Sunday, February 5, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

The Chinese Communist Party is playing dangerous games with history: J. Michael Cole for iPolitics

April 23, 2021
in Columns, Dragon at the Door, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, In the Media, J. Michael Cole, Latest News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A

By downplaying the traumas of the Cultural Revolution and indoctrinating an entire new generation of Chinese people, the new history makes it more likely the widespread application of terror and violence will happen again, writes J. Michael Cole in iPolitics. Below is an excerpt from the article, which can be read in full here. 

By J. Michael Cole, April 23, 2021

To mark the centenary of the creation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this year, Chinese historians have released a new and updated version of the Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party, a book that is more hawkish and revisionist than its earlier iterations, and which raises serious questions about the future direction of the party.

Most troubling are the substantial revisions that have been made to the section on the Cultural Revolution, a decade of turmoil launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 that resulted in millions of unjust cases and unnatural deaths, and destroyed the myth of CCP infallibility. Whereas earlier versions of the Brief History — the latest dating to 2010 — clearly blamed Mao for the unmitigated catastrophe, the latest version does not do so. Instead, it claims that Mao’s “correct ideas” and efforts to “fight against corruption, special privileges and bureaucratism within the party and government” were “not thoroughly implemented, leading to internal turmoil.”

Moreover, unlike older versions, which contained an entire, 11,000-character chapter on the man-made calamity, the latest version offers mere cursory sketches. The Brief History will serve as a resource for teaching the party’s history in schools. Consequently, besides being fed a more nationalistic take on history, young Chinese students will know less about, and will grow up to have a warped understanding of, one of the rare areas of modern Chinese history about which the CCP had been more willing to admit errors.

The Cultural Revolution will therefore join other blemishes on the party’s past, such as the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 1989, down into the vault of collective, state-sanctioned amnesia. And no doubt this “official” version of history will be accompanied by reinvigorated efforts by the party apparatus to censor and ban “alternative” takes on the subject, including books like Yang Jisheng’s The World Turned Upside Down, originally published in Chinese in 2016 and released in English translation earlier this year (his earlier book on the Great Leap Forward, Tombstone, is banned in China).

***TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, VISIT IPOLITICS HERE***

Tags: ChinaChinese Communist PartyDragon at the DoorForeign Affairsforeign policyJ. Michael Cole
Previous Post

Winston Churchill and the 12 Ineffable Qualities of Leadership: Bob Plamondon for Inside Policy

Next Post

Mark Carney’s mistaken Value(s): Philip Cross in the Financial Post

Related Posts

Stronger enforcement of the Competition Act is better than a dramatic overhaul
Commentary

Stronger enforcement of the Competition Act is better than a dramatic overhaul

February 2, 2023
Most Canadians think prisons should continue to house male and female prisoners separately
Releases

Most Canadians think prisons should continue to house male and female prisoners separately

February 2, 2023
Defending democracies from disinformation: A new imperative for Canada-Japan strategic cooperation
Past Events

Webinar panel video: Defending democracies from disinformation – A new imperative for Canada-Japan strategic cooperation

February 2, 2023
Next Post
Mark Carney’s mistaken Value(s): Philip Cross in the Financial Post

Mark Carney's mistaken Value(s): Philip Cross in the Financial Post

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.