I feel bad about not sending out a newsletter on Friday, so here’s a little Saturday night bonus. This Foreign Policy story1 about China cracking down on references to moments in history the leadership would prefer not to acknowledge struck me as an obvious corollary to where we’re headed if our home-grown revanchist historians gain power.
Any fact, statistic, opinion, or memory that doesn’t fit into the official line can … be framed as a violation of the party’s anti-historical-nihilism campaign. Authorities are taking action: More than 2 million social media posts alleged to be “disseminating historical nihilism” were reportedly deleted2 in the months before the centennial celebration of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last year. In a speech last April, CAC Director Zhuang Rongwen described3 the necessity of “powerfully refuting historical nihilism and other incorrect ideological standpoints” on the internet.
Historical nihilism is important enough to merit its own reporting center, where netizens can rat on each other for sharing posts that “distort the history of the party or the history of new China.”
I don’t know how many readers will remember TIPS, the W. Bush administration snitch program created as an element of the USA Freedom Corps,4 which would have enlisted millions of Americans to spy on their neighbors had it been fully consummated, but the attempt to inaugurate it should disabuse everybody of any “can’t happen here” notions.
That’s it. Charles Mingus is this evening’s co-pilot, with his “Old Time Jazz” album.
Link from the FP article to a .coda story about China censoring television shows and internet activities.
Link from the FP article to a Chinese government website presumably discussing (I don’t know, it’s all in Chinese) the anti-nihilist history activities.
The preserved-in-amber plans for the Bush administration’s Stasi-like TIPS program.