An official said China will begin to study "sensitive" Party history and increase publicity on positive stories and figures at a State Council conference on Wednesday morning.

Zhang Shujun, deputy director of the Party History Research Center of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said his center will research sensitive Party history and figures and conquer public opinion with persuasive and inspiring stories of the Party's historical achievements.

"'Sensitive' matter means subjects that the government prohibits discussion of," Ma Yong, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. "For example, there should be more discussion of the Cultural Revolution [1966-76] this year because it's the 50th anniversary, but people are afraid to talk about it. "

Ma thinks that by leading the discussion of Party history and Party figures, the center can help desensitize some subjects. Even though people might be critical of the official interpretation of these matters, it is still an improvement, he asserted. 

At the meeting, Zhang also criticized "historical nihilism," saying that it tries to distort and deny China's revolutionary history, the Party's history and the military's history by defaming Party leaders and heroes. Historical nihilism attempts to deny the guiding role of Marxism, the Party's leadership and the inevitability of China's adoption of socialism, he continued.

Zhang said that the center is combating the trend in three ways. "The first is to provide facts to argue against wrong information on the Internet, the second is to research sensitive Party history and important personnel and increase publicity, and the third is to encourage more academic research of sensitive topics from all sides,"he said.

Several groups have voiced skepticism about the truth of Chinese war hero stories this year.

In late March, some cadres said that the story of Qiu Shaoyun - who is said to have chosen to be burned to death to protect his unit's location in the Korean War (1950-53) - seemed to defy their understanding of human physiology.

Similar doubts were raised about the story of Huang Jiguang, a Korean War soldier who is said to have died by hurling himself against an enemy machine gun to block its fire.

In response to these comments, the People's Liberation Army Daily argued in an article on April 10 that such heroes were "born to fight" and their acts on the battlefield are beyond one's understanding of what is rational.