Rejection of 60-year old Mao communism makes Chinese future brighter

Posted by Publius Right on Oct 4 2009 Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

PR Columnist Michael A. DeVine questions the MSM treatment of China.

Given the 5000-year old archaeological evidence that China is the world’s oldest continuous civilization, I did a double-take this Thursday headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“Future bright as China turns 60″

It turns out that October first was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and, as related by Mary Brown Bullock, president emeritus of Agnes Scott College and author of the AJC column:

“…60 years since Mao Zedong stood on the Tienanmen Gate and proclaimed: “The people of China have stood up.”

Over the next 27 years until his death, Mao reduced the number of standing Chinese by over 45 million thru brutal political repression and starvation, i.e. mass murder, and also known in academic circles as “The Cultural Revolution.”

The second double-take occasioned by this Dead-tree Drive-by media article, was the identity of the author, about whom I have long heard high praise from ones whose opinions I value and the products of whose Decatur, Georgia academic institution are widely admired for their scholarship. Therefore, despite my misgivings about the Bullock column and its consistency with many of the liberal tendencies it seems to reflect that eventually led to my separation from the Democratic Party, I reach no conclusions as to the author’s intent; will couch my examination in the form of questions; and am simultaneously sending this column to her should she wish to respond.

I must also observe that the column superbly written; makes many important points and is obviously the product of a very learned and thoughtful expert on China. But I also observe that many of her astute observations of positive facts seem disconnected from their actual causes. Further, I do not know who decided on the headline that appeared in the AJC, so do not know if Bullock wrote or approved of same.

Read the rest here.