In a previous post, I wondered how accurately China's own textbooks depict history, given that it's been kicking up such a fuss over the ones used in Japan.
This article from Agence France-Presse has the unsurprising answer:
While learning materials in Chinese high schools take special pains to outline Japanese aggression beginning with the 1874 invasion of Taiwan, China’s involvement in the 1950-53 Korea war is dismissed in one sentence.Okay, so they're a little sketchy on foreign policy. How do they handle China's past "internal affairs"?
At the same time such are the holes in modern Chinese history that the average mainland college graduate still believes China is a "peaceful country" which has fought wars only in self-defense.
Completely absent from textbooks is China’s 1951 invasion and subsequent colonisation of an independent Tibet. Erased too is the 1962 attack on India and the ill-fated 1979 incursion into Vietnam.
But even when it comes to China’s domestic history students know shockingly little about the deaths of tens of millions that resulted from Mao Zedong’s ill-conceived Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.Why doesn't China put out more accurate textbooks? Professor Min has the answer:
Despite changes that apportion Mao with greater blame for the tragedies, texts still gloss them over because in China "textbooks represent the will of the authorities", says Shanghai Normal University history professor Su Zhiliang.
"If you expose the mistakes the Communist Party of China has made all at once, people will probably doubt whether the communist party is needed any more and whether the state could fracture like the former Soviet Union," Min says.Well, yeah. That's what's called "learning from history". Min and his 1.3 billion comrades, on the other hand, appear condemned to repeat it.