Have Chinas Communist leaders truly broken with the imperial past?
By Bruce Kennedy CNN Interactive (CNN) — Since the founding of the People’s Republic, China’s leaders have launched numerous campaigns against superstition. For some Chinese, however, ancient traditions die hard. One such tradition dating to dynastic times is that natural disasters are harbingers of political change. “Every peasant believed in the umbilical relationship between man and nature, and therefore between natural disasters and human calamities,” noted the late historian John Fairbank in his book, “China: A New History.” ALSO: Timeline: China and the world this century Map: Track China’s imperial dynasties It was no coincidence, for example, that the tumultuous Taiping Rebellion of 1851-64, which further undermined the decaying Qing Dynasty, was preceded by years of famine and flood. In recent times 1976 stands out for many Chinese as a year in which natural disasters and politics are inextricably linked. The year began with the death of Premier Chou En-lai, who succumbed to
