China is a civilisational state with a long, contested and layered history. It encompasses within itself the history of the empires, kingdoms, warlords and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But the history of China to which the Chinese people and the world is exposed today is sanitised and approved by the CCP. Since 1949, the CCP has taken a lead role in writing and rewriting Chinese history with the sole aim of pushing its own narrative and agenda. This effort is also a crucial exercise through which the CCP advances its identity-building project. Thus, Chinese history has to be uniform and unilateral. No surprise that, as Ian Johnson writes in Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future, “Xi Jinping has made control of history one of his signature policies — because he recognises counter-history as an existential threat.”