Western intellectuals once believed that China’s liberal-ish market reforms would lead, ineluctably, to liberal political reforms. A new generation is settling into the view that China will remain autocratic far into the future. In an elegant new book, journalist Ian Johnson charts a much-needed middle course. The Chinese Communist Party goes to great lengths to whitewash its bloody history. Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future is an account of the writers, scholars, filmmakers, and artists who push back. These dissidents are preserving China’s dark past in hopes of creating a brighter future.
“China’s surveillance state is real,” Johnson observes, “but it is not able to completely crush independent activists who avail themselves of digital technology.” He gives the example of Li Wenliang, the widely remembered doctor who warned of the spreading Covid-19 virus, was rebuked by the state, and then died of the virus himself. Li’s plight attracted so much attention online, before CCP censors regained control, that his entry on Baidu Baike, China’s answer to Wikipedia, still acknowledges that the government mistreated him. “That is a victory for China’s citizen journalists,” Johnson points out, “who brought all of this to light.”
Read Full Article »