In China, Christmas celebrations have coincided with the anniversary of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Mao Zedong. Previously, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has viewed Christmas as a Western holiday with religious overtones, which conflicts with the atheist ideology of communism.
In the past, Mr. Xi declared that he wanted to protect “Chinese culture” over Western festivals, and many local governments in China have canceled Christmas celebrations as a result. Some universities in China even restricted students from leaving their dormitories on Christmas Eve and ordered them not to have “Christmas-related items” in their dormitories. Some cities deployed large numbers of police officers on the streets and imposed strict controls near churches. Local officials also banned vendors from selling Christmas cards and other items.
However, this year in China’s most populous city Shanghai, residents participated in a wide range of Christmas celebrations, seemingly ignoring the CCP’s call to boycott traditional Western festivals and holidays. Shanghai’s streets were filled with Christmas decorations in early December with Christmas markets and people dressed in all kinds of Christmas costumes. This rich Christmas atmosphere in Shanghai has drawn lots of attention given the CCP’s suppression of the holiday.
Commemoration of Mao’s Birthday
Unlike Shanghai celebrating the “foreign’ festival of Christmas, China’s capital Beijing commemorated Mao’s 130th birthday on Dec. 26 with a lavish ceremony.The CCP authorities held an event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, which was attended by all seven members of the Standing Committee of the CCP’s Politburo. Mr. Xi gave a speech where he touted Mao as a “spiritual treasure” who will continue to guide the CCP in the long term.
Compared with his speech a decade ago, Mr. Xi’s assessment of Mao’s Cultural Revolution remained unchanged, claiming that although Mao “made mistakes” during the Cultural Revolution, his achievements still cannot be diminished.
Before the event, Mr. Xi also led other members of the Politburo and a group of CCP officials to visit the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. The officials bowed three times to a seated statue of Mao and paid homage to his embalmed body.
Celebrating Christmas While Pushing Mao’s Communism
Lai Jianping, former Beijing lawyer and chairman of the Federation for a Democratic China, said in an interview with The Epoch Times on Dec. 29 that the CCP’s decision to allow Christmas celebrations in Shanghai was simply for show to outsiders. It gives the illusion that China still tolerates Christmas. Nevertheless, the CCP’s real agenda is still to bring Chinese society back to Mao’s fundamentalist communist ideologies.Mr. Lai believes that the Christmas celebrations in Shanghai must have been authorized and led by the CCP. He explained that under the CCP’s extremely strict control, all similar events and gatherings must be approved. Therefore, this kind of large-scale celebration in Shanghai, which is more glamorous than in previous years, is actually led by the CCP. However, the CCP always has its own agenda.
“Christmas is for show, while honoring Mao is the true ideological goal,” Mr. Lai said. “The CCP is trying to create a false impression in the whole world. At the same time, it is also trying to show those who support ‘reform and opening up’ and those who hold democratic and Western values that the CCP is still open to recognize Western society and some of its values.”
Mr. Lai further said, “In essence, the CCP wants to take a hard left turn and return to fundamentalist communism, which Mao’s totalitarian dictatorship and his extreme leftist ideals represent. On the surface, the CCP is trying to combine populism and nationalism in its political agenda, which will make some leftist forces [within the CCP] even more supportive of Xi.”
According to Mr. Lai, there is a certain level of division within China in terms of public opinion. At the top levels of the CCP, it is well coordinated, and they are united. However, this is not the case among common people in China. There is a serious split in the Chinese public, with many elites and intellectuals having a negative impression of Mao, but there are also groups of people who admire him.
“Anyone with some common sense understands the state of Chinese society under Mao, where people had no political rights or freedoms, and where there was extreme economic hardship,” said Mr. Lai. “The whole country was in extreme poverty, and therefore most people did not favor Maoism. However, the old ‘Red Guards’ [from Mao’s era] still revered Mao to the point that they support and worship Mao. They create the idea that many people [in China] still miss the Mao era. This is not the reality though. The number of people who admire Mao is much less than those who hate him.”
Mr. Lai also explained that all members of the Politburo and the senior officials within the CCP are loyal to Mr. Xi, which means that it is simply impossible for them to oppose his ideas. However, there may be differences on economic policies among the CCP’s elites. As a result, the CCP wants to strengthen totalitarianism and its control over society and the people, but it also wants to use some kind of banner to keep the economy from collapsing. Mao’s fundamentalist communism is the CCP’s current policy, but the regime is extending an “olive branch” to those in the country who may not be on board to hardcore Maoism. Christmas celebrations were simply used by the CCP to show these people that the regime is somewhat “open” and “tolerant” to some Western ideals. Nevertheless, this is not an indication that the CCP will deviate from its totalitarianism and its hard left turn to Maoist communism.
