Public Confessions By Chinese Rightists

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28329, 15 July 1957, Page 11

Public Confessions By Chinese Rightists

(Rec. 10 p.m.) PEKING, July 13. The first public confession by a Chinese rightist was made before the National People’s Congress today. The Rightists have been accused of attacking the Communist Party and casting doubts on the superiority of socialism. Three Ministers have so fay been named as Rightists. Two of them, the Minister of Communication (Mr Chang Po-chun) and the Minister for the Timber Industry (Mr Lo Po-chi) have made partial confessions at closed committee meetings, but the third Minister named as a Rightist, the Food Minister (Mr Chung Nai-chi) has so far refused to recant. Today’s public confession w’as made by the fourth leading Rightist named. He is the re-cently-dismissed editor-in-chief of the “Kwangming Daily,” Mr Chu An-pin. He told the Congress in a wavering voice that he confessed all his faults. “I apologise to the peopre and surrender to the people, «nd I thank the Communist Party for saving me from making further errors,” he said. He laid the. blame for-Lhis actions at the doors of Messrs Chang and Lo.-He added: “I promise to accept more honestly the leadership of the Communist Party hereafter and to take the course of socialism more seriously.” Mr Chu said he had published many ill-intentioned, one-sided and destructive reports during his two months as editor and had sent out reporters to nine cities deliberately to stir up disturbances. “False Stories” He published false stories'about the Communist Party withdrawing from Futan University in Shanghai, using the “fabrications” created by Messrs Chang and Lo, and thus turned the “Kwangming Daily,” organ of the non-Com-munist parties, away from the socialist road. His. efforts, under the leadership of Messrs Chang and Lo, hid been to use the paper to attack the

Communist Party, and weaken its prestige and leadership among the people. He had branded the Communist Party az a “monopoly of the State by the past” and a “sectarian organisction.”

Another Rightist who confessed later today, Mr Wang Msi-chang, a vice-chairman of the Peasants and Workers* Party, broke down and cried as he addressed the congress. Sobbing loudly and blowing his nose lustily with a large blue handkerchief, he ended: “Long live the unity of all Chinese. Long live the Communist Party.” Each Rightist speaker was met with stony silence, but at the end of their confessions they were greeted with a little applause. . Delegates also received a written confession from the former war lord, Mr Lung Yun, who admitted having oppressed people when he was Governor of Yunan during the Kuomintang rule. He said he was sorry to have attacked the Soviet Union and made other errors. He asked for any punishment he deserved. Observers thought the Communists and the Government would accept the self-criticisms made before the congress, with their promises of reform and education. Should today’s lesser lights be followed on Monday by the three Ministers, it is thought quite possible that the whole campaign may gradually die away in bitterness. Rightists in Party The Communist Party “People’s Daily” M today revealed that there were Rightists within the party itself. The article attacked a party member, Mr Teng Yen-hsiu, a vice-manager of the People’s Publishing House, who had accused the party of being divorced from the masses and had said that its reputation was falling lower and lower. Mr Tang had “slandered”, the party’s propaganda department and the Ministry of Culture and had made “anti-Soviet discourses,” it said.