THE “RED GUARDS" CHINA’S YOUNGSTERS UNDER ORDERS TO ’DESTROY THE OLD'

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 10

THE “RED GUARDS" CHINA’S YOUNGSTERS UNDER ORDERS TO ’DESTROY THE OLD'

'By

R. G. HUTCHEON

tn Hong Kongt

(Reprinted from the “Sydney Morning Herald” bu arrangement >

China’s “cultural revolution” has taken a sharp turn for the worse with the emergence of a band of youngsters who wear red arm bands and call themselves the “Red Guard” and who under orders of the Communist Party, are translating the campaign into terms which people at every level can understand.

To begin with the cultural revolution was confined to high officials, intellectuals, film producers, journalists, scholars, professors and university lecturers who despite 17 years of Communist rule had failed to adapt themselves to Mao Tse-tung’s thinking. Many were purged. But since the recent disclosure that Marshal Lin Piao is now heir apparent to Mao. the revolution has begun to affect the ordinary people. At first the Red Guard was active in Peking only—the city which was administered by Pen Chen as Mayor until he was recently purged and replaced together with a number of his top officials But now the Red Guards are active in cities like Shanghai. Tientsin and Canton —all of which had large foreign communities in the years before the Second World War when they were treaty ports, and where foreign influence survives. Students on Holiday The Red Guard is made up of middle school students who are now on summer holidays and they have been given clear instructions on how far to go in destroying the old. traditional and foreign influences that remain in these cities. The Communist authorities have chosen young people for this role because they want to implant revolutionary ideas in the rising generation and turn them into political activists. The Chinese authorities feel that unless

young people are given an| active role in politics they may lose interest. Describing the activities of the Red Guard, the “People’s Daily” said last week “The young Red Guards with Mao Tse-tung’s thought as their weapon are sweeping away the dust of old ideas, culture, customs and habits of all exploiting classes. , “As a rule where the broom does not reach, the dust does not vanish of itself. Tens and thousands of Red Guards have raised the iron broom and made a clean sweep of many names, customs and habits that represent the ideology of the exploiting classes. This is the revolutionary act of destroying the old and building the new. “The revolutionary spirit of the Red Guards will ensure that our country and people are always full of revolutionary youthfulness. This is fine.” Street Names Changed Now the most populous cities of China are discovering how the cultural revolution is to change their lives. The first objectives of the Red Guard were relatively innocuous. In Peking, old street names were torn down and replaced with revolutionary names. The great square in Peking which used to be called Tien An Men or Heavenly Peace is now called ‘after the Chinese revolutionary song “The East is Red." Wang Fu Ching street (The street of the Prince's Well), where the Soviet Embassy is situated, has had its name changed to “Prevent Revisionism street.” In the case of the old Peking Union hospital started by American and British missionaries many years ago. the name has been changed to “Anti-Imperialist Hospital.” From changing street, shop, school and hospital names, the Red Guard turned their attention to youths sporting ■crew-cut hair styles and narrow trousers which have been iinfluenced by pictures in i Western magazines. These ! young people have been stop- ! ped and ordered to change their ways while hairdressers ,and tailors have been forbidden to copy Western styles land fashions. At the same time the Red Guard began moving stone ■and bronze lions —the traditional symbol of strength—from their places outside public buildings in Peking. At the same time the Red (Guards invaded shops and dei manded that goods with foreign brand names be re-j moved from the counter and; be replaced with Chinese names. Beaten in Streets But the most serious reports to come from Peking tell of people with allegedly bourgeois views being publicly beaten up in the streets, while in other cases, the survivors of the old class living in comfort in the major cities have I been visited by the Red Guard in their homes and have been Jorced to watch as their rooms have been ransacked and their possessions thrown out of the window. But the “cultural revolution” has not ended with this. Recently the “Red Guard” were given a new role —the dissolution of the eight non - Communist political i parties which became part ofj the nominal “coalition” whenj the Communists came to power in 1949. These small parties were given a week to dissolve themselves. They have never had any influence in China since the country (turned Communist. In the case of some parties their leaders have been given sec- ■ ondary positions in the 'Chinese Government but with I little responsibility or I authority. These parties joined up with the Communists during the desperate civil war days when the only alternative was dissolution. The American General George C. Marshall tried to persuade the Nation- . alists and Communists to form a coalition Government but

ithis proved fruitless. The 'most influential of the smaller parties to join the Communist coalition was the Democratic League. General Marshall described this group, made up of scholars and intellectuals opposed to Chiang Kai-shek as the “only group in China who understood and wished to implement democratic Government.” Fictional Coalition But the Democratic League was destroyed as a force in Chinese politics before the Communists took over. The Nationalist authorities persecuted its leaders and proscribed the organisation Many of its leaders were driven into exile or assassin ated and the remnant tied to the protection of the Communist Party with a number of other groups. | The Communists at the j outset were anxious to proI mote the fiction that the new government embraced all shades of political opinion except the Nationalists. But in recent years these parties have survived only in name and only on the tolerance of the Communist Government Their disappearance will make no difference to Chinese policies since they never exercised any influence. More ominous than the dissolution of the political parties, however, is the takeover of Christian churches Again the churches enjoyed only limited freedom. The Roman Catholic Church has from the outset had no ties with the Vatican and its bishops were not appointed by Rome but by the Chinese Catholic Church. Although Protestant churches have maintained some contacts with the outside world through visits of church dignitaries such as the late Australian Primate. Dr. H. W. K Mowll, and Hong Kong's Anglican Bishop R. O. Hall, they have been administered locally by Chinese clergymen Since the Communists took over, foreign missionaries have been forced to leave the country and foreign clergymen have been persecuted and some, notably Catholics, have been imprisoned. The churches have survived by giving lip-service to Communist policy. Now, however, in Peking at least, the churches have been taken over by the Red Guard. Religious pictures, images and symbols inside have been replaced by pictures and statues of Mao Tse-tung and the red flag is flying outside. Usefulness Outlived | The Chinese Communists have never regarded the Christian churches as anything more than “peddlers of superstition" and they were only allowed to carry on in the first place because of the social welfare work they did. Now apparently China considers the churches have outlived their usefulness and they have fallen victim to the cultural revolution. All this has been summed up by one Peking newspaper as “a declaration of war on the old world.” How much longer the campaign is to continue and where next it will strike are questions which cannot yet be answered. Another point that puzzles observers in Hong Kong is the coincidence of the emergence of the Red Guard ■and the announcement that I Lin Piao had become Mao s i right-hand man. Is all this I Lin’s doing, and is this a ' sample of the way in which he is going to rule China? If so, there are harsh and bitter times ahead as the full weight of Communist persecution falls on those who have not embraced the thinking of Mao Tse-tung and Lin Piao.