Minxin Pei: The 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China is an occasion for celebration and reflection. Indeed, there is much to celebrate. The transformation of China from a weak, impoverished and war-torn country into a relatively stable and prosperous power is an achievement that has made the world a better place overall. But the ruling Communist party's six decades in power have not exactly been an uninterrupted period of economic growth and political stability. Two of those decades (1957-1976) are known for the worst human suffering, brutality and fanaticism in Chinese history.

For example, under the megalomaniacal rule of Mao Zedong, the party purged more than 500,000 intellectuals and professionals in the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957. Mao's Great Leap Forward, an ill-conceived scheme to vault China into the industrialised world in 1958, led to the worst famine in world history, in which about 36m people starved to death. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) brought China to the brink of civil war, destroyed millions of lives and left Chinese society completely traumatised.

Of course, Chinese leaders who reviewed a meticulously orchestrated military parade atop Tiananmen yesterday would rather the world not pay attention to the dark chapters in its recent history. The last time China was in the global spotlight, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, the world was treated to a spectacular show that celebrated China's historical contribution to civilisation but airbrushed out the Communist party's worst excesses.

The party understands very well how important it is to present a one-sided version of its own history. Dwelling on its past failings will raise disturbing questions about its legitimacy and lead to calls for accountability. That is why most of the books banned in China today are works on the party's history and, in particular, the first three decades of the People's Republic. For example, Mubei (Tombstone), an investigative history on the Great Leap famine by a Chinese journalist, is banned in mainland China even though it was voted one of the best books published in Hong Kong in 2008.

Sadly, the party's systematic efforts to whitewash its history seem to be working. The younger generations in China have little knowledge of its unpleasant past. Few know anything about the Anti-Rightist Campaign or the Great Leap famine. At the same time, today's Chinese youths, many of them fiercely nationalistic, have unquestioningly bought into officially concocted historical myths. Most do not know, for example, that the North Koreans started the Korean war (because official Chinese history continues to claim that the US and South Korea initiated the war). Nor are they aware that the Nationalist forces did most of the fighting during the war with Japan (because official history insists that the Communist forces defeated the Japanese).

The party's suppression of historical memory carries a huge cost. Beijing cannot expect to gain genuine international respect unless its leaders confront history and achieve political reconciliation with their people, many of them victims of the party's failures during the Maoist era. Without admitting their historical failings, Chinese leaders will sound hypocritical when they lecture other countries, especially Japan, on history. By defending its "Big Lie" on history, the party may be fuelling xenophobic and self-destructive ultra-nationalism. A China deeply integrated into the world economy cannot afford to flirt with lie-fed nationalism.

By Malcolm Moore

All week, China is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Chairman Mao’s triumph and the beginning of Communist Party rule.

Times have changed since then, of course, and ideology too.

Yesterday I came across an old essay by the Great Helmsman, dated from June 30, 1949, called “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship”.

This is the famous essay in which Mao argues for total Communist Party control because only the party has the “correct world outlook”.

Here is the first page or so, just to remind us what the ultimate goal of this “democratic dictatorship” was in 1949.

“The first of July 1949 marks the fact that the Communist Party of China has already lived through twenty-eight years. Like a man, a political party has its childhood, youth, manhood and old age. The Communist Party of China is no longer a child or a lad in his teens but has become an adult.

When a man reaches old age he will die; the same is true of a party. When classes disappear, all instruments of class struggle – parties and the state machinery – will lose their function, cease to be necessary, therefore gradually wither away and end their historical mission; and human society will move to a higher state.

We are the opposite of the political parties of the bourgeoisie. They are afraid to speak of the extinction of classes, state power and parties. We, on the contrary, declare openly that we are striving hard to create the very conditions that will bring about their extinction.”

A funny comment from kuifromsydney:

"Mao did many wrong things but I agreed with him on this one. All political party has its own historical missions. The communist party actually died 30 years ago when it pick up capitalism. It was the communist party itself decided to kill communism because they found it not working in reality. Today’s communist party is “hanging up a lamb’s head but selling dog meat”. They are the best capitalist in the world. They still have 70 to 80 million members? May be in another 30 or 40 years they will decide they can call themself something else. I think 40 years because they seem to set up a goal for China to become democratic in another 40 years if you study president Hu’s speech. I got a new name for their party. Chinese Capitalist Party( still CCP, how nice). They have to pay me if they take that name. All copyrights reserved. Hopefully I will live to that day."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2bb69186-aeea-11de-96d7-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

http://communities.canada.com/globaltv/blogs/globalnational/archive/2009/10/01/is-taking-part-in-china-s-big-60th-anniversary-parade-fun-it-depends.aspx

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a4d5d1c2-aee9-11de-96d7-00144feabdc0.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100012158/the-extinction-of-the-chinese-communist-party/#