The documenting of history is always a selective process. China, like most countries, has generally tried to portray its history in a favorable light, often by ignoring unfavorable events. However, there this may be changing a little bit.
A May 28 article from The Globe, Is China Finally Confronting its Dark History?, discusses a surprising recent development - a front page story in a Chinese news magazine (Southern People Weekly) with 18 pages of coverage on one of the events in recent Chinese history that, although widely covered in foreign media, has received almost no coverage in China. The event is the Great Famine (1958-1961) that occurred during the so-called Great Leap Forward, one of the disastrous policies of Chairman Mao. The number of deaths is estimated to be between 20-40 million. According to the Southern People Weekly article (as quoted in the Globe article): "The famine, which is unparalleled in human history, has neither an official record nor a reasonable explanation."
Apparently, the Chinese magazine coverage has also stimulated a great deal of online debate in the Chinese blogosphere. Somewhat surprisingly, there doesn't seem to have been much if any government response to stop or censor this debate.
Since all Chinese media is government controlled, the public airing of this part of China's history does not seem to be accidental. Instead, it seems that the more liberal-minded leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) believe that its ok and maybe even important to allow exposure and discussion of history that's critical of Chairman Mao. Of course, its also possible that some leaders hope to use this to political advantage against the more conservative CCP leaders. A recent political scandal led to the removal of a powerful official (Bo Xilai), from government positions. Bo was one of the more conservative leaders and some of his authoritarian tactics led him to be compared (often favorably) to Chairman Mao. His political demise before the upcoming leadership change seems to have given the liberal CCP wing (led by outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao) a bit more latitude to push their agenda for further reform in China.
For those Westerners who've been hoping for Chinese democracy since the late 1980s, I don't think that's likely or realistic. But it does seem that there is a gradual opening up in China to greater political discussion and debate.
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