Top Chinese Communist Party cadre criticises Cultural Revolution for damage to tradition
Wang Yang applauds Taiwan for preserving aspects of the past in rare reference to party’s dark past
The Communist Party’s top political adviser has openly derided the Cultural Revolution for damaging traditional Chinese culture, in a rare reference by a senior Chinese official to the dark chapter in the party’s history.
“The Cultural Revolution eliminated a large part of both the essence and the dregs of traditional culture on the mainland,” said Wang Yang, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body. “But Taiwan preserved it well.”
Wang made the assessment on Wednesday in a meeting with a group of about a dozen Taiwanese working in Fujian province, across the strait from Taiwan, according to the Taipei-based Central News Agency.
Beijing has suppressed public discussion on the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political and social turmoil set off in 1966 by then supreme leader Mao Zedong, over fears of a backlash against the party’s rule.
Such suppression has intensified in recent years under President Xi Jinping’s push to stem “historical nihilism”, or any challenges to Beijing’s official narrative of the past.
In the meeting in Xiamen on Wednesday, Wang highlighted Taiwan’s retention of the traditional Chinese system of “borough chiefs”, a form of administration that disappeared in mainland China after the communists took power.
