Bao Tong: 30 Years after a “uniquely lively” party congress

I’m not a huge fan of the RFA and I rarely, if ever, link to it but this piece written by Bao Tong is an interesting take on the events of the pivotal 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Party Congress.  Bao Tong’s account departs from the triumphalist narrative of Deng Xiaoping kicking open the doors of reform and launching the country on a trajectory of modernization and development.  According to Bao Tong’s version, reform was not on Deng’s original agenda, rather what made this moment truly special was the way in which the rank-and-file members of the Central Committee, following the lead of Hu Yaobang and Chen Yun, upset the apple cart.

We were looking ahead to modernization. But after Chen Yun and Hu Yaobang caused trouble, the members of the Party Central Committee kicked up a fuss en masse, overturning Hua and Deng’s planned framework. Pretty soon, everyone had turned their attention to talking about the past, and then the debates came thick and fast. What were they talking about? They were talking about the Cultural Revolution, the Lushan meeting, the unresolved “political cases,” and Mao Zedong.

From the point of view of Chairman Hua and vice-chairman Deng,

December 30th, 2008

The teacher-student relationship, academic freedom, and the spirit of May 4th

I’ve been taking some time going through December articles and posts on a few of my favorite sites and ran across the case of Yang Shiqun, a political science professor whose critical comments of Chinese culture and the government incited his students to report him to the authorities.  Articles relating to the case can be found on EastSouthWestNorth and David Bandurski has a good overview at China Media Project.

Personally I was taken by something Professor Yang wrote on his own blog where he invokes a comparison similar to one I made last year between the current academic/intellectual climate among students in the PRC and that of the May Fourth Period.

According to Professor Yang:*

I was summoned to speak with my leader today.  He said that some students in my <Ancient Han Language> course have denounced me to the Public Security Bureau and the City Education Committee for criticizing the government.  An investigation is being conducted.  I did not know whether to laugh or cry at the idea that students at the East China University of Political Science and Law should still have Cultural Revolution-era thinking and will resort to all and any methods to denounce their teacher as

December 30th, 2008

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