50th anniv unmarked by state media

Official Chinese media stayed largely silent about yesterday's 50th anniversary of the start of the bloody Cultural Revolution, with discussion of the tumultuous decade still controlled on the mainland.

May 16 marked half a century since the 1966 declaration of the movement, which left mayhem in its wake and transformed the political landscape.

But the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, carried no articles about the anniversary in either Chinese or English.

The state-run Global Times ran just five paragraphs of an AFP story about the popularity of Cultural Revolution memorabilia but without including any political context.

In 1981 the Communist Party officially pronounced the Cultural Revolution a grave error that "led to domestic turmoil and brought catastrophe to the Party, the state and the whole people".

It ascribed chief responsibility to Mao Zedong, avoiding the question of the party's own culpability. Now it restricts discussion of the period to prevent undermining the legitimacy of its rule.

Asked about the anniversary at a regular press briefing yesterday, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei offered only a single sentence in response: "The Chinese government already made the correct verdict on it long ago."

Users who sought to discuss the campaign on China's Twitter-like Weibo were censored.