MacFarquhar’s article “The Once and Future Tragedy of the Cultural Revolution” stopped me in my tracks. It gave analysis to a question I had buzzing around in the back of my head. When I first started developing my national security thesis, I asked myself, how would China democratize? This was my train of thought: The closest they seemed to have gotten to a upheaval revolution was Tiananmen. Why didn’t it work? Many scholars say it was because they didn’t access a large enough percent of the population. How do you expand the reach of a movement? Could social media be the answer? We have different media now and more access, what if, (and this was crazy, I know), what if we could create another Tiananmen. What if we could plant, or influence, or suggest, or plan some sort of movement that would replicate what was going on in 1989, but just give it a little extra push? Would this even be possible?
Asking this was just like what MacFarquhar was asking. Can such a grave and historical event be replicated with a modern twist? He claims the primary and necessary components are a supreme leader, a perceived danger on the part of that leader, a sort of party support, and a clan of ‘four horseman’. It was fascinating and at the same time sort of startling that he was able to draw these parallels with the current administration. The implications are fascinating and ones I will continue to return to. This has been an incredibly influential article for me.