One dry wit observed he had not seen the People’s Daily publish such an article for 20 years—this would be a reference to the five days in which freedom of speech was almost allowed in the People’s Daily before the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
The attitude of caution behind this remark is worth observing.
Who Is Behind the Article?
The title of the article as published on the People’s Daily does not have a subject: “Concerning the Social Mentality of Tolerating Heterogeneous Thinking.” Moreover, the article itself, except for one sentence, does not say who should be tolerant.
Most of the official media that republished the article used the title “The Rulers Should Tolerate Heterogeneous Thinking,” which at least is a little clearer.
But who is behind this call for tolerance is not at all clear.
The article is signed by the “Commentary Department of People’s Daily.” The People’s Daily is one of two newspapers that directly belong to the CCP Central Committee. The other is the Guangming Daily, which now focuses more on reaching academics.
The People’s Daily has a long history of representing the Communist Party’s voice, although the signatures of important articles change from time to time. During the Cultural Revolution, when the decisions and policy were made by Mao or his gang, the Cultural Revolution Leading Group, the article to reflect the policy was always marked as the “Editorial of Two Newspapers and One Journal,” the short name for the People’s Daily, the PLA Daily, and the Red Flag Journal.
In 1999 and the early years of persecuting Falun Gong, the most commonly signed name for articles attacking Falun Gong was “Special Commentator of People’s Daily.”
On the one hand, the signature used on this article calling for tolerance leaves unclear whether it represents the point of view of the top Party leaders, such as the Politburo or its Standing Committee.
On the other hand, we can be almost sure that the Commentary Department couldn’t come up with the idea for this article by itself. The idea definitely came from the top level, a powerful group or even a powerful leader.
NEXT: Heterogeneous Thinking
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
