CCTV documentary Sun Yat-sen premieres as Beijing prepares high-level commemoration of his 160th birth anniversary

Mainland China’s CCTV began airing its documentary Sun Yat-sen on Sunday evening (8 November). Officials stressed that it highlights Sun’s profound significance in consolidating and developing the broadest possible patriotic united front, promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and advancing reunification.

Commemorations of the 160th anniversary of his birth are reaching their climax, with a ceremony to be held in Beijing this week.

Academics interviewed said Sun was a “symbol of common ground” accepted on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, by both the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and among overseas Chinese. They expect this year’s ceremony to be at least as high-level as the one held a decade ago.

According to CCTV’s website, the six-part documentary, with each episode running for 50 minutes, follows Sun’s revolutionary career, weaving his experiences into the course of modern Chinese history. It recounts how he “loved his country as dearly as his own life” and his “illustrious life devoted to saving the nation”.

Factual accounts and original historical materials, alongside artificial intelligence (AI) technology used to help recreate historical scenes, make the narrative more vivid and compelling.

The official description says the documentary explains Sun’s “major contemporary significance and far-reaching historical significance in consolidating and strengthening the great unity of Chinese people at home and abroad, consolidating and developing the broadest possible patriotic united front, promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and advancing the great cause of national reunification”.

Mainland authorities announced last year that events would be held to mark the 160th anniversary of Sun’s birth. Over the past month or so, Nanjing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou have held commemorative concerts, exhibitions and other events.

Beijing is expected to hold a high-level commemoration on Thursday (12 November), the anniversary itself.

On 9 November 2016, ahead of the 150th anniversary of Sun’s birth, CCTV also released a three-part historical documentary, Mr Sun Yat-sen. An official commemorative ceremony was held at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on 11 November that year, with CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping delivering a speech.

Apart from Zhang Dejiang, who was visiting Vietnam, the other members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee at the time — Li Keqiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli — all attended.

Hung Yao-nan, director of Tamkang University’s Centre for Cross-Strait Relations, told Lianhe Zaobao (LHZB) that the key phrase in the description of Sun Yat-sen was “the broadest possible patriotic united front”.

“He is a ‘symbol of common ground’ accepted on both sides of the strait, by the KMT and CCP, and among overseas Chinese. Beijing wants to use him to define ‘the scope of those who can be united’.”

Wang Kung-yi, chairman of the Taiwan International Strategic Study Society, said in an interview that the way Sun’s significance was framed carried clear political implications for cross-strait relations.

“Through Sun’s historical image, there is an attempt to reconnect national identity with the shared history of both sides of the strait. This also sends a signal to Taiwanese society: cross-strait issues are not merely a contest between political systems, but also involve history, ethnicity and national identity.”

Both Qi Dongtao, a senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, and Hung expect Beijing’s forthcoming ceremony marking Sun’s birth anniversary to be at least as high-level as the one held a decade ago.

Hung noted that high-level exchanges between the KMT and CCP had resumed this year, with the two sides finding common political ground in Sun. He expects this year’s ceremony to focus on “unity” and “national rejuvenation”. “Red lines will be mentioned, but they will not be the main theme.”

Qi said this year’s ceremony would probably be on a par with the one held a decade ago. He added that, with Taiwan’s nine-in-one local elections approaching, campaign teams were doing their best to avoid cross-strait issues. He therefore expected the KMT to send relatively low-profile representatives to the ceremony in Beijing.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council previously announced that the authorities would not approve attendance by city and county leaders, central government personnel and others at ceremonies on the mainland marking Sun’s birth anniversary. It also urged members of the public not to attend related events, to “avoid becoming tools of Beijing’s united front efforts”.