China ‘will never open the files on its painful past,’ says party historian

China’s ruling Communist Party will likely never open all the files on its recent painful past, including the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward, and sees no need to reassess those periods, a senior party historian said on Monday. The 1958-1961 Great Leap Forward, when millions starved to death in Mao Zedong’s botched industrialization campaign, and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution are two of modern China’s most sensitive historical events. During the Cultural Revolution, children turned on parents and students on teachers after Mao declared class war, convulsing the country in chaos and violence.

From a historical research it is to be hoped that it would be best if they are all opened. But I fear this cannot happen, and may never happen.

Xie Chuntao, Director of the Party History Teaching and Research Department

Xie Chuntao, Director of the Party History Teaching and Research Department of the Party School, which trains rising officials, said the party had reflected deeply on its mistakes. But former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s conclusion that Mao made mistakes remains the correct way to broadly view the period, Xie told a news conference.

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