Repression of China’s Public Intellectuals in the Post-Mao Era

Merle Goldman Repression of China’s Public Intellectuals in the Post-Mao Era AFTER THE DEATH OF MAO ZEDONG IN 1976, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC of China, which Mao had ruled for almost three decades (1949-1976), was no longer governed by a totalitarian political system. While during most of the Mao period no intellectual discourse or activity could take place outside the parameters of Mao’s ideological doctrine and political controls, as China’s moved to a market economy in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and opened up to the outside world, its citizens enjoyed increasing freedom in their personal, economic, cultural, and intellectual lives. Although still a one-party state, China’s move to a market economy and to the outside world loosened politi­ cal and ideological controls that unleashed a proliferation of ideas and activities outside the scope of party control. Nevertheless, China’s post-Mao government as well as its intellec­ tuals still remained under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). China’s third generation of Communist Party leaders, led by former Shanghai Mayor Jiang Zemin (1989-2002), which came to power after the violent crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, and the fourth generation of party leaders, headed by HuJintao and his associates, which came to power in 2002, sought to re-indoctrinate party cadres in Marxist ideology, recentralize political authority, and re-strengthen the party’s capacity to deal with the increasing inequalities and rampant corruption unleashed by China’s move to a market economy. social research Vol 76 : No 2 : Summer 2009 659 Although a degree of pluralistic discourse and openness to foreign ideas exists in China’s universities, academic journals, and think tanks, particularly in the sciences, these institutions are still under the control of party officials. The Hu Jintao leadership has detained, put under surveillance, and thrown out of the academic establishment intellec­ tuals who dissent politically and criticize the party’s policies publicly. Unlike in the Mao era, however, when any intellectual who dissented not only from the party’s political views, but also from its scientific, historical, or economic views lost his or her job, was unable to make a living, and was banished from the intellectual community, China’s economic reforms and opening to the outside world make it possible for intellectuals to publish abroad and in Hong Kong and to support themselves with freelance jobs. The small number of intellectuals, who at times in the post-Mao era have publicly criticized or deviated from party policies, can be referred to as “public intellectuals.” Such intellectuals are not unique to Western civilization. Although they were repressed through most of the Mao era, public intellectuals have played a major role through­ out Chinese history. China’s premodern intellectuals, the Confucian literati, not only ran the governmental bureaucracies, they were also viewed as the conscience of society. Their commitment to improving the human condition led them to assume responsibilities comparable to those of public intellectuals in the modern West. They were gener­ alists, who publicly discussed and dealt with political, economic, and social issues, organized philanthropic efforts, and supervised educa­ tion. Most important, it was the responsibility of the Confucian literati to criticize officials and even the emperor when they diverged from Confucian ideals of morality and fairness. Public intellectuals helped to bring about the end of China’s dynastic system and prepared the way for the 1911 revolution. Their leader, Sun Yatsen, personified a public intellectual. Even though the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek (1928-1949) attempted to stifle criticism and dissent, it was too weak to silence intellectuals, who publicly criticized repressive officials and Kuomintang policies and 660 social research advocated political reforms. It was only under the totalitarian leader­ ship of Mao Zedong, with the exception of brief periods such as the Hundred Flowers period from 1956 to June 1957, that public intellectu­ als were silenced and unable to play their traditional role. Of course, one major difference between the West and China is that during the dynastic, Kuomintang, and Mao Zedong eras, there were no laws to protect public intellectuals when what they said displeased...