HISTORIAN STRIKES BACK AT CONTROVERSIAL "FREEZING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 008115

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/28/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: HISTORIAN STRIKES BACK AT CONTROVERSIAL "FREEZING
POINT" ESSAY

REF: A. BEIJING 3744

B. 05 BEIJING 15837

Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Section Internal Unit
Chief Susan Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) The recent rebuttal by Zhongshan University
Professor Yuan Weishi, who wrote the article that
spurred censors to suspend China Youth Daily's
provocative Freezing Point insert in January (ref A),
is causing a stir among Beijing's elite. Yuan's
latest effort is a detailed refutation of a rival
scholar's lengthy criticism of Yuan's article that
appeared in the revived Freezing Point's maiden
edition on March 1. Contacts said Yuan offered the
article to Freezing Point first, but the supplement's
new editorial board refused to publish it. The
decision has done little to keep the article out of
circulation, however. Dozens of Mainland and overseas
Chinese web logs have posted it and former Freezing
Point editor Li Datong and other intellectuals are e-
mailing it widely. The text's assertions about
official histories of the Boxer Rebellion and the
Second Opium War have fueled discussion in scholarly
circles about the dangers of the Government's refusal
to reassess its historical depiction of China as a
victim of foreign aggression. The Government is more
attuned, however, to the dangers posed by reopening
historical questions and will likely continue to limit
such discussions. End Summary.

Dueling Scholars
--------------


2. (C) Yuan Weishi is a renowned historian at
Guangzhou's Zhongshan University who authored the
controversial article questioning the official Chinese
history of the Boxer Rebellion that was the immediate
pretext for suspension of China Youth Daily's popular
Freezing Point supplement (Ref A). (Note: a major
factor in the suspension was that the article fanned
the flames of a long-running feud about content
controls between censors and the supplement's
editors.) Yuan is widely viewed as an influential
mainstream academic and not a dissident. But his
controversial January 11 commentary challenging the
treatment of history in middle school textbooks
provided the pretext for Propaganda Department
authorities to suspend Freezing Point (Bingdian) for
more than a month, scholars and journalists said.
Yuan's original essay called into question the Party's
official version of important historical events,
including the Boxer Rebellion and the Second Opium
War. One of the Propaganda Department's conditions
for allowing Freezing Point to return was that it
print a rebuttal to Yuan's article. The rebuttal duly
appeared in the March 1 rebound issue and two
respected editors were removed from their jobs in the
tumult.


3. (C) Yuan's penned response is titled "The Why,
When and How of Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Feudalism."
In it, he refutes Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
scholar Zhang Haipeng's Freezing Point rebuttal point
by point, complete with annotations. He does not
touch on contemporary political issues until the
conclusion, when he declares that "to safeguard
China's future, academic freedom must be guaranteed."
In this vein, he argues that the basis for historical
scholarship is facts, not innuendoes. He concludes by
asking rhetorically, "these people who carry a big
stick, why on earth do they do so?" Contacts defined
the stick-carriers he referred to as Zhang
specifically and Propaganda officials in general.


E-Mail and Internet Campaign
--------------


4. (C) Yuan submitted his new article to Freezing
Point in late March. The new editorial board rejected
the piece immediately, said Ding Dong (protect),one
of several prominent scholars who signed a letter of
protest on behalf of Yuan and ousted editor Li Datong
last February. Ding related that Yuan then passed the
new essay to Li, with the understanding that Li would
use his connections to circulate it. Li then began an
e-mail campaign that resulted in scholars posting
Yuan's article on China-based blogs and in Internet

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chat rooms, Ding said.


5. (C) Neither the dispute over Yuan's article nor
the piece itself will be mentioned in Chinese
mainstream media, said Dong Yuyu (protect),a
journalist at Guangming Daily who is knowledgeable
about censorship issues. He related that while he is
unaware of specific Propaganda rules regarding Yuan's
article, he is certain that editors and managers at
prominent Internet news outlets would be quick to
remove the text if it appeared on their sites. "It is
too sensitive," he said.


6. (C) Web logs and less prominent sites are a
different story, said Zhou Qing'an, a free lance
commentator who writes regularly for the Beijing News
and other papers and who has his own blog. He added
that the regulations governing Internet content that
the State Council Information Office released last
September 25 (ref B) are being applied inconsistently
to blogs, which he called the most open form of media
in China. In fact, Zhou found Yuan's piece after a
lively exchange related to the essay on a Baidu.com
bulletin board piqued his interest. He then logged
onto the Tianya website, a Mainland blog hosting
service, where he was easily able to locate the text.


7. (C) Yuan's article is also accessible on the
Academic Criticism website (www.acriticism.com),a
well-known address among journalists and intellectuals
that was founded by China University of Political
Science and Law Professor Yang Yusheng. Aware of the
piece's political sensitivity, Yang told Poloff he
decided to include it on his site anyway, adding that
censors have ot contacted him about his decision to
post te article. "It is an academic paper and mineis an academic web site," he said matter-of-facly.
Yang said that the Internet, particularly academic
sites like his, is less subject to official scrutiny
than print media.

History Serves the Party
--------------


8. (C) Official skittishness about the essay stems in
part from Yuan's connection to the Freezing Point
shutdown in January, our contacts remarked. But
another controversial aspect is the professor's
treatment of historical topics. Open reassessment of
details of the Boxer Rebellion and the Second Opium
War are fair game in academic and intellectual
circles, scholars asserted. Dong of Guangming Daily
said he even wrote on the subject five years ago in
his newspaper. But Zhou cautioned that calling for
changes in textbooks implies that China should "leave
the shadow" of casting itself as a historical victim
of foreign aggression. Doing so would undermine the
Government by calling into question the layers of
distortion that currently underpin Chinese nationalism
and Party lore. Dong separately made a similar point,
adding that painting a bleak pre-1949 picture has
allowed the Central Government to portray the Party as
China's savior. Any new version of history,
especially one taught in schools, risks undercutting
the Party's legitimacy, he said.

Lively Online Exchanges
--------------


9. (C) Debate about Yuan's article has flared in
Internet forums focused on history and international
relations. One bulletin board, blogbus.com, featured
dozens of entries that pitted netizens who criticized
Yuan for being too soft on China's former foreign
occupiers against chat participants who defended his
scholarship, or at least his right to express his
opinions. One chatter accused Yuan of using his essay
as a vehicle to "pour invective on the head" of Zhang
and the Party. But another responded with a four-line
comment in verse: "The Qing Dynasty had Boxers/the
Cultural Revolution had Red Guards/Today there are
cadres young and old/All are in the same tradition."


"Raised on Wolf's Milk"
--------------


10. (C) Comment: Questions of history, such as those
raised by Yuan, are sensitive both for their potential
to undermine Party legitimacy and because of regime
concerns over potential popular reactions. History
also weighs heavily on China's relations with the

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outside world and its neighbors. In a country whose
historical burdens are deeply etched in the popular
consciousness by relentless propaganda efforts,
questioning official history can bring sharp popular
responses. The Chinese Government, particularly
following last year's anti-Japanese demonstrations, is
acutely aware of the dangers of letting popular
nationalist sentiment spin out of control. Although
some Chinese elites worry about the long-term dangers
of "raising China's children on wolf's milk" (Yuan's
shorthand for the heavy doses of nationalism served up
in China's history textbooks),there is no indication
that the leadership is prepared to reexamine official
treatment of these issues in the near future. End
comment.
SEDNEY