Self-criticism continues its cruel tradition with funny face

ONE OF THE crueller traditions in China's political system is the self-criticism session. The practice goes back at least to Ming Dynasty Community Compact meetings, when local residents would meet periodically to review individuals' behaviour, plan ceremonies and so on. The practice only reached a fever pitch during the many lunatic political campaigns of the Maoist era.

During the self-criticism sessions, party members were forced to flagellate themselves, often in public - and not because they had really done anything wrong. Instead, one person's public humiliation merely served to cement the position of his or her political rivals, who often presided over the spectacle.

The tradition has waned over the decades, especially compared with the days of the Cultural Revolution, when it was not unusual for a government minister to be forced to criticise himself in front of thousands of jeering Red Guards.

Today, a self-criticism is more likely to be written sheepishly behind closed doors after, say, a careless newspaper editor lets an untitled, unsigned and vaguely worded Falun Gong poem slip on to his usually closely guarded pages. With enough feigned humility, the 'offender' is likely to get off with little more than a mild reprimand.

Earlier this month in Guangdong, however, the self-criticism made a very public comeback. And it did so in a humorous, rather than a harmful, fashion, when the eastern port city of Shantou (population 4.7 million) issued a collective mea culpa and even launched a Web site on which it placed the credibility of its companies under public scrutiny.

Shantou has a lot to apologise for. In the mid to late 1990s, local companies ran circles around the State Tax Administration.