By Bloomberg News - Nov 3, 2013
The mission for the near-dozen Communists sitting round a table at a
Beijing ministry was explicit: criticize their boss, who was present.
Party cadres carefully recorded their comments as they spoke, in an echo
of sessions held decades ago under Chairman Mao Zedong’s direction.
“Every
party member, every division chief, each department head and the
ministers have to go through it,” said 31-year-old Tang, who
participated in the September gathering and asked to withhold his full
name and work unit because he isn’t authorized to talk to reporters.
“There are clear instructions that criticism must be genuine. For
instance, you can’t say ‘Oh, you have worked too hard and should take
more breaks.’”
The purpose of such meetings being held across China -- at least one of which was attended by party chief and Chinese President Xi Jinping
-- is to reinforce adherence to the official line and strengthen the
position of the nation’s new leaders in the minds of China’s 85 million
Communists, according to Sidney Rittenberg, 92, a party member from 1946
to 1980 who was Mao’s translator.
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