54 years on from Mao’s “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree

Kate Allen is the director of Amnesty International UK (@AmnestyUK)

Chairman-Mao It is 54 years since China’s Chairman Mao Zedong made the infamous “hundred flowers speech”, often misquoted as the thousand flowers speech, calling for many ideas from many sources.

In it, he called for a new dawn of freedom to criticise and debate. He proposed a pluralism of political and social voices, in stark contrast to the suppressive autocracy that had gone before.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) ushered in this variety of views and solutions to national policy issues, launched under the slogan:

“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land.”

If it sounds utopian even now, imagine the ecstasy that must have been felt by Mao’s contemporaries in 1957.

A great many Chinese intellectuals took up the invitation to put forward their views; in return for their efforts, they met with a violent and extensive suppression.

“Let a thousand flowers bloom” has come to be used in the west as shorthand for drawing enemies into the open and flushing out dissidents. Whether or not it was a deliberate ruse, is disputed, but what is clear is that many of the individuals who put forward views which did not meet with Mao’s approval, were executed.

The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there; assessing China’s subsequent record on freedom of expression a stark progress might be anticipated since Mao’s death nearly four decades ago. Not so.

The Chinese government remains one of the strictest in the world in terms of denying its citizens the right to freely express their thoughts. It regularly jails individuals for peacefully expressing their views or advocating democratic reform. Censorship is prolific, with the internet firewall now arguably a more invasive barrier than the more famous wall that has sliced through Northern China for more than two millennia.

The Chinese authorities use vague regulations to tightly control publication of politically sensitive material, including references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, human rights and democracy. The authorities maintain a tight control over the reporting of news on the internet, restricting licenses to only large, government-backed websites. Many social media sites remain blocked, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

This week, the professional networking site Linkedin was added to the list, the first victim of China’s increased censorship clampdown in the wake of calls on the internet for pro-democracy demonstrations.

Twitter may be officially blocked in China, but is widely accessed and used, particularly by human rights defenders and their supporters who often use the social networking platform to quickly organise protests in support of human rights activists who are detained or tried in court. One such user is activist Cheng Jianping, who is thought to be the first Chinese citizen to become a prisoner of conscience on the basis of a single tweet, after she retweeted her fiancé’s tweet which made a satirical suggestion that the Japanese pavilion at the Shanghai Expo be attacked.

She was sentenced in November, without trial by an independent court, to a year in a re-education through labour camp for “disturbing social order”.

Cheng’s conviction is testament to the pervasive nature of China’s repression of online discussion and is a bad blow to one of the few bastions of uncensored expression in China. There are more traditional methods of repression that can be pointed to, and more renowned. In December last year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, the first time that the prize was awarded to a Chinese citizen in its 100-year history. Yet the Nobel laureate was unable to attend.

Liu Xiaobo is currently serving an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” for his part as the leading author behind “Charter 08”, a manifesto calling for the recognition of fundamental human rights in China.

Liu Xiaobo is undoubtedly one of those flowers that Mao beckoned from the ground and like his predecessors, he too was weeded out. Yet as any gardener is aware, some plants will not be eradicated. The hardiest varieties seem impervious to attempts to tame and conquer. Human rights defender Mao Hengfeng has been sent back to a labour camp just two days after her release on medical parole.

She was detained for demonstrating outside Liu Xiaobo’s trial. You can find out more about her case and call for her release here.

http://twitter.com/oldmankelv/status/41892814455447552 Kelvin John Edge

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/dogcicle/status/41894966548504576 dogcicle

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree http://bit.ly/hrtOUB
http://twitter.com/stayingawake/status/41900104873025536 jan

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/patelsmie/status/41920586162769921 pat elsmie

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/flowersdelight/status/41929696065101824 FlowersDelight

44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree http://bit.ly/eCju7q
http://twitter.com/1seabiscuit/status/41941822401937408 Maria

Kate Allen,director of #Amnesty International UK:44 years on from #Mao’s “hundred flowers speech”,#China remains unfree http://bit.ly/fvcbxv
http://twitter.com/rctunison/status/41947110383296512 RCT UNISON

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
fs

at least 56 years. 1954 if not 1953
http://twitter.com/amnestyuk/status/41968128111943680 Amnesty UK

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/crimsoncrip/status/41968347272839168 Crimson Crip

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/redtupac/status/41968428914966528 redtupac

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/spsot/status/41968904892977152 Spir.Sotiropoulou

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree http://bit.ly/hrtOUB
http://twitter.com/facfortia/status/41968932306956288 jh

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/muradbatal/status/41969022866178048 Murad Batal Shishani

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/nppolicyanalyst/status/41969277221347328 Nick Panayotopoulos

RT @spsot: RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree http://bit.ly/hrtOUB
http://twitter.com/arthurdavis_/status/41969354530754561 Arthur Davis

44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/jaqi/status/41970111942365184 jaqi

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/elizabethaash/status/41970551966666752 elizabethaash

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/mexcan22/status/41970719827050496 C Falco

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/liannedemello/status/41970883434258432 Lianne

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
Anon E Mouse

Kate Allen – While you’re here you may want to have a word with another contributor to this fine blog, Sonny Leong, who seems to think that it is ok for China to behave the way it does:

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/06/cameron-needs-to-tone-down-the-rhetoric-over-china/

but then considering the way some of the contributors seem unable to criticise the murderous actions of the IRA (Kevin Meagher) and with Ed Miliband’s links to the Gaddafi family I really shouldn’t be surprised…
http://twitter.com/jameslovatt/status/41978072412602368 James Lovatt

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/astromad/status/41978414806216704 Vanessa

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/vivianbroughton/status/41979271572357120 Vivian Broughton

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/diabline/status/41997937059958784 diabline

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/btitze/status/42030596435881984 Benjamin Titze

RT @ArthurDavis_: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
Daniel Elton

fs- quite right. It’s 54 years since the speech, not 44. Now amended. Apologies for the error – and thanks for pointing it out
http://twitter.com/pauline_c64/status/42194660600459264 Pauline

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://twitter.com/aistockport/status/42245441726857216 Amnesty Stockport

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen
http://ipeanddevelopment.wordpress.com Jiesheng

I thought Iraq has thought the West of the dangers of intervention and democracy promotion. As Churchill pointed out, democracy is the worst form of government. Western liberal democracy CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be throw into countries. Leave individual countries alone.
Anon E Mouse

Jiesheng – Let me guess you’re not replying to this article from China are you?

You are here taking all the advantages of a free Western democracy and at the same time criticising that very system and I don’t care where you were born.

Please do not misquote Britain’s greatest wartime leader Winston Churchill – that is tantamount to lying in a public forum and something a few of the authors here seem to think is OK but should not be left unchallenged.

Winston Churchill said (and I accurately quote): “Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”

He clearly states he did not say that and that is is the best form of governance by none.

What worries me is that you seem not to care about the individual citizens in China, the plight of the Taiwanese or Tibet and for that you should be ashamed of yourself.

I an English and only achieved 4 O’Levels prior to technical training and I know the correct quote. I also seem to care more about the plight of people in China than you do. Funny that eh?
http://twitter.com/vespa_j/status/42326368247230464 JuliaVespa

RT @leftfootfwd: 44 years on from Mao's “hundred flowers speech”, China remains unfree: http://bit.ly/g0QlZC writes @AmnestyUK's Kate Allen