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 BEIJING 00008115 002 OF 003 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 BEIJING 00008115 003 OF 003 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