BACKGROUND TO THE PURGE IN CHINA
By Antonio Farien
[In a letter accompanying the manuscript, the author explains that during a trip to Europe he had the good fortune to meet Peng Shu-tse. "I found his observations on the current purge in China so interesting that I took extensive notes from which I later wrote this article. I then asked him to read it and make any necessary corrections. The footnotes, however, are entirely my own responsibility."
[Peng Shu-tse was one of the founding members of the Chinese Communist party and played a leading role in it until he’was expelled in 1929 on charges of "Trotskyism. " Subsequently he became a leader | of the Chinese Trotskyist movement. For more about Peng Shu-tse and ~ his companion Chen Pi-lan see: International Socialist Review, Summer 1964, "Chinese Revolutionary Exiles" by Ross Dowson.
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“The recent events in China, such as the dismissal of - Peng Chen from his key party post(1), are the result of a struggle inside the - Chinese Communist party [CCP] that began almost a decade ago. In order to understand what is happening now we must take into account the whole evolution of the struggle and the ‘opposition led by Teng To.(2) ©
We should start from around 1957 when Mao Tse-tung initiated the "Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom" and "Let a Hundred Schools of
(1)It was disclosed Fane 3 that Pong Chen, who had been missing from public activities since March 29, 1966, had been removed as first secretary of the Peking municipal Communist party, a post which he had held since 1955. Peng had also been mayor of Peking since 1951. He was a long standing member of the Politburo, a secretary of the CCP's Central Committee and was generally regarded as the fifth most powerful figure in China and a possible successor to Chairman Mao Tse-tung. (2)Téng To: branded the "leader of the antiparty, antisocialist gang of conspirators" in the current purge, was one of China's leading journalists and a key political figure. He was director and former editor-in-chief of the People' 8 Daily, the principal party newspaper, and editor of Frontline (Qianx an), the bimonthly theoretical organ of the Peking municipal Communist party, until it recently suspended publication. He was a secretary of the Peking municipal Communist party -- the immediate subordinate to Peng Chen -- and only last year became an alternate member of the party's North China Bureau (North China section of the party's national Central Committee). He was also president of the Chinese-Soviet Friendship Association.
Thought Contend" movement inviting the intellectuals and the people as-a whole to speak their mind, to criticize the "three harms" within the CCP -= "bureaucratisn, commanderism. and subjectivism" -- and to help in "rectifying" and reforming the party. Within a very short time this movement became very large with many deep-going criticisms of the leadership being brought into the open.
Much of the important criticism was published in such papers as the People's Daily (Jenmin Jih Pao), the official organ of the party. Teng To, editor-in-chief at the time, encouraged criticism from the. people and even wrote some articles of sharp criticism himself. ia . L
At the high tide of the “blossom. and contend” movement . (Apna to. dune 1957), facts about the. arbitrariness and special privileges enjoyed by the CCP bureaucracy poured in from all corners, especi- _ ally from young students and revolutionary intellectuals. Members ~~ of the CCP itself and its youth organization also responded. (3) By June the movement had developed to such an extent that it seemed that the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 might be transplanted to Chinese soil. (There was a rebellion, for example, by more than 3,000 students ina high middle school -- the. equivalent of high ...school in the U.S. -- in Han Yang near Hankow. )
The. leadership became frightened at such a possibility and immediately discontinued the movement -- in the middle of June -- . and vigorously counterattacked all its criticizers. The left revolutionary elements were ruthlessly suppressed under the blanket charge of being "rightists." Thousands upon thousands were forced to recant, were suspended from their posts, placed under surveillance and even arrested and-sent to labor camps. Many party and youth organization members, besides suffering expulsion, were fired from their jobs, |. dismissed from school, placed under surveillance or arrested, etc. Teng To was removed from editorship of the People's Daily.
The opposition was accused of being headed by rightist elements, representatives of the bourgeoisie and large landlords, etc., the charges being similar to those leveled by the CCP at the present time against victims of the purge. However, close examination of some of the facts that have slowly sifted. out since, shows that this accusation does not seem to have been justified in many cases. For : example, in Red Flag (Hung Chi or Hunggi), the ideological journal of the CCP's Central Committee, it was reported: Teng To "vigorously supported the rightists avbacking the party. The extreme rightist
(3) During the rise of the "lossom and contend" movement, Liu Shao: Chiu, chief of state, the second leader of the CCP, openly admitted: "There is serious bureaucracy...mass criticism is spreading to every corner of China, including factories, farms, schools and other organizations. The target of criticism is the leadership." (Speech at the reception party given to-representatives of the LSSP of Ceylon visiting China. People's Daily, May 19, 1957.)
Lin Hsi Ling was his most intimate friend."(4) But if anything, Lin Hsi Ling, a student movement leader and member of the CCP youth organization, reflected in her writings, the revolutionary tendency of this movement. Lin Hsi Ling, who was purged in 1957, had written that. "the present upper strata of China does not correspond with the property system of common ownership" because "the party and state apparatus has become a set of bureaucratic organs ruling people without democracy..." Therefore , she proclaimed "not reform but a thoroughgoing change."(5) ; .
. The statement in Red Flag about Lin Hsi Ling also sheds light upon the political thinking of Teng To. Since she was identified as being so close to Teng To, one can probably surmise that their political positions were not much different. Also in speaking of Teng To, she said that he was not an orthodox Marxist. In other words, Teng To did not agree with everything the’ infallible Mao Tse-tung said, or rather, Teng To was not a Maoist. Marxist. (6)
In 1958 after the crushing of the “Dlossom and contend" movement, the CCP adopted an adventuristic policy in order to rationalize its forceful suppression of the so-called rightist opposition. Around May the Central Committee of the CCP adopted the slogan, "A Big Leap Forward." Under this slogan a program was initiated to make steel in small backyard furnaces. Around 100 million people were mobilized to carry out this program. Almost all students as well as professors, workers, peasants and even housewives had to make steel. This program lasted about one year -- June 1958 to July 1959. te
A little later, in August 1958, Mao gave the order that every peasant must enter the People's Communes as fast as possible. Three months later 99 percent of the peasants were in the People's Communes. The CCP ordered the privately owned land, stored grain, animals, etc., to be turned over to the communes; all peasants were to eat in the commune's kitchens; the children must attend the com-
(4)Red Flag, seventh issue of 1966, "A Criticism of the Bourgeois Position Taken by the Frontline and the Peking Daily."
(5)Tai Haung, another example, was a reporter for Hsinhua and a member of the CCP. He proposed to build’ a new party and "to realize democracy ,: freedom and the eradication of a privileged class. (6) An example of: what is meant by orthodox Marxism in China is to be found in the June 10, 1966, issue of the Peking Review (p. 4) which quotes an editorial carried by the People's Daily, June 4, 1966.’."No one who dares to oppose Chairman Mao, to oppose Mao Tse~ tung's thought, to oppose the Central Committee of the Party, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist system can escape denunciation by the whole Party and the whole nation, whoever he may be, whatever high position he mayhold and however much of a veteran he may be. The only possible result is the total loss of his standing and reputation. we
mune's nurseries, etc. This policy was designed to communalize all the peasants within a five-year period.
The “peasants were “given no choice in the matter. They were forced to join and to give-up all their holdings to the commune. This resulted in wide. dissatisfaction among the peasants. At least one-half of the peasants. -~ there were approximately 500 million at the time -- were. against. such measures and opposed the communes | actively by committing acts of sabotage,.such as killing their animals, cutting down fruit trees or destroying crops. This precipitated a tremendous. scarcity. of. monstaple foods, and the situation became very serious: in the summer of 1959. At: the same: time the failure of _ the backyard steel-making program became clear -- three million tons of steel had been. made,» but little of it met minimum standards © in quality. .
The. panicruptey of. these two. policies which had been ‘bureaucratically imposed by.Mao and the top leadership of the CCP: became quite evident to everyone, and mounting ‘dissatisfaction was: very apparent, among the..masses. They referred to Mao and his policies as "petty bourgeois fanaticism." This dissatisfaction made “inroads into the cadres of the CCP. Many top leaders in the Central Committee, the army and government..administration were also in sympathy with the masses. Among the leaders voicing dissatisfaction was Peng Teh Huai, ‘minister of defense. (7)
As early as the spring of 1959 he criticized the policies of the party; i.e., he criticized Mao Tse-tung. This precipitated a crisis inside the party. The Central Committee along with Mao called ' a plenum in August 1959 to. deal with ‘it. This meeting became known as the Lushan conference. - .
At the plenum - a serious dispute took place among the top ‘leaders. Although the actual proceedings. have never been released, two important measures were adopted: (1) Peng Teh Huai was relieved of his position along with Wuang Keh Cheng, chief of staff of the army, and many other members of the Central Committee also disappeared. (8) (2) A resolution was passed which made certain concessions to the peasants ; i.e., the people's communes would be reorganized. (9)
ee (7)Peng - Teh Huai was a sergeant-major in the army of the Kuomintang. At the énd of 1927 - ‘he led his troops over to join Mao Tse-tung. He was commander in chief of the Chinese forces in the Korean war after which he became minister of defense until 1959.
(8)Peng Teh Huai disappeared from public view and has not been seen Since. His name, however, still appears on the list of the Politburo, but this is only a formality, since only a party congress has the power to remove someone from the Politburo and the CCP hasn't held a congress since 1958. © (9)For information on the reorganization of ‘the communes see Peking Review, September 1, 1959.
A short while after the plenum, Teng To formed a small group. His closest collaborator in the group was Wu Han, a leading histori- — an and vice mayor of the municipal government. In June 1959, before the plenum, he had written an article called "Hai Jui Scolds’ the Emperor." Hai Jui was governor of Nanking under the Ming dynasty. (Peking was the capital.) The emperor was a bad one,:-unjust to the people, so Hai Jui sent him a letter criticizing him. Wu Han used this. historical analogy to describe the present situation; i.e. "Peng Teh Huai Scolds Mao Tse- tung."
After the plenum Wu Han wrote a drama callea "Hai Jui- Dis- — missed from Office." When Hai Jui was governor he carried out a few © token reforms. One of theSe was a small land reform in which he. took. some unjustly acquired land from the big landowners and returned it — to the small peasants from whom it had been taken. The big landowners became furious and complained bitterly to the emperor who promptly dismissed Hai Jui from his governorship. The people were very angered at this turn of events. Hai Jui was very popular, becoming known as the honest official. Here too, Wu Han utilized the historical analogy to describe and criticize the present situation; i.e. "Peng Teh Huai Dismissed from Office."
; The drama ° ‘was openly published in January 1961 in the Peking daily papers; and afterwards it was performed on the stage in Peking. It received an exceptionally enthusiastic reception from the people and many critics gave at high praise.
The third closest collaborator in the secret group organized by Teng To was Liao Mo-sha, head of the United Front Work Department in the Peking municipal CP. He along with Wu Han and Teng To -- 1961 © to the end of 1962 -- wrote many articles which appeared in the Peking Daily (Beijing Ribao), Peking Daily Evening (Beijing Wanbao), and Frontline. The Peking Daily and the Pe ‘kin ng Daily Evening, the daily newspapers of the Peking municipal were also controlled by Teng To. Since he was the secretary of the Secretariat in the Peking municipal CP, he had the power to control and direct all the i cultural institutions of the city, including the newspapers.
Some of these articles were published under the titles, "Notes from Three-Family Village" and "Evening Talks at Yenshan." Later they were published in book form under the same titles. The authors used ~ old fables, parables, historical analogies, satire, etc., in their articles to criticize the leadership , its program and the situation at the time.
Teng To, for example, wrote an article which included a poem that was supposed to have been written by a small boy:
The Heaven is my Father,
The Earth is my Mother,
The Sun is my Nurse,
‘The East Wind is my Benefactor,
The West Wind is my Enemy.
Teng To criticized the poem saying that it was only hot air -- "great empty talk." This was an indirect criticism of Mao's famous slogan: "he East wind prevails. over the West wind."
Teng To wrote in one article, "The wisdom of man is not unlinited. If anyone should want to know everything and possess unlimited wisdom, he would be a fool. People who think of themselves as being omniscient, despise the masses" and "attempt to win victory by devious means. Such people, if they do not correct their faults, will be defeated in the end." The passage refers to Mao; i.e., Mao is foolish for acting as though he were infallible and using bureaucratic ‘means to-maintain his power, because in the end he is going to be defeated if he doesn't change.
In another article entitled "Special Treatment for ‘Amnesia he accused the leadership of suffering from "amnesia," because they "quickly forget what they have seen and said...go back on their own word, fail to keep faith..." He then prescribes that the leadership should "say less and take a-rest when time comes for talking."
"Speak Big Words" was the title of another article in which he says that big words are not always useful and can even be damaging. In the essay, "The Theory of Treasuring Labor Power," he accuses the leadership of wasting the people's time and labor power -- "we should...take care to do more in every way to treasure our labor power." Both of these were indirect references to the "Big Leap Forward," i.e., the program has been a failure and even harmful and wasteful. oe
Teng To wrote another article entitled "Cheng ‘Pang-chao and .- His Style" in which he quoted this famous artist, who said that one must become a master and not a servant. In other words, the people must control the leaders of the revolution and not just become ‘the servants or slaves of the Maoist bureaucracy. (10) as
“There were around 150 such articles written by Teng To ‘and the group around him, all of which were indirect criticisms of the policies handed down by Mao and the top leadership. These articles | also reflected criticisms.coming from the masses. In 1961-1962 the economic situation in China had become serious: food was scarce and during the summer of 1962 alone more than 100,000 persons fled to Hong Kong. (10)See the Daily Light (Kwangming Jih Pay November 21, 1963. For
more on the writings of Teng To and his criticisms (in English) see: Peking Review, May 27, 1966 (No. 22) "On 'Three-Family Village'" by Yao Wen-Yuan. This article was one of the main attacks directed against the opposition, published May 10, 1966, in Shanghai's Liberation Daily. An article written by the same author, Yeo Wen-Yuan, an editor of cat tor of geponation Army Daily (see footnote No. 18), published in November 19 which attacked Wu Han and his drama, was criticized by, Teng To -- "720 Wen-Yuan's article is not completely right and Wu.
Han is not completely wrong." (People's Daily, May.12, 1966). .
~10~ - -
At the end of 1962 the economic situation started to improve to a certain degree, so the leadership -- feeling more secure -adopted stronger measures to better control the peasants. Measures were also taken in order to control the intellectuals and students --. many were sent to the countryside to work and be "reeducated." ,
In’ face of the more and more aggressive policy of the CCP leadership, which included blocking publication of their articles, Teng To and his group started’ to retreat. |
In November 1965, in an article published in the Wen Huai Dail and then in the People's Daily and many other papers, the CCP for the first time openly criticized Wu Han's drama "Hai Jui Dismissed from Office."
After that the campaign against Wu Han's "Hai Jui Dismissed" spread throughout the country. Every day the People's Daily, and especially the Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Pao) plus many other papers all over China carried articles criticizing Wu Han.
Between November 1965 and April 1966, however, there were a few writers mainly in Peking and Shanghai who wrote articles defending him. Wu Han also wrote an article -- while admitting he had made some mistakes in the drama -- defending himself and his work.
However, Since April the situation has changed radically in many ways: (1) Up to then Wu Han was said to have only made some mistakes and to be revisionist in his thinking. Now he is accused of being antisocialist, antiparty and even counterrevolutionary -- supporting the bourgeoisie and trying to restore capitalism.(11) (2) The papers stopped publishing articles by Wu Han and his supporters. ey More and more people came under attack and Teng To was made the central target. As a result, parts of "Notes from Three-Family Village" and "Evening Talks at Yenshan" were published in the People's Daily with commentary as proof of his counterrevolutionary objec- —
(11)Red: Flag "asked why they [the Peking papers] had never mentioned that Professor Wu ‘is willing to be a slave of the U.S. and is ilty of scheming and planning for the reactionary Kuomintang Chinese Nationalist) clique?'" Red Flag as quoted by the New York Times, May 17, 1966.
"A revolution was under way which was ‘sweeping away the representatives of the bourgeoisie who have wormed their way into the party, monsters of all kinds and all various forms of decadent bourgeois, and feudal ideology.'" Red Flag quoted in the International Edition of the New York Times, June 143, 1966.
"The representatives of the bourgeoisie, infiltrated into the party, seem to be. a colossus, but in fact, like all reactionaries they are nothing more tian paper tigers." Red Flag quoted in Le Monde, June 1/4, 1966. So ~~
-~ll-
tives.(12) (4) The newspapers and the journals edited and controlled by Teng To and his group came under attack from such publications as the Peking Daily, Peking Daily Evening (or Peking Evening News), Frontline,.and, beginning in May, Peking Literature and Art Beijing Wenyi), Kweichow Daily and the Yunnan Daily. (5) High party officials like Peng Chen, the mayor of Peking, became targets.
_ Since the beginning of the Sino-Soviet dispute, around 1960, the CCP has not only criticized the revisionism of Khrushchev, but also his repudiation of Stalinism at the twentieth congress of the CPSU. Since then they have carried on a systematic campaign to establish a worldwide cult of Mao Tse-tung similar to that of Stalin's. Since last November this campaign has..been greatly stepped up. For example, the People's Daily, a six-page paper, now devotes an aver-. age of four pages daily to this task. Each day a slogan such as: "One must study the thinking of Mao Tse-tung and raise higher the red banner of Mao's thought," "The people must study Mao's books, hear his words and work according to his instructions" or "Mao's thought is the beacon of revolution for the world's people" appears | on the front page. In other words, Mao's thought has. become a panacea and his writings a bible. A typical example of the articles is one in the May 16, 1966, issue. A musical concert that took place in Shang-. hai is reported. In conjunction an article describes how Mao's thought influenced the concert.(13)
A similar article was sent in by a cook. After a satisfied customer asked him how he cooked so well, he sat down and wrote an article explaining the secret of his success -- he used Mao's method.
In the University of Peking an 1 English teacher told his class that in order to learn English, they must use Mao's method. (Mao. knows no foreign language except a few words of English. ) Such stories are not the exception but the rule. (14)
The attempt to establish the cult of Mao is connected with the present purge. Because of Mao's many mistakes, his standing is low among the intellectuals. It is understandable why they are opposed to deifying him. They favor an intelligent and fruitful discussion of the problems which continue to haunt China and her development.
The increasing difficulties and failures of Mao's foreign policy have. also undoubtedly played a great role in the present purge if nothing more than in its timing and fierceness.
(12)See People's Daily, May 9 and May ll, 1966.
(13)For the English version of this article see: Peking Review, May 27, 1966 (No. 22) p. 18. — (14)For information on how Mao Tse-tung's teaching "On Contradiction"... can lead to higher sales of watermelons, see Hsinhua, May 19, 1966.
The disastrous role of Moscow's opportunism is undeniable. However, the extremely sectarian position taken by Peking in reject-' © ing a united front. against U.S. imperialism:-- especially in regard to the Vietnam war -- has not only weakened the struggle against imperialism, but has heightened the danger of an attack on ‘China herself and increased the possibilities of a nuclear. war.
This sectarian position has also led to the increasing isolation of China in the socialist world. Many of the workers states. - © that leaned towards China at the beginning of the dispute, such. as: Korea and Vietnam,: are now leaning more toward Moscow. Also the defeats suffered by the colonial revolution and the failure of) “ Chinese: diplomacy.in the "third world" have led to increased isola~:: tion for China and: to the demoralization of Peking's followers all’ over the world. 2
The = ertishing of the Communist party in Indonesia [PKI](15) with hardly a fight, stands out as one of the greatest.defeats and os tragedies for China. D.N.Aidit, whose policies were almost identical ~~ to. those followed by the Khrushchevists, spoke many times in China; his books were translated into Chinese and he was highly praised by the leadership of. the CCP who held up the PKI as a model Communist | party, and one to be emulated by the other Communist parties in the © world. In other words, the responsibility for the tragedy of the PKI and the Aidit leadership falls directly on the CCP, and especially on Mao.
Because of such events, the people and especially the intellectuals placed an even bigger question mark over Mao's leadership. The intellectuals, such as Teng To and his group, who were already voicing doubts, base their opposition around three main points: (1) They are against the bureaucracy and its arbitrariness and want more freedom of thought, criticism, etc. In other words, they want a program such as the "blossom and contend" movement to be the norn. (2 They are against the adventurism of the CCP with its prograns like the "Big Leap Forward" and its wasting of the people's labor in such things as the backyard steel~making, forced collectivization of the peasants into the People's Communes which they claim has not been successful but has even been damaging. (3) They oppose the idea that Mao is omniscient and infallible, and they are against making a cult of his personality.
‘From Mao! Ss point of view the opposition of the intellectuals to his regime is intolerable and must be ended. The present situation reminds Mao and the leadership too much of the Hungarian Revolution (1956)-as' can be seen from their references to the "literary men of the Petofi Club who acted as the shock brigade in the Hungarian
(15)This was the largest Communist party in the capitalist world. It had a membership of three million and more than ten million sympathizers.’ To date between 250,000 and 500,000 have been slaughtered. : BEE
Prat,
events. The turbulent wind precedes the mountain storm. "(16) But Mao does not. even want the wind to blow let alone allow it to get turbulent. He has not only. attacked those intellectuals and party | leaders who looked, upon the gentle breeze as a breath of fresh air but even those who only. tolerated it. . a
At the beginning ‘of May, the leadership of the CCP raised. ‘the general slogans: - "Big Leap Forward in the Ideological Field" and...” "The Great Revolution of Socialist Culture" in order to ‘eliminate ” the "poisonous weeds" of the "bourgeoisie" and "feudalists," i.e. to eliminate.all differing tendencies and elements. However, in order to carry... “out the purge, Mao has mainly utilized the army y. . because even .the. party cannot be trusted to any great extent as the Peking municipal ‘party so well demonstrates.
In March 1966 Lin Pao, minister of defense,(17) gave instruc- ~ tions to, the army that it must take a strong position against the os "antiparty and antisocialist" tendency. The army cadres were mobilized for the campaign, and since then, -the most vicious articles a" attacking the opposition have come from. “the viberation. Army Daily oe (Jiefangjun Pao)(18) which has already gone So far as to suggest the | physical. elimination of the opposition.
The campaign has been carried on to create an atmosphere of terror in order to stifle criticism from the intellectuals and to assure maintenance of control over the masses who feel likewise. They publish continual reminders of what happened to those who dared criticize the party during the "blossom and contend" movement. "Your fate cannot be better than that of your forerunners and brothers-in-crime!" "Your days are numbered."
Nor is this intimidation directed only against the intellec-
(16) Quoted from “the. Peo le's Daily in the Peking Review, June 10, 1966 (No. 24), p. 9, Great Revolution that Touches the People to Their Very Souls.
For a short explanation of the Petofi Club (Circle) see: World Outlook, Vol. 4, No. 18 (June 3, 1966), p. 4-12, "The Internal Struggle in Peking" by George Novack.
(17) Lin. Pao, minister of defense , and Teng Sha-peng, general secretary of the party, seem to be much closer to Mao now because of their positions and their importance in carrying out the purge. They are _ probably. the two most likely figures right now in the line of suc- — cession to Mao as party chairman. ce
(18)Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Pao or Chiefang Chun Pao), the official army newspaper, is the chief organ used in attacking | the opposition. The Daily Light (Kwangming Jih Pao), a newspaper for intellectuals, The People's Daily (Jenmin Jih Pao), the principal party newspaper, and The Red Fla ag (Hung Chi or Hongqi), the ideological journal of the party's Central » Committee , are among others that have followed close behind.
tuals in Peking or the upper echelons. It involves intellectuals in every field along with officials and cadres in the party and government at all levels and all over China. (It is also safe to assume © that each of the prominent figures who have been attacked represents. a larger group.(19) From all appearances, however, they seem to be © very loosely and poorly organized). While at first, there may only be slanderous attacks in the press plus removal from posts, it is most likely that arrests with long prison terms will follow or possibly worse in some cases.
The fierce action taken by the party against those who dared to question Mao's infallibility and criticize the policies of the | party leadership, set the stage in which Kuo Mo-jo, China's most noted scholar, made his speech of self-criticism in order to protect himself from the onslaught. (20)
(19)Peng mentioned two other well-known figures who have been de- nounced whom I failed to include in the above text. One is the very famous playwright Tien Han, chairman of the National Association of Drama. He also wrote a drama like Wu Han's which came under fire last February. The second is the famous historian Chien Po-tsan who has been a professor in many of the universities in Shanghai and , head of the history department at Peking University.
Others not mentioned in the above article who have been denounced or purged include: Chou Hsingfang, a famous actor and head of the Shanghai Opera company; Iu Ping, Secretary of the Peking University party committee, and his deputy secretary, Peng Pei-~Yung (or Peng Pei-yun); Sung Shi, a member of the Peking University party committee; Li Chi, a director in the party's Peking municipal branch; Hsia Yen, noted playwright who was vice-minister of culture from 1954 to last year; Wang Hsiao-chuan, the Kweichow provincial party committee's propaganda chief and editor of the Kweichow Daily; Li Meng-wei, editor of the Yunnan Daily in the Yunnan province; Fan Chin, a woman who is director of the Peking Daily and vice-chairman ~ of the All-China Journalists' Association. |
(20)The speech was made April 14, 1966, to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of which he is a vice-chairman. (See Hsinhua, May 7, 1966). a
Kuo Mo-jo was born in 1892 in the province of Szechwan. He joined the CCP in 1927. After the defeat of the revolution of 1925- 27, he left the party. and fled to Japan, where he spent the next ten years in exile writing several histories. During the war against Japan (1937-45) he played a role in organizing the Chinese people to struggle against the occupation forces. It was during this time that he wrote By the Moonlight and The Wave (1941 and 1942). He has also translated many works into Chinese, notably War and Peace by Tolstoy and Faust by Goethe. In 1959 he was given the Stalin Peace Prize. He rejoined the CCP only about three or four years ago. How- — ever, he holds many important positions in China. He is president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Workers, chairman of the China Peace Committee and holds more than twenty other official positions.
~The purge of the..opposition,. represented by Teng To and. Wu Han, réfiects a serious contradiction inside the CCP -- a contradiction which developed from the suppression of the "blossom and contend" movement; By suppressing progressive intellectuals and others, Mao:may:be:.able for. the time being to silence the oppositional; mood.but he. cannot..suppress’ the objective conditions which gave rise to it in the. first place. And in the future it will undoubtedly again challenge the bureaucracy. As Teng To put it, "People who think of themselves as being omniscient, despise the masses" and "attempt..to.win-victory.by devious means. Such people...will be defeated -in- bhe- end. Mos
The. victory, however, will not be scored by reaction or by: the procapitalists | who are undoubtedly to be found in the adminis= tration, and in very high posts at--that. The victory will be won by those seeking proletarian democracy based:on the conquests of the: revolution: That victory will reinforce those conquests and assure: China a genuine big leap forward, not: only. at home but internationally.
RUSK