rittenberg, was a member of the US Communist Party, and joined the Chinese version in 1948 before being arrested on suspicion of being a spy. Eventually, he found a position at Beijing Radio but failed to weather the storm of the Cultural Revolution and spent nine more years behind bars for his part in an alleged espionage ring centred on Wang Guangmei, the wife of the deposed and disgraced leader Liu Shaoqi. In his biography, he tells a story of ‘how I, and people like me, walked the Communist Road in the hope of creating a new and better world’ but then, somehow, found himself ‘participating’ in the ‘evils that ensued’. He talks about the exultation of his first visit to Yan’an, the revolutionary base of the Chinese Communists, a ‘pure’ world that was ‘far from the naked greed and corruption I had already seen too much of’. Even the Cultural Revolution, he wrote, ‘felt like the birth pangs of a new world’.

Well, whatever turns you on. Every time I visit Running Dog I am struck by just how great its writer(s) is (are?), and their panoramic knowledge of China. Blunt and merciless, yet poetic:

And so, all those idealistic days have presumably passed. In the 1930s, China had Shapiro, Bethune, Epstein and many more. Russia had the Cambridge ring of Philby, Blunt, Burgess and Maclean, among many others. By now, there are no such ideals to justify defection. The worthiest countries are all in the same compromising globalized mess, while the worst are run by corrupt brutes and self-aggrandizers who systematically impoverish their own people.

But hasn’t he heard? China’s reforming.