Editorial: What’s with the high-profile Hua Guofeng commemoration? | Apple Daily HK
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the party establishment, the CCP called for everyone to learn the party history, together with a high-profile commemoration of Hua Guofeng. The former is understandable, but the latter is somewhat surprising.
Hua did not have much to show during his tenure except that he caught the Gang of Four alive. A “good old man,” Hua did not pick a side between the Gang of Four and the old military veterans but remained fiercely loyal to Mao Zedong. Mao had several failed picks for his successor: Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao, and Wang Hongwen. He finally chose Hua because Hua was blindly loyal to him and only sat on the fence. Mao hoped Hua could mediate the hostility between the two sides and keep the power.
Hua did not seem to be someone who had the bravery and capacity to direct such a big historic show of capturing the Gang of Four. The only explanation would be, the whole thing was Mao’s “great strategic deployment,” his political testament. Many political files of the CCP have not yet been decrypted but leaving a crisis kit before his death seems to be an act that matches Mao’s character.
Mao was the most intelligent, had the wildest ambition, the most shameless mentality, and the coldest character in modern China. He fought hard for decades and would do anything to get his way. He could read people and understand situations accurately; he was also suspicious, jealous, and unpredictable.
Before his death, Mao knew that the Cultural Revolution would not last much longer, and the Gang of Four would have lost its way and not succeed without him. Therefore he abandoned Wang Hongwen even though he had initially chosen him to be the successor and picked Hua, who was at the right time in the right place, instead.
Mao knew very well that Hua had neither enough political energy to keep the Gang of Four under control nor the power basis to tame the old military veterans. If the power was handed to the military veterans, they would support Deng Xiaoping and go back to the path of revisionism; if the Gang of Four took power, they could not achieve anything important and would ruin the country he built. That was why Mao handed his baton to Hua because of his loyalty, and he would do any task according to Mao’s commands.
Mao understood Jiang Qing very well. He knew she would become restless after his death, cause troubles, and endanger the country. Therefore he left secret instructions to Hua, Ye Jianying, and Wang Dongxing to eliminate the Gang of Four if it started any problem.
Xi’s high-profile commemoration of Hua indicated the party returning to the CCP’s mainstream thought. Since taking power, Xi has taken the country quickly backward and emphasized that the 30 years before the reform and opening cannot negate the 30 years after, and vice versa. It means the reform and opening cannot deny the anti-rightist Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, that the Cultural Revolution is not wrong but “a difficult exploration.” Even the ultimate conclusion on the Cultural Revolution in the CCP’s “Resolution on certain questions in the history of our party since the founding of the PRC” has been secretly swapped.
Xi going backward and taking the extreme left direction has caused rapid deterioration to the domestic and diplomatic political situation and put the CCP into critical circumstances. The political climate changed since the Beidaihe meeting last year, Xi’s route has also been challenged. Later, the trend changed slightly, so the distorted conclusion of the Cultural Revolution has not been mentioned again and the praise of Xi being “the highest authority and only standard” has also disappeared. According to the latest news report, the “light” conclusion of the Cultural Revolution in the mainland’s school textbooks is gone, which has been replaced by the ultimate conclusion framework from Deng. It means the Cultural Revolution has to be denied.
Commemorating Hua implies the correctness of capturing the Gang of Four, the complete negation of the Cultural Revolution, and that Xi going backward is fine, but not as far back as the Cultural Revolution. It also implies it is necessary to maintain the facade of the reform and opening. If heading back to the Cultural Revolution, Xi would be as influential as Mao with the right to kill, then everyone working for him will feel safe, and no one wants to live in uncertainty. The memory of the Cultural Revolution is still fresh for the Chinese people. If they go back to that era, the political instability will destroy the economy and people’s livelihood. While no one can control the situation like Mao, the dictatorship ruling foundation of the CCP will crumble.
What dictators fear most is someone who tries to subvert historical status. Xi likens himself to Mao and wants his name to be remembered even after his death. Commemorating Hua is only a realistic political need, using the old to tell the new what they should do. Mao told Hua to capture the Gang of Four, so Hua did it; Deng told Hua to step down, and Hua did as told. Hua is the leader who is most loyal and obedient to the party.
Hua’s blind loyalty and party spirit are the spiritual foundation of the CCP’s dictatorship and needed to stay in power forever. Blind loyalty made ignorant people, and ignorant people made “the highest authority and only standard.” Commemorating Hua is to nurture people’s ignorance so that the CCP’s power will remain strong, and Xi’s name will be in history.
Click
here for Chinese version
---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app:
bit.ly/2yMMfQETo download the latest version,
Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play