15 Chinese websites have jointly launched a petition campaign by issuing a statement of “initiative”, on December 6, 2003, endorsed by 1100 signatories, to call upon the National People’s congress to enact legislation to proclaim Dec. 26, the birthday of Mao Zedong, a national holiday. The signatures-collecting campaign is being coordinated by a Maoist socialist website, The Banner of Mao Zedong (www.maoflag.net), whose debut early this year had been noted by an overseas newspaper (Sintao Daily, Aug. 5) as a move by Maoist opposition in the party to put pressure on Hu Jintao, the new party general secretary to move to the left. The statement of ‘initiative’ posted there has since been steadily collecting signatures and comments from any one who can provide a valid proof of ID.
The text of the statement is laden with adulation of Mao as the “greatest national hero”; it registers gratitude to Mao for his “immortal contribution” to China’s rise in the world like “an awakened lion and soaring dragon”: “Thanks to Mao, China is no longer a nation bullied and humiliated at will” by foreign powers, and “Mao Zedong means the end of an era of darkness for China and the beginning of the road to China’s bright future”
It also praises Mao as the “most outstanding representative of the Chinese working class” and the illustrious leader that “launched China’s socialist modernization.” It praises Mao for his ability to “inspire in the people the courage to fight and the confidence in the victory of their just struggle”, and instill fear in the hearts of all enemies of the people that their anti-people reactionary misdeeds would end up in ignominious defeat. It asserts that ever since Mao passed away, there have always been spontaneous activities to honor Mao’s memory held annually by Chinese people and people of other countries, on Mao’s birthday on Dec 26 or on anniversary of his death on September 9. It concludes by calling upon the National people’s Congress to enact legislation to proclaim December 12, Mao’s birthday as Mao Zedong Day and an official national holiday.
It is “launched” at the backdrop of a flurry of commemoration activities officially orchestrated by the party. The central party leadership had itself announced earlier in the year its decision to mobilize Chinese People to mark Mao’s 110th birthday anniversary in a big way. Various activities have been underway. In particular, one hundred and ten mainstream websites have jointly launched a special website, whose address is www.mzd110.chiaspirit.net.cn, specifically for purpose of this commemoration. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, since their inauguration, have made repeated populist gestures to indicate that they are genuinely concerned about the widening income gap and the increasing disenchantment of the peasants and workers; and in particular, they have, by staging public homage’s to Mao, conveyed the message that unlike their predecessors Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji, they are leaders more in the cut of Mao Zedong, the great leader of the people, who really took interests of the people at heart.
The text stays well within acceptable bounds and do not contain any thing particularly offensive to the party authorities. A cursory check at the sponsoring websites, however, would leave little doubt that the Party authorities would be watching it closely lest it should get out of hand. The fifteen websites include several which are mainly nationalist in their ideological outlook. The rest are all openly Maoist socialist. It is these Maoist socialists who appear to be initiating this call for declaring Mao’s birthday a national holiday. The Maoist socialists may have diverse views on theoretical or practical issues, and do not appear to be an organized political force with a common program, but they do share a tenacious adherence to basic Maoist principles and Marxist-Leninist tenets, and the perception that the post-Mao reforms have deviated from these socialist principles and have resulted in full-fledged restoration of capitalism; they believe they are true to the cause of socialism, but most current leaders are only socialists in name; and they are particularly critical of the conduct of Jiang Zemin, who stepped down as General Secretary of the Party, but retained the post of Chairman of the Party’s military Commission. On these website, the views posted range from those betraying youthful revolutionary zeal to those reeking of musty conservatism of the old left within the party. But on the whole, their views about the more controversial aspect of Maoism have gone well beyond the bounds famously set by the “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, in 1981, which puts forth a compromise verdict on Mao’s role as the leader of Chinese Communist Party and Chinese People: Mao was wrong in his last years in advocating the theory of continued revolution which led to launching of the disastrous cultural revolution; but in spite of this, Mao remains a great communist leader and national hero because his overall contributions outweigh his faults.
The party authorities most likely would adopt a wait-and-see policy for now, and hope the petition drive will lose steam and fade away after lit has collected tens of thousands of signatures well short of reaching a critical mass, just like what happened with the anti-war statement posted by Chinese neo-leftist and Maoist Socialists for signatures on the eve of the US war against Iraq. The web scene in China is dominated by mainstream portals such as Sina.com, and other leading websites that are on the officially approved 110 sites, which are not likely to have any interest in promoting such a campaign. But unless there is positive interest shown by some of the powerful mainstream media organizations, the campaign probably would not be taken serious by most of the tens of millions of regular web users. And the campaign would probably be judged by most a failure, should it not be able to garner millions of signatures, given the popularity of Mao among Chinese people.
The campaign, however, may prove a turning point for China’s fragmented and disorganized left, if, instead of waiting passively for people to sign the petition statement, a significant number of supporters of the campaign would be sufficiently energized to go directly to the people, include those who have no access to internet but have profound feelings of respect and love for Mao, so as to get around the likely blackout by main stream media. Such a campaign may require more co-ordination and organization than the fragmented, scattered-about Maoist socialists can muster. But it is not impossible, Judging from the many militant or emotionally charged comments posted by the signatories, there may just be a whole lot of people motivated enough to do something they normally would not do.
What would the party do, then? The Party leaders are likely to be divided as to how to deal with this matter, as numbers of signatures continue to grow. A small number but very powerful leaders in the party would pressure Hu Jintao to crack down by exaggerating the threat posted by Maoist Socialists to legitimacy of the current regime; others may argue the wisest course is for the party to grab the banner of Mao and take the lead to declare a Mao-day before the petition campaign reach a critical mass so that the party could safely claim to have done it entirely of its own accord. After all, Mao not only remains popular among workers and peasants as a leader who waged a revolution in their name, but is also widely viewed by Chinese across political and social spectrum as a national hero. This seems to be also the case within the party; only a small number of party members would be violently opposed to the idea of proclaiming a national holiday to honor Mao.
Outside of China, few people know-and still fewer, even among the most knowledgeable China watchers understand why- despite all the horrors that have been widely reported, both within and outside of China, about the great leap forward and Cultural Revolution launched by Mao and his followers, the great majority of people in Today’s China still hold Mao in high esteem, and Mao is by far the most respected among Chinese Communist leaders, dead or alive. Potentially hundreds of millions of people in China would sign on to the idea of honoring Mao with a national holiday, as Lincoln or Washington or, for that matter, even Martin Luther King, are honored in the US. For this to happen, the campaign has to go beyond Maoist socialist circles to include ordinary Chinese people from all walks of life.
We may be witnessing a landmark event in the political and ideological developments in post-Mao China. So, stay tuned. The show is just about to start.