Word: communists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Ironically, it is China, with its authoritarian government and notorious cultural police, that allows its artists the most room for self-expression. Yes, direct criticisms of the Communist Party are taboo, and the culture cops occasionally shutter avant-garde exhibitions. Nevertheless, ironic depictions of Chairman Mao and not-so-subtle critiques of official corruption or urban alienation fill Beijing and Shanghai galleries. Some artists, particularly those who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, playfully twist that era's socialist-realist propaganda art - think heroic laborers, red-cheeked peasants and stalwart soldiers lifting banners with brand names or consumerist messages. Best...
Writing history is a dicey enterprise for Chinese scholars, and never more so than when the subject is a Communist Party figure like Zhou Enlai - China's Premier from the founding of the People's Republic until his death in 1976, and still regarded by the vast majority of Chinese as a saint. "Ordinary people thought he was a good man," says Gao Wenqian, once Zhou's government-appointed biographer and more recently the author of the revisionist (and unofficial) Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary, now available in a translation by Peter Rand and Lawrence R. Sullivan...
...Still, signs are emerging that the tide may be turning for those fighting the Quixotic fight for preservation of old Beijing. On October 15, Beijing Communist Party Secretary Liu Qi said the city plans to invest 2 billion renminbi ($268 million) over the next few years to renovate courtyard houses to protect the city's cultural heritage, and also to raise the living standards of hutong residents through measures to improve housing, transportation, environment, education, food safety and social security. The change in official attitudes may also lead to a more tolerant response to citizens' efforts to prevent further destruction...
...Socialism' for us remains the vision of a free just and solidly united society, " the party declared in its closing statement. That statement, like the speed limit idea, drew a rebuke from Merkel. "We don't want a return to socialism," said the Chancellor, who who grew up in communist East Germany. "We had enough of that in [there]." Analysts say the new ideas from the SPD have the virtue of bringing out in the open policies that had divided the party - and the government - for some time. "The cards are now on the table," the Suddeutsche Zeitung editorialized...
...sure, every top communist leader since Mao Zedong has wielded less and less individual power and has been forced to seek consensus on important decisions. Hu is no exception and had to make compromises. He failed, for example, to name Li Keqiang, his favored candidate, as sole successor. Indeed, Li trailed Xi onto the podium Monday, confirming a belief among analysts that, for the moment at least, Xi has a slight edge in the race to lead China. (If previous practice is followed and no unforeseen events intervene, Xi will succeed Hu at the 18th Party Congress in 2012, while...