The Man on Mao's Right by Ji Chaozhu

Author:Ji Chaozhu [Chaozhu, Ji]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588367198
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Contradictions at the Top

Xiangtong and I married in the middle of a monthlong period when the Hundred Flowers Campaign reached a feverish, nerve-racking pitch. The Party leadership seemed to have declared open season on itself, allowing unfettered publication in the government-controlled press of letters and articles by intellectuals, officials, and others attacking the Party, sometimes in the most provocative and inflammatory language. The charges were cronyism, hypocrisy, corruption, repression, and mismanagement.

There were elements of truth in much of the criticism, but some of the writers made outrageous statements, in one case even suggesting that the Communist Party withdraw from government offices and schools. Demonstrations challenging the Party broke out on college campuses, and in some places there were reports of violent clashes with the police. Students held mass debates about capitalism versus socialism. They demanded democratic reforms. The first Democracy Wall appeared at Peking University, layered with hundreds of handmade signs and posters. This emboldened some professors and other intellectuals to publicly endorse the growing rebellion.

The rhetoric seemed to reach an incendiary level in an article written by a science professor at the China People’s University in Beijing. It appeared in the People’s Daily near the end of May, right after our wedding. The article practically called for a Hungarian-style insurrection:

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