New | Renowned Chinese scholar under fire from watchdog over ‘hostile views’ towards Mao Zedong
Long-time party member and expert at top think tank ordered to explain himself after informant tips him off for his ‘problematic’ opinions
A leading scholar from one of the country’s top think tanks has come under fire from the discipline watchdog for his “hostile” views on late leader Mao Zedong and for promoting democratic socialism.
He Fang, 93, an expert in international relations and Communist Party history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was ordered by the think tank’s disciplinary authorities to submit an explanatory letter last Friday to address his “problems”, according to a leaked internal notice.
These “problems” – namely promoting democratic socialism, harbouring hostility towards Mao and discrediting China’s development in the 30 years after 1949 – were reported to inspectors from the party’s top disciplinary watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the memo said.
He, a long-time editor at liberal political magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu, has been a party member for more than 70 years.
He was also a member of the top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, in the late 1980s and ‘90s.