A Chinese professor who posted critical remarks about Mao Zedong on social media is the latest to find out that, under President Xi Jinping , taking issue with the Communist Party\u2019s past brings trouble.
Shandong Jianzhu University last week fired Deng Xiangchao, a professor in the school\u2019s art institute, for his \u201cerroneous remarks\u201d on the Weibo social-media service. In the aftermath of the postings, he was vilified by protesters and online, with some calling him \u201cthe People\u2019s Public Enemy.\u201d
Mr. Deng\u2019s posts last month hit at a part of Mao\u2019s legacy that has been tricky for the Communist Party to address: the deaths associated with the revolutionary leader\u2019s policies and campaigns. \u201cIf he\u2019d died in 1945, China would have seen 6 million fewer killed in war. If he\u2019d died in 1958, 30 million fewer would\u2019ve starved to death,\u201d said one post. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until 1976 when he finally died that we at last had food to eat. The only correct thing he did was to die.\u201d
In firing Mr. Deng, university leaders noted the outcry his posts had created and reported the issue to provincial authorities, said a propaganda officer with the school. A notice posted by the government-backed university on its internal website said the nature of Mr. Deng\u2019s posts was vile and their influence was very bad.
Mr. Deng wasn\u2019t reachable for comment. His Weibo account appears to have been deleted.
His punishment fits with more aggressive policing of dissent under President Xi, with a renewed sensitivity to criticisms of the party\u2019s past, particularly under Mao.
\u201cThere\u2019s been a significant tightening of what people can say, particularly in public. To speak about historical figures like Mao has become more sensitive than it was five or 10 years ago,\u201d said Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King\u2019s College London.
\u201cThe party is demanding respect and that means respecting the history of the party,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously Mao is important to that history. You can\u2019t have a pick and mix attitude.\u201d
Mao\u2019s radical policies resulted in mass deaths and waves of political persecution. His Great Leap Forward drive to increase harvests led to widespread famine and more than 20 million deaths at the lower estimates of Chinese researchers; more than 30 million is a widely accepted toll.
Those episodes are rarely allowed full public discussion. In addressing Mao\u2019s legacy in the early 1980s, his successor Deng Xiaoping declared him \u201c70% right and 30% wrong.\u201d
Still, the party embraces Mao as a symbol of its legitimacy, hanging his portrait in Tiananmen Square and putting his face on every banknote. Despite the fact that his father was purged in the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Xi has declared it unacceptable to critically dismiss Mao\u2019s 30-year reign and delink it from the country\u2019s recent decades of rapid development.
Last year, Chinese authorities purged top editorial staff at Yanhuang Chunqiu, a reform-minded journal that often featured searching articles on the Cultural Revolution and other events in party history. Censors have also shuttered dozens of history-themed social media accounts for spreading \u201cunhealthy information.\u201d
After a surreptitiously videotaped lecture showing a respected academic at the party\u2019s elite training academy criticizing Mao went viral last summer, a backlash ensued. Wang Changjiang said in the videotape that Mao had been unable to satisfy people\u2019s basic wants of food and clothing. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Wang stepped down from his position as the director of a research department at the Central Party School, citing reasons of age.
The year prior, a prominent television host was suspended after a video of him mocking Mao at a private dinner surfaced online.
In the latest instance, reposting Professor Deng\u2019s remarks also caused repercussions for a television employee in the central city of Luohe. Liu Yong was suspended from his advertising job, according to Luohe Television\u2019s official Weibo account, for \u201cmaking erroneous comments and distorting the truth\u201d on his personal Weibo account. Reached by phone, a colleague said that Mr. Liu had recirculated material from Mr. Deng\u2019s Weibo account on his own personal Weibo account, which has since been suspended.<\/p>\n