Mao Takes Manhattan: Empire State Building Goes Red and Yellow for China

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China under Communist rule and Mao's 1949 revolution, the Chinese will hold a military parade in Beijing on Thursday of unparalleled size -- 5,000 soldiers, 43,000 fireworks and a display of 52 new weapons -- followed by a civilian parade of 100,000 marchers and 60 floats, many chanting new nationalistic mantras coined by the Chinese government for the occasion.

For a nation that worships Mao, and the path of development and prosperity the Chinese people believe he charted, nothing less would do to commemorate its 60th anniversary.

But when it comes to the commemoration of China's 60th anniversary in the U.S., perhaps we could -- and should -- expect a little less.

Wednesday night in New York City, the Empire State Building will illumine its familiar spire with red and yellow lights in honor of Communist China. The Communism-themed color scheme will stay lit through Thursday night, much to the delight of China's consular officials, who were on hand for a ceremony in the lobby of the iconic building Wednesday morning, and to the acute dismay of the dozen or so protesters outside, and to many Americans who question whether honoring China's Communist revolution here is at all appropriate.

An AP photo of the Empire State Building and New York City skyline Wednesday evening

China's Consul General Peng Keyu, the main attraction at Wednesday's ceremony, offered kind words for the building, New Yorkers and the American people, before pulling a fake lever that lit up a fake Empire State Building. He told the crowd:

I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all the friends in the greater New York area for their support to China's development and the China-U.S. relations... I sincerely wish China, my motherland, continued prosperity. And let us work together for a brighter future of the Sino-U.S. relations, and a sustainable, peaceful world.

Here's the video of the ceremony:

American reaction to the Empire State Building's decision to honor the People's Republic of China has been fiercely, and almost unanimously, negative. To most Americans, Mao is a symbol of evil, his revolution a reign of terror, and his legacy the antithesis of how he's revered in modern China. Media reaction to the lighting has reflected America's discomfort with a Communist-themed Empire State building. U.S. News and World Report published an editorial Wednesday titled "The Empire State Building's Disgusting Kowtow to China," which asked:

Is this to honor Mao Zedong, whose euphemistically-named Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution led to the mass starvation and mass murder of 40-70 million Chinese, a death toll perhaps surpassing that of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin combined, and led him to declare, "China is such a populous nation, it's not as if we cannot do without a few people?"

The AP quoted New York Congressman Anthony Weiner as saying the lights should not be used to pay tribute to "a nation with a shameful history on human rights."

And Investor's Business Daily asked in a Tuesday editorial what many New Yorkers and Americans in general are wondering: "What is the Empire State Building thinking?"

I spoke with Han Shan, a HuffPost blogger and one of the protesters Wednesday morning outside the Empire State Building, who told me that there's no distinction between honoring the anniversary of the People's Republic of China and celebrating China's Communist party itself, which he described as a "totalitarian state that has killed 1.2 million Tibetans and countless Chinese people." When I asked Han who was responsible for making the decision to light the Empire State Building red and yellow, he said, "it's not transparent and we haven't been able to figure out how it happened... we imagine it was at the request of the Consulate."

Here's my interview with Han:

While Han and the Students for a Free Tibet were unable to get an answer as to who exactly requested lighting the Empire State Building red and yellow, I did my best to find out how the building came to its decision and whether it was at the request of the Chinese Consulate. The spokespeople for the Empire State Building told me the following:

"ESB doesn't discuss the lighting process, but it is explained in brief on their website www.esbnyc.com."

Nothing there. So I called the Chinese Consulate and spoke with Gao Wen Qi, the spokesperson for the Consulate. He told me the decision to light the building in China's colors was "a bilateral decision, reached through a consensus between the building and the Consulate." I asked him whether the Empire State Building approached the Consulate or vice versa and he told me "in this instance, the building approached the Consulate." He assured me the Consulate didn't pay the Empire State Building any money for the honor. Representatives for the building told Fox News that taxpayers would not be footing the bill for the lights.

No matter who is responsible for the Empire State Building "going Communist," as some have put it, when the spire glows China's red and yellow, New York City, defined by its most iconic structure, will be giving Mao, Communism, and the People's Republic of China a big pat on the back. As Mr. Gao pointed out to me, "this isn't the first time the Empire State Building has gone red and yellow." True. But it is the first time it has been done for Mao.

MORE VIDEO:

Students for a Free Tibet protesters outside the Empire State Building Wednesday morning:

The short concert in the lobby of the Empire State Building following the ceremonial lighting Wednesday morning:

Comments

[Balzac]

Mao Zedong was a good leader who accomplished what the Empress could not - expelling foreign powers from China. But he also did a disservice to traditional Chinese culture in favor of what he considered modern. He also made transgressions against neighbors such as Tibet, which continue to this day. He also made bad decisions which lead to disastrous circumstances in some cases.

Chang Kai Shek is probably somewhat under appreciated just because he lost the civil war to Mao. Both leaders are probably both celebrated too much as well as not given enough credit for their respective ideologies, personal strengths and weaknesses, and for the brutality they inflicted on their own people.

[SFA]

This is not the way to behave, when China pretty much owns America.

If China even starts selling part of it's debt, America is doomed.

Tables are turning !!!!!

[lrubemp]

The sanctimony and arrogance of Americans is breathtaking. Ready at the drop of a hat to condemn violations of human rights in other countries while never owning up to the crimes of their own government. Yes, the Stalinists in China are responsible for millions of deaths. But the US government slaughtered 2,000,000 in Korea and another 2,000,000 in Vietnam to maintain its regional dominance, a dominance that was announced by the vicious slaughter of hundreds of thousands by nuclear attack (the only one in history) in Japan, which we now know to have been wholely unnecessary to end the Second World War. Even now, as we speak, thousands more have died in the interests of US big business and geostrategic hegemony in the Middle East.

Get over it.

[shanghaislim]

Welcome to the new age of Hypocrisy.

Especially true for American Right.

[AlanPerry]

I live in China as an English teacher, and have lived here for a bit more than two years over the past five years.

The Chinese people I meet do not "worship Mao"; they tend, rather to emphasise Deng Xiaoping and the radical changes from Mao Zedong's lunatic policies he brought in after Mao's death.

But that is a bit beside the point. This 60th anniversary of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 really celebrates the triumph of what at the time seemed to most Chinese (and many foreign observers, including many Americans) as the best hope for a stable independent country. The defeated Nationalists of Chiang Kaishek were corrupt and ineffective, and deserved to lose. The Communists won using a lot of American equipment provided to Chiang and abandoned or turned over to the Reds by the fleeing Nationalist armies. After more than a century of civil war, rebellions, corruption, warlords, and humiliation by Europeans, Americans, and Japanese, the Reds, with their promise of land reform and a better life for all Chinese, seemed the best bet.

True, the Communist liberation did not live up to its promise. And yes, there are huge problems in contemporary China. Nevertheless, today the majority of the Chinese people have it better than they have ever had it before, and I think they are entitled to celebrate the day "China stood up" and began making its own decisions (and mistakes).

So happy 60th, New China, and many happy returns.

[Tekd]

Yeah I don't think the yellow and red really have very much to do with Mao. I mean Mao helped form the PRC but the yellow and red are much more about the Chinese people than anything else. And it's a proud time because in 60 years they've accomplished a lot.

[JanP]

Mao was not corrupt. He only murdered about 50 million people.

[shanghaislim]

I was lucky to be in Beijing for the 50th and watched it live. Quite spectacular.

Enjoyed the 60th on TV and marveled at the pride of the Chinese people.

[CalCanuck]

Yes, the pride of the Chinese people reminds me of the pride that the German people exhibited when the Nazis came to power and restored Germany's "dignity and honor."

Fascism is fascism.

[Dosadi]

So now we celebrate the accomplishments of our enemies? The communists are still our enemies. They want to do away with our way of life. They hate our liberties and freedoms. So we pat them on the back and congratulate them for being such a great country.

[FBatRNC]

You do realize that China holds most of America's debt? So in effect we are all aiding and abetting the enemy? And please, give us an example of how China wants "...to do away with our way of life".

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

America for sale ... all our leaders take bribes. Just last week they refused to light the Empire state building green because they were "avoiding political statements". Green was for the party in Iran that was violently crushed by Adiminijob as he visited the UN.

[mbaty]

So they wont let the building be green because of Iranians, even though it was already supposed to be green for the wizard of oz (switched to blood red at the last minute.) Yet now they honor China? Now I like both Iran and China, and I like the colors red, yellow, and green, and this double standard seems like a strange contradiction.

[chicagotim]

OK Children. Here is why it is o.k. for Americans to criticize the Chinese human rights even though our history of human rights isn't exactly stellar. In US history books we read about what happened to the Native American and African Slaves. We know about the trail of tears, the internment of Japanese Americans, the Jim Crow laws. Additionally, we are free to elect a minority president. We can march and freely protest things we beleive are human right attorcities like Gitmo and Abu Grahb. How many Chinese know about the attrocities of the Great Leap Forward? In my beloved Chicago I can protest the Olympics, (I'm not going to Go Chicago 2016!) how did the protests of the Beijing Olympics go? I am 100% confidant that the human rights attrocities committed by both goevernments over the last 200 years are equivalent. The difference is in one country the citizens can freely assemble to force the government to recognize those past attorcities, thus help prevent future attrocities. The Empire State building should only be red on Valentines Day. That being said I will defend the owners right to light it whatever color he or she pleases.

[Dosadi]

Funny how the only country where the citizens are free to assermble and force the government to recognize them is the one country where the citizens are too timid and unpatriotic to do it. What is wrong with us? The man who stopped the tank did so at the peril of losing his life. We can do it without fear but are more afraid to protest then the Chinese and Iranians.

[noweknow]

Americans are right to afraid to protest. It's no conspiracy but documented fact that government agents go undercover to infiltrate peaceful protest groups and take photos and enter protesters info in government database. When necessary Blackwater will come get you. To this date Black sites and secret prisons remain open.

[JanP]

There weren't 50 million native americans to kill like Mao did to native Chinese.

They also are forgetting the Chines invasion and colonization of Tibet.

[mamababa]

Oh to be so self-righteously ignorant. Must be nice.

[nofanofheliumman]

Quite frankly, I find it hilarious.

I understand the ESB is co-owned by Donald Trump and a Japanese consortium.

It was my impression that the Japanese and the Chinese were not exactly the best of friends.

It is also rumored that Donald wants to unload his piece of the action. Perhaps he could sell it to the Chinese. Then they could fight over it.

Afterwards, the Rockefellers could buy it and resell it to the Japanese and rig it like the Rockefeller Center sale. The Japanese lost big on that one.

The world is getting so ridiculous we have to have some comic relief.

[Cathy Stone Schiavone]

To all of you China haters: How many of you shop at Walmart???? I'm sure the Chinese appreciate your business. :o)

[Viper]

7,5 million MFG jobs shipped there from our country to country which is protectionist, with high tarrifs and anindustrial plan and some how it would be liberal for our government to dry to correct that!

I guess we are just suppose to head down this path to failure and do nothing!

The first law our Congress ever passed was a Tarriff so we could build a MFG base here. I case our forefathers were anti free trade and communist or just smarter than the reoug economic polcies over the last 30 years! What took 200 years to build, reugs have almost wiped out in 30 years.

Regards

[mamababa]

So how about putting the blame on the people who are shipping those jobs overseas - your red, white and blue American CEO in your own backyard? Do I see you out on the streets protesting?

[moosala]

I haven't posted at all for this article, though I find the Empire State Building honoring China to be tasteless at best. It's offensive to me and honors the absolute antithesis of American values in so many ways.

Regarding your Walmart question, my family actually doesn't shop at Walmart... even our children specifically reject the idea of looking for their toys there, preferring to take their business to other stores. The fact that most of Walmart's product line is Chinese-made factors heavily into that decision. Thanks for mentioning it.

[mamababa]

The antithesis of American values? I thought it was 100% American to bow to money.

[Cathy Stone Schiavone]

Look in the mirror Americans. How about we try cleaning the egg off of our faces and the blood off of our hands before we start casting stones at other nations.

[fbr79]

We must make the new boss happy.

[jackbutler5555]

It appears that the lights on the Empire State Building have tightened the sphincters of those who may not be aware that Mao died. It may be appropriate to remind folks it's 2009. The rituals are intended to celebrate the relationship with China, as it stands today. We're trading partners. They're financing us. We love moo goo gai pan. They built our railroads. They invented fire crackers, which we ignite on July 4. They had a super opening/closing to the Beijing Olympics. They're providing us with great NBA talent. Charlie Chan.

In other words, we have a fine (not perfect) relationship with the Chinese. So, we celebrate with them one of their big days with colored lighting on a building. The more that relationship improves, the less they're interested in oppressing their people. Some would say that's a good thing. But not the sphincter folks, I know.

[RenoSage]

Right before our eyes China has evolved from a War Lord country to a country (almost) united
after WWII by Communist Chairman Mao. We have seen it emerge as a major manufacturing
country, and an economic power. It's progress could only have been this rapid because it
was a dictatorship. Now it is communist in its government and capitalist in its economy.
Nixon was the first president to recognize China as a trading partner, followed by the bulwarks
of our manufacturing economy. They in return have invested heavily in our country.

It doesn't diminish us to recognize their 60 years of progress. We don't have to approve of the
process just as we don't approve of everything in our own history. We do need to work toward
our goals more dilligently to compete.

[Douglas Campbell]

I love the country
But not the party
If you wanna celebrate
Don’t even think of calling me

[lightningbolt]

It seems nobody in this comments section realizes that China is not really a communist nation. They say they are communists to get popular support, but in reality China is a capitalist dictatorship. The USSR was the same way, fake communism on the outside, capitalist dictatorship on the inside. Both of these countries have extremely wealthy oligarchies who rule their countries with an iron fist.

[JanP]

China is a totalitarian country allowing free enterprise to work.

Funny how coutnries that stick to socialisma nd communism don;t show the growth and improvements in life that China and other democracies have.

[plumnelly]

Thank you.