Consolidation Expected In China

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31784, 14 September 1968, Page 21

Consolidation Expected In China

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HONG KONG, Sept. 11. Speeches in Peking by the Prime Minister (Mr Chou En-lai) and Chiang Ching, the wife of Chairman Mao Tsetung, have provided new indications that consolidation rather than revolution will be the main emphasis of the rulers of China, according to Tillman Durbin, of the New York Times News Service.

The speeches were delivered at a rally on Saturday, reportedly attended by 100,000 people, held to celebrate the completion of a new governing structure of revolutionary committees for the 29 provinces and special municipalities of the country. The structure was fully fleshed out last week when committees were formed for the Central Asian territories of Sinkiang and Tibet. Revolutionary committees are an outgrowth of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, whereby the Chinese Communist Party Chairman, Mao Tse-tung has sought to purge revisionist leaders and influences and renovate the Communist system in China. An account of the Peking rally together with the text of Chou’s and Miss Chiang’s speeches were relayed to Hong Kong yesterday by Hsinhua, the Chinese Communist press agency, with no explanation of why the account was four days late. Speaking from, a rostrum that included other leaders of the Peking regime, Mr Chou said the Cultural Revolution •had “smashed the plot of the

handful of top party persons in authority taking the capitalist road.” He called for continued struggle against enemies at home and abroad who would “not take their defeat lying down.” He outlined the main future tasks as further purging of all institutions and governing organs of opposition ideas and individual, sitnplying administrative structures, integrating students and other intellectuals with workers and peasants and, with workers, peasants and soldiers in the leadership role, carrying through political rectification and organisational reform in schools and all other enterprises, undertakings and institutions not yet reformed in ideology and structure. Alluding to Chairman Mao's recent declaration saying that workers, peasants and soliders, rather than intellectuals, should exercise leadership, Mr Chou called on young people and all other “surplus people” not needed in simplified administrative bodies to “go to grassroots levels, the masses and production, settle in the mountainous areas and the countryside and take part in physical work in factories, mines and villages.” Miss Chiang’s speech seemed filled with emotion and dealt with the Red Guards, whom Mr Chou failed to mention by name. Miss Chiang paid tribute to the “tremendous contributions” made by the Red Guards at the initial and middle stages of the Cultural Revolution. She admitted “a small number” had committed mistakes and said: “It is quite ridiculous for them to clash with each other in a few units.”

Miss Chiang stated, however, that “being the leading class, the working class, should do well to protect the young Red Guard fighters, help them and educate them.” The speech by Miss Chiang, who has been a leader of the

Red Guards, seemed intended to be an apologia and a solace for the Guards, who performed a vanguard role in the shattering of the old structure and the old leadership in China in the earlier phases of the cultural revolution but who have now been relegated, along with all intellectuals, to a secondary status in the present consolidation phase.

Red Guards have been condemned for their lawlessness and factionalism.

Miss Chiang’s address reflected the fact, indicated by reports reaching Hong Kong, that there has been widespread bitterness among Red Guards over the way they and

older students in general have now been shunted aside, most of them being destined to have no future except as peasants and labourers. Her urging that Red Guards be well treated seemed designed as a caution against reprisals now reportedly being taken by sections of the population against Red Guards who formerly persecuted groups and individuals and caused chaotic conditions with impunity. Significant in Mr Chou’s speech was his failure to say anything about positive future plans for the Communist Party now that the revolutionary committee structure is complete.