Det er stor misnøye i Kina med korrupsjonen. Venstrefløyen i kommunistpartiet har blåst liv i Mao som den ukorrupte, uselviske lederen, og budskapet ser ut til å gå rett hjem.

Thirty years to the day after his death at the age of 82, the anniversary exposed how the memory of Mao Tse-tung has become a potent political issue between «reformers» and «leftists» arguing over the direction of the world’s fastest-growing economy.

Yesterday’s edition of the People’s Daily in the capital carried an extremely rare article by Mao’s surviving son, Anqing, headlined «Memories of my father». It praised Mao as a selfless leader who hated corruption and refused to promote his relatives to positions of power.

The article, said Chinese analysts, was clearly inspired by powerful leftist figures in the present leadership and was probably not written by Anqing himself, who is in his eighties and is said to suffer from schizophrenia.
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Anqing’s article in the People’s Daily was the most politically charged work by a member of the family since Mao’s death.

It struck at the core of the Communist Party’s present dilemma over official corruption and the growing wealth gap in China. To Chinese who can decode the political message, it proved that there is real conflict inside the party elite.

«My father had just two sleeping gowns which he kept all his life, and there were 116 patches on them when he died,» wrote Anqing.
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The article was a bold assertion by leftist thinkers, who have already influenced the government of President Hu Jintao to modify the policies of «growth at any cost» pursued by Mao’s «reformist» heirs after 1979.

Ingen politisk reform

Mange har ventet at den økonomiske suksessen vil bli fulgt av en politisk reform. Men istedet er det tegn til en reaksjon med sterkere politisk kontroll. Det er også en retning som ikke føler noe behov for selvkritikk for alle Maos feil og forbrytelser.

The new leader has already sided firmly with Mao-era authoritarian policies to stamp out political dissent, to control the media and to curb free speech on the internet.

And a surprising encounter inside Mao’s memorial hall revealed the new confidence among leftists, who believe the party has no need to apologise for the millions of dead in Mao’s man-made famine or for the decade of chaos in the purges known as the cultural revolution, which he unleashed 40 years ago this summer.

«Mao is still worthy of respect. I believe he was a great man and a lot of things Mao forecast and worried about have come true today,» said a teacher in his forties from the Central party school in Beijing, which trains future leaders.

Men bak gjenopplivingen av Mao-myten står en mer alvorlig trussel for dagens herskere: et antikapitalistisk budskap. Det kan få store konsekvenser for Kina hvis det skulle få vind i seilene.

«Although the constitution says the working class is still the leading class in China, it’s not. Actually it’s now the rich who are the leading class,» he declared.

China invents a new Mao myth
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2351131_1,00.html