China Cracks Down on Maoists

The Chinese Communist Party is cracking down on people who are a little too enthusiastic about the man who led it to power in 1949. The firing of Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, who led a Maoist revival, has been followed by a purge of websites promoting Mao Zedong-era songs and stories, along with ultra-leftist ideals. In Chongqing, music has been banned from a park where retirees used to wave red flags and sing patriotic anthems, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Analysts see the firing of the charismatic Bo and the crackdown on the revival he led as a rejection of individualistic politics, notes the Wall Street Journal. China's leadership may also have been worried about the movement's opposition to privatization of the economy and other Western-style reforms. "The government is really more worried about the leftists than the pro-Western activists because they are against the reform and opening up," an activist in Guangdong province says. (More China stories.)