From traitor to military hero

Lin Biao

The naming of the former successor of Chairman Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, as a military hero in an exhibition of the Beijing Military Museum, did get very little traction outside the state-media. The event is remarkable for a few reasons.
Lin Biao, a former leader of the People's Liberation Army fell out of grace as the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) moved on and started to eat its own children. He was accused of organizing a coup against Mao Zedong and died mysteriously in 1971 during a plane accident. His disappearance triggered off a larger "cleanup" of the military leadership and he was officially qualified as a "traitor". Of course the China Daily did not mention too many of those nasty incidents, but the re-emergence of Lin Biao as a military hero is remarkable enough.
China also has no long-standing tradition in reversing verdicts that have been given. The labelling of - for example - the 1989 Tiananmen "disturbance" seemed to be in place for eternity. Now, starting a history of reassessing China's recent history might be seen as a positive move.