China’s Cultural Revolution could happen again, warns ex-Shenzhen mayor and former rising political star

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Statues of the young people, the so-called Zhiqing or educated urban youth, with two of the leading figures bearing facial similarities to China’s President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 12:00am, 11 Dec 2015Updated: 3:30pm, 14 May 2016

Once a reform-minded political rising star, Yu Youjun surprised many with his miraculous comeback after a corruption probe.

Months after his retirement this year, Yu returned to the limelight as a scholar addressing the thorny issues of the Cultural Revolution.

Yu, 62, retired as deputy director of the South-North Water Transfer Project on January 3, three years shy of the retirement age for his level, and returned as a professor to his home institute, Sun Yat-sen University, in October. In his first lecture, on Wednesday, Yu went directly to heart of the Cultural Revolution.

“The soil for the Cultural Revolution is still fertile, especially when the people have no reasonable and profound knowledge of it. It may partially recur, under certain historical conditions,” he told students, mainland news outlet Caijing reported.

READ MORE: Former Red Guard regrets causing mother’s death during Cultural Revolution

He chose the controversial topic because next year is the 50th anniversary of its outbreak. His goal is for the public to “voluntarily refute the Cultural Revolution”, he added.

Yu rose to prominence in Guangdong province in the 1990s. At age 41, he rose to vice-ministry level to head the provincial propaganda department.