To properly celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic, China has to embrace its messy, complex and bloody history
- The blood and strife of history belie the orderly narrative of the founding of the People’s Republic, with a civil war that was neither glorious nor heroic
- Today’s leaders were all born after 1949 while yesterday’s leaders understood the struggle, dedication and sacrifice of becoming New China
I have had the great fortune of a long life and the ability to bear witness to a changing China. I have distinct memories of my childhood in 1930s and 1940s China, the tumultuous pre-People’s Republic period. I have also had the honour of being in China to celebrate the 30th, 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries.
The older generation of leaders understood the struggle, dedication and sacrifice of becoming a new country. Today’s leaders know only the fruit of those struggles.
My father, who had attended a military academy in Japan, was a former classmate of lieutenant general Takashi Sakai, who commanded the occupational forces in Hong Kong. He gave us permission to leave and, in 1942, we returned to Japanese-occupied Beijing. When the war ended in 1945, we all celebrated. China could now find peace and stability.
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But years passed and the civil war continued. Cities filled up with refugees, families were displaced, and civilians were caught in the crossfire. Chiang’s fatal mistake was in once again underestimating the importance of Manchuria (the northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin). Decisive communist victories in Shenyang and Changchun in late 1948 marked a major turning point in the war.
My father, worried about the fate of important cultural landmarks such as the Forbidden City, encouraged Fu to surrender Beijing. Weeks later, in early 1949, I watched the Red Army enter the city. Without the surrender, Beijing would have suffered untold bloodshed and destruction.
My family chose to stay. We did not truly believe the communists would win the war or stay in power for long. After all, warlords were common in the 1920s and 1930s, and control frequently changed hands.
Communist or Nationalist made little difference to me – I wanted to go to America to study. To do that, I needed to leave Beijing and make arrangements through the Nationalist government. It was a difficult journey through a war-torn country. I witnessed devastation, poverty and deaths.
My travels brought me to Qingdao, Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Canton (Guangzhou). In Canton, I was issued a passport. In Hong Kong, I received my visa to America and boarded a flight to San Francisco, where I travelled by train to my school in New York.
A few weeks later, I watched a newsreel of Mao declaring the founding of the People’s Republic of China to crowds in Tiananmen Square. It was a shock to hear the announcement of a New China and the painted image of a liberated and unified China. After all, communist victory had come at the expense of a civil war that tore China apart, with Nationalists still in control of Taiwan.
The Communist Party narrative depicts 1949 as a clear dividing line between China’s Century of Humiliation and a strong New China, but this is incomplete. The war could easily have turned out differently. Chinese people’s suffering did not miraculously end in 1949.
Today, the rising Chinese generation do not remember China’s hardships. They are inundated by propaganda displaying a curated past. History, however, is complex. It is only by acknowledging the past that China can truly move forward.
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As Chinese people celebrate the country, they should remember the blood and strife that came before with humility and a determination to do better. Perhaps, by gaining some perspective, China will be better equipped to face its many challenges.
I will not be around to see the 100th anniversary, but I hope it celebrates a country Chinese everywhere can be proud of.
Chi Wang, a former head of the Chinese section of the US Library of Congress, is president of the US-China Policy Foundation