Source: NYT (10/14/15)
Magna Carta Exhibition in China Is Abruptly Moved From University
By MICHAEL FORSYTHE
HONG KONG — China’s leaders have long behaved as if nothing could daunt them. But an 800-year-old document written in Latin on sheepskin may have them running scared.
An original copy of Magna Carta on view in New York City in 2007. Issued by King John of England in 1215, the document guaranteed the rights of individuals and held the ruler subject to the law. Credit Justin Lane/European Pressephoto Agency
Magna Carta — the Great Charter — is on tour this year, celebrating eight centuries since it was issued in 1215 by King John of England. It is regarded as one of the world’s most important documents because of language guaranteeing individual rights and holding the ruler subject to the law.
One of the few surviving 13th-century copies of the document was to go on display this week from Tuesday through Thursday at a museum at Renmin University of China in Beijing, the British Embassy said last week on its WeChat account. But then the exhibit was abruptly moved to the British ambassador’s residence, with few tickets available to the public and no explanation given. (The document is also set to go on display at the United States Consulate in Guangzhou and at a museum in Shanghai, the embassy said.)
It is not clear why the public showing was moved off the Renmin University campus. But Magna Carta is widely considered a cornerstone for constitutional government in Britain and the United States, and such a system is inimical to China’s leaders, who view “constitutionalism” as a threat to Communist Party rule.
In 2013, the party issued its “seven unmentionables” — taboo topics for its members. The first unmentionable is promoting Western-style constitutional democracy. The Chinese characters for “Magna Carta” are censored in web searches on Sina Weibo, the country’s Twitter-like social media site.
Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese dissident, said he was not surprised that the exhibit had been moved off the campus. He said that Renmin University had close ties to the Communist Party’s training academy and that the principles the document stood for were contrary to the party’s. More important, he said, Chinese leaders may have been concerned that the exhibit would be popular and that “many students would flock there.”
“They fear that such ideology and historical material will penetrate deep into the students’ hearts,” Mr. Hu said.
The mysterious shift in venue took place the week before China’s president,Xi Jinping, is scheduled to make a state visit to Britain, the first by a Chinese leader in a decade. The British government has labeled 2015 a “golden year” in ties between the two countries, and it is eager to attract Chinese investment. Magna Carta’s China tour has been described as part of a deepening of ties. “I would like to take this chance to invite our friends across China to visit this important piece of our cultural heritage during this golden year of U.K.-China relations, and for it to spark further cooperation on rule of law and legal services,” said Britain’s ambassador to China, Barbara Woodward, according to a news release issued by the British government on Tuesday.
But securing a chance to see the document at the ambassador’s residence proved difficult on Wednesday. Registration had closed at 9 the night before, and the exhibit was open to the public for only three hours on Wednesday night, according to the embassy’s Chinese-language social media account. Mark Gill, executive director of the London-based Magna Carta 800th Committee, said the small room at the residence could accommodate only a limited number of people at a time.
Visitors at a display accompanying an exhibition of a copy of Magna Carta at the residence of the British ambassador in Beijing. The exhibition was moved there from a museum at Renmin University of China in the capital. Credit Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
A representative of the British Foreign Office said the decision to display Magna Carta at the residence was “based purely on administrative and logistical practicalities.”
“We’re really pleased it’s here,” Mr. Gill said, speaking by telephone from Beijing, adding that awareness of the document was low in China compared with many countries.
At the same time, there was plenty of room for visitors at the spacious Renmin University museum. In the late afternoon on Wednesday, it was empty, except for staff members.
Three museum employees who did not give their names said that they had been told several days before the scheduled opening of the exhibit that the venue had changed. A man answering the phone at the Communist Party committee office at Renmin University said he did not know about the exhibit or the change of venue. Press officers at the British Embassy in Beijing and the Foreign Office in London did not respond to questions about the venue change.
Magna Carta has been the subject of several academic conferences and lectures in China this year, including two at Renmin University. One doctoral student in history who knows people at the museum said that the school had canceled the exhibit on orders of the Ministry of Education.
“To get kind of wound up about an old document like the Magna Carta? They’re a little bit brittle and fragile, aren’t they, Chinese leaders?” said Kerry Brown, a former British diplomat who was stationed in Beijing and now serves as director of the China Studies Center at the University of Sydney in Australia. “Poor dears.”
Vanessa Piao in Beijing contributed research.