Article by 'quiet' scholar ruffles feathers

A mild-mannered retired Sun Yat-sen University scholar, whose published views on modern Chinese history have never ruffled feathers, has unwittingly become a pawn in the Communist Party's continued crackdown on the media.

The party's Publicity Department took umbrage at an article by Yuan Weishi that pointed out inaccuracies in history texts, and used it as an excuse to close the China Youth Daily's features supplement Bingdian Weekly, the section's sacked editor, Li Datong said in an open letter.

Professor Yuan's interpretations of late Qing dynasty events, published in the now-defunct Oriental Culture magazine in 2002 and reprinted by Bingdian Weekly, stirred a hornets' nest. Postings on the internet called him a traitor.

Among the issues he raised, Professor Yuan described the Boxer Rebellion against western commercial and political influence as 'anti-humanity', and affirmed western accounts that the rebels killed more than 200 foreigners.

Junior high school history texts maintain the rebels were anti-imperialists and say nothing about the killings. Professor Yuan also said mainland textbooks provided only two causes of the second opium war - the killing of French priest Auguste Chapdelaine and the seizing of the Hong Kong-registered vessel Arrow - whereas Hong Kong texts provide four.

The other two causes - the Qing government's delay in reviewing commercial treaties and the Guangzhou government's decision to break the Jiangning Treaty, which allowed British officials and businessmen to live in the city - both had a historical basis, he said.