Robert Marquand: Taiwan Author Too Free With Speeches
A leading writer and political maverick from Taipei who ardently supports the unification of China and Taiwan - is confounding authorities in a rampaging lecture tour that ends Monday, by doing something no one here ever does: criticize the Communist Party in public.
In truth, Li Ao, a TV personality, leftist, and prolific author who was born in northern China, attacked the US, Japan, and nearly everything but the moon in rambling speeches that have embarrassed official China.
Mr. Li's broadsides chided the Party for a lack of intellectual freedom in China, told how the early Party allowed feisty debates, and included quotes from Mao about the Party one day ending - all broadcast live on Hong Kong's Phoenix TV, which reaches millions on the mainland.
Such events here are rare.
More broadly, experts say, the improbable Li event underscores how 'frigid the political climate in China has become.
...
In the past year, a serious "strengthening ideology" campaign has taken place in China. Party officials are reportedly choosing actively among cadres about who will and who will not advance in coming years. It is a climate described by one prominent historian as one where, "nobody should 'rock the boat'."
"The new leadership's philosophy is still unclear, and until it is, no one is going to make a mistake by taking the wrong line on reform. There isn't room for any dissenting opinions right now," the historian adds.
In truth, Li Ao, a TV personality, leftist, and prolific author who was born in northern China, attacked the US, Japan, and nearly everything but the moon in rambling speeches that have embarrassed official China.
Mr. Li's broadsides chided the Party for a lack of intellectual freedom in China, told how the early Party allowed feisty debates, and included quotes from Mao about the Party one day ending - all broadcast live on Hong Kong's Phoenix TV, which reaches millions on the mainland.
Such events here are rare.
More broadly, experts say, the improbable Li event underscores how 'frigid the political climate in China has become.
...
In the past year, a serious "strengthening ideology" campaign has taken place in China. Party officials are reportedly choosing actively among cadres about who will and who will not advance in coming years. It is a climate described by one prominent historian as one where, "nobody should 'rock the boat'."
"The new leadership's philosophy is still unclear, and until it is, no one is going to make a mistake by taking the wrong line on reform. There isn't room for any dissenting opinions right now," the historian adds.