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Political hero Zhao's 'burial' of
disgrace
By Feng Liang
HONG KONG - The death of a political
figure, particularly an acknowledged hero, often
provides propagandists enormous opportunities. Not
so in the case of disgraced former premier and
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Zhao Ziyang,
who had initiated political and economic reforms -
but supported the pro-democracy protesters in
Tiananmen Square - and was revered by many.
Because of Tiananmen he was taboo in life and
remains so in death. In his home country his
passing has been accorded but a few lines, empty
words.
The propaganda authorities in
strict control of domestic news media in China
were all a-dither when Zhao, the ousted CCP chief
who was venerated by a great number of democratic
sympathizers and mavericks, breathed his last in
Beijing on Monday at age 85. He was ousted,
reviled and made a non-person under house arrest
because of his support for the peaceful Tiananmen
pro-democracy protesters, later labeled
"counterrevolutionary rioters". Hundreds, or maybe
thousands, were killed or jailed in the bloody
crackdown against them on June 4, 1989.
After Zhao's death, several key dissidents
were detained and prevented from paying tribute to
him at his residence, where he had been under
house arrest since the Tiananmen protests.
Further, Chinese police have accelerated patrols
in Tiananmen Square to prevent any gatherings of
dissidents. However, it is unlikely the death of
Zhao will trigger another massive movement like
the Tiananmen protests. Many young people are not
old enough to remember the demonstrations and
killings shown on global television; many believe
that China's current leader, Hu Jintao, is a mild
reformer who "puts people first", and hence they
are unlikely to create urban disturbances in a
China that is advancing at a breakneck pace.
Dreading that the death of Him Who Should
Not Be Reported might be a political bombshell,
and even trigger a backlash among democrats,
Beijing is playing down the mournful news.
Zhao was CCP general secretary and the
nation's supreme leader until he was censured and
then deposed when he voiced support for the mass
student-led democracy demonstration on June 4,
1989, and deplored the bloody military
suppression, infamously known as the Tiananmen
Square Massacre. The decision to open fire on
peaceful protesters was made by the Communist
Party Central Caucus, including commander-in-chief
Deng Xiaoping. During the peaceful protest parade,
thousands of unarmed people, largely college
students, rallied in Tiananmen Square before the
central government buildings and cried out for
democracy and freedom and against official
corruption.
Ever since, Zhao Ziyang had
been divested of all power and condemned to house
arrest. Two hours after his death, the official
Xinhua News Agency broke the news tersely on its
website: "Zhao suffered a variety of respiratory
and cardiovascular diseases. His health condition
kept going downhill in spite of long-term
hospitalization. He died after rescue efforts
failed."
Chinese Central Television
(CCTV), the state-sponsored national channel
network, even skipped all mention in its routine
7pm news program on Monday. In the couple of days
that followed, a few regional news media in
southern China's Guangdong province reprinted the
barest mention from Xinhua but not in a prominent
position in the newspapers. While some CCTV
anchors wore black, as if to pay symbolic
condolences to the departed leader, other
newsreaders did not seem disturbed at all.
Analysts say the propaganda authorities
are working hard to minimize the impact that
Zhao’s death may have on the society. For years,
the Chinese central government kept the
democratic-minded ex-president under the heaviest
of wraps, giving him no exposure. Only very
recently did the spokesperson of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs break the silence, confirming a
widespread overseas report that Zhao was severely
ill and being hospitalized.
In fact, Zhao
had been a marked man by propaganda authorities, a
taboo name for news reports since his downfall,
Asia Times Online learned from a knowledgeable
source well connected with CCTV.
Under
China's current propaganda and media policy,
journalists must follow two rules in covering some
sensitive topics, such as the 1989 student
movement and the decade-long devastation of the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76)
initiated by the country's founding father, Mao
Zedong. First, reports concerning sensitive topics
must be consistent with the current line of the
central government, the facts must be carefully
sourced, and the comments well-grounded. Second -
and possibly more important - daily news reports
must try to avoid sensitive issues if at all
possible.
For instance, the CCTV
management asks its working staff to keep an eye
out for the politically sensitive faces - those
who may not be currently in favor. These should
not been shown, though these faces of intended
non-persons can be exceptionally difficult to spot
amid the background of other faces.
Over
the past two decades, propaganda authorities have
been firmly convinced that some foreign news media
exploit wide coverage of sensitive incidents to
"fling mud at" China. In particular, old newsreel
footage about the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre,
which some principled journalists risked their
lives to shoot on the scene, is still replayed
abroad from time to time, and it indeed has
discredited China. Therefore, media censors are
ordered to keep their eyes peeled for any
offensive images or messages when introducing new
or foreign TV programs.
In 2002, the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television
promulgated the Provisional Regulations Concerning
the Punishment on Propaganda Disciplinary Offenses
by Radio and TV Broadcasting Staff. Under the
regulation, the official mouthpieces must obey the
central government in processing stories about
sensitive figures, and those who committed
political blunders - or perceived blunders -
should be deleted in word or image from the
official record. This is what happened to Zhao,
even in death, though some say he may prove to be
more powerful in death than in life.
Together with Zhao Ziyang, former CCP
chairman Hua Guofeng, late party vice chairman Lin
Biao, the notorious Gang of Four linked with the
Cultural Revolution (namely Mao's wife Madame
Jiang Qing, CCP ex-vice chairman Wang Hongwen,
previous Politburo member Zhang Chunqiao and Yao
Wenyuan), as well as dozens of other discredited
and corrupt officials and party cadres are also
blacklisted and their names taboo.
Some
experts in Chinese history argue that it does Zhao
Ziyang - and the Chinese nation and Communist
Party - a grave injustice to place the former
leader, in effect, on the same blacklist with Lin
Biao and the Gang of Four. In 1970, Marshal Lin
Biao allegedly contrived a usurpation plot to
assassinate Mao; Lin failed and, in 1971, he died
in an air crash during his attempt to flee to the
Soviet Union. The Gang of Four, masters of soft
coup d'etat, exploited Mao's trust in launching
the Cultural Revolution, and even trumped up
charges against party leaders including Deng
Xiaoping and the second state chairman Liu Shaoqi.
Liu was expelled from the CCP and persecuted to
death by the Gang of Four - he finally was
rehabilitated during the Deng administration.
Compared with those notorious figures who brought
death, disgrace and harm to so many, Zhao Ziyang
did not deserve - in life or in death - such
treatment for not toeing the party line.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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