China's party hardliners want the last word

BEIJING - In an incident which highlights growing internal tension in the Chinese Communist Party, the most outspoken political magazine on the mainland has been put under pressure to get rid of its prominent publisher after it printed an article praising ousted former party chief Zhao Ziyang.

It is also evident the authorities are trying hard to keep a tight lid on anything that could possibly remind people of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen crackdown on student-led pro-democracy demonstrations, as next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the bloody tragedy.

The monthly magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu (Annals of Emperors Huang and Yan) whose editorial board and contributors include reformist-minded former party heavyweights, retired officials and former state media journalists, has long been seen as a thorn in



the side of the conservative faction of the communist government.

The memoirs and essays by these influential advocates of democratic political reform, including Mao Zedong's one-time secretary Li Rui and former vice premier Tian Jiyun, are highly rated by China watchers and history scholars because they offer rare glimpses of historical reality which differ from the party’s official version.

Its liberal stance has often fallen foul of official censors, and insiders said a story in its September issue reminiscing over Zhao’s popularity as Sichuan provincial party chief in the late 1970s drew the ire of a former top leader - widely speculated to be former president Jiang Zemin.

Since Zhao was toppled for sympathizing with students in the Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989, his name has been categorically banned from the Chinese media. He was replaced by the politically conservative Jiang and remained under house arrest until his death in 2005.

But Yanhuang Chunqiu broke the silence in July last year by printing an article which mentioned his name. The September feature on Zhao was the first in mainland China which wrote at length about the liberal-minded former leader.

"The article praised the works of Zhao Ziyang from beginning to end - this has made someone very angry," said a senior staff member of the magazine.

Last Friday, an official visited publisher Du Daozheng at his home, conveying a message from the Ministry of Culture seeking his retirement, said chief editor Wu Si. "They said he was quite elderly and must be quite tired, so it was time he stepped down," Wu said.

Du, 85, was head of the General Administration of Press and Publication from 1987 to 1989. He was sacked after the June 4 Tiananmen crackdown after being accused of being sympathetic to the student-led demonstrations. He then began to publish Yanhuang Chunqiu. It was said that Zhao Ziyang read every issue of the magazine sent by Du while under house arrest.

Du is now seldom involved in the day-to-day work at the pro-reform publication, but remains the figurehead and oversees its overall editorial direction.

The order for him to step down is seen by insiders as the first step of a wider purge of the magazine, which has already been warned several times for publishing essays which touched on sensitive topics seen as tacitly critical of the present leadership.

It was suspended for two weeks in 2005 after it published essays from 15 retired cadres which commemorated the 90th anniversary of the birth of Hu Yaobang, a former party general secretary who as a relative liberal lost his position and was blamed for inspiring the protests.

Last year, it was criticized again for publishing an article by Xie Tao, retired deputy head of the prestigious People’s University, which called for "democratic socialism".

By raising his age as an issue, Du said, authorities are hoping to weaken the editorial line of his magazine. The offending article on Zhao was just the latest example of the kind of writing loathed by the conservative forces in the party, he said.

"This is the ninth time that we have encountered [pressure] in our 17 years," Du said in a phone interview. "Now they have found an opportunity to target us, but they can't say it directly."

"Their aim is to change the direction of the publication," he said. Du said he had resisted pressure to step down. "In our 17 years, the state has never given us a penny … the magazine is not a state publication and there is no law on retirement age," he said, adding that four out of six of its editors are under the age of 60.

Moreover, he said he represented the voices of more than 100 party luminaries and authors. "They told me: Comrade Du, you do not have the right to make a decision yourself because you were chosen by us," he said.

Du said the magazine’s editorial policy would not waver, even if more interference came along. "If they want to fight, let the fight go on ... it is a contest of strength," he said. "It is like a game of chess, it’s interesting to watch what the next step is."

"Our magazine is truly concerned about China, we’re only seeking the truth and trying to be objective and impartial," he said. "For the sake of the future of our people and our country, we have to struggle against things that are wrong."

Zhang Lifan, an historian formerly with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the incident was a test of the current leadership’s strength against the conservative faction.

"This is a landmark incident. The fact that a magazine’s fate can be at the mercy of the will of a certain leader just shows that China’s current speech freedom situation is full of problems. It is a test of wisdom and courage of the current leadership… If they do not handle this wisely, there will be a very negative impact," Zhang said.

Verna Yu is a journalist based in Hong Kong.

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Author: Verna Yu
Original Source: Asia Times
Date Published: Nov 22, 2008
Web Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JK22Ad01.html
Date Accessed Online: 2008-11-24