Struggle For Power

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31196, 21 October 1966, Page 11

Struggle For Power

r.V f. Press Assn—Copyright) HONG KONG, Oct. 20. The struggle for power between supporters of the faction headed by Mao Tsetung and Lin Piao and their opponents is mounting to a new dimax, analysts in Hong Kong believe, the “New York Times” news service reports.

In spite of the purges of the last year, the Mao-ists appear to be meeting continuing resistance within the policy-, making councils of the Chin-: ese Communist Party. j A rally of 1.5 million Red Guards in the Chinese capital' on Tuesday signalled a new; effort by Mao and Lin to counter this resistance and resolve, the stalemate it has produced., Mao, chairman of the | party’s Central Committee, and Lin, who has emerged as his chief aide, reviewpd the Red Guards from open cars together with 25 other leaders Their appearance was brief, but they were greeted enthusiastically bv the Red Guards, who had come to Peking from other Chinese cities.

The analysts believe Mao arranged the rally in an attempt to intimidate his opponents and encourage the Red Guards to step up their activities.

It served to demonstrate once again the support the Mao-ist hierarchy can muster from the Red Guard movement, a militant youth organisation established earlier this year. It also served to stimulate the enthusiasm of the Red Guards by providing them with a glimpse of China’s supreme hero, Chairman Mao.

Rallies were held yesterday in Canton and other cities where Mao and Lin command strong official support. Radio Canton, in a broadcast monitored in Hong Kong, said the Red Guards marched through the streets beating drums and gongs and shouting slogans bailing Mao. They pledged to defend the “thought of Chairman Mao” and to carry through to the end the "cultural revolution,’’ Peking’s term for the purge which has already eliminated some of the Mao-ists’ chief opponents. Red Guards, acting in the name of Mao and Lin and the cultural revolution, were set in motion in August to bypass the Communist Party apparatus and terrorise the hierarchy’s political foes into

submission. They concentrated their actvities against provincial party figures. However, they ran into stubborn resistance in some areas where the targets had strong local support. There has been a lull in the more dramatic activities of the Red Guards for several weeks while Mao and Lin apparently j took stock of the situation. The analysts believe the anti-Mao-ist opposition may centre on Liu Shao-chi, the Head of State, who has been dropped from second to eighth place in the party rankings but who still apparently wields considerable influence within the Communist Party. While continuing to glorify Lin Piao and underline his role as heir presumptive to Mao, Peking pointedly ensures that he does not publicly overshadow the party leader. Mao’s authority was strikingly recorded in a newsreel released in Hong Kong yesterday showing an incident that took place before the October 1 rally in Peking where Lin spoke on behalf of Mao. The film showed Mao mak-i ing some alterations to a speech while Lin looked on; gravely and dutifully rather! like a schoolboy who had sub-! mitted a composition for theheadmaster to correct.