‘LIN PLANNED COUP’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33516, 23 April 1974, Page 8

‘LIN PLANNED COUP’

| (N’.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright> HONG KONG. China has officially disclosed for the first time plans said to have been drawn up by the disgraced former Minister of Defence (Lin Piao) to overthrow the: Chinese Government by a coup d'etat. The New China News Agency, quoting an article from the influential Chinese journal “Red Flag,” said! yesterday that, the coup was' to have taken place on Sep-! tember 8, 1971. The “Red Flag” accused lollowers of Lin Piao, believed to have died in an aircraft in Mongolia in 1971 I after the failure of his plans,; of having printed pamphlets i in the southern province of | Fukien in preparation for the coup. The journal said three mil- - lion such pamphlets were < printed between January and ! September 1971 and were ■ distributed widely. The pamphlets were “de- ■ signed to prepare public ‘ opinion for Lin Piao's count-1 er-revolutionary armed j d’etat.”

The article also said that a coup d’etat plan was drawn up by Lin at the second plenary session of the' ninth Chinese Communist: Party Congress in 1970, but - it was “smashed by. our great leader, Chairman Mao.” , “Hidden in a dark corner.; -Lin Piao and his sworn folTowers in early 1971 worked out the ’outline of project 571,’ a programme for their counter-revolutionary armed coup d’etat in 1971,” the article said. “Among other things, the 'project called for gaining ; control of the mass media to : istart a political offensive,”] :it said. “At this juncture, they published. through the Fukien Hsinhua (New China) ;book store, pamphlets entitled ‘Lin Piao during the I war to liberate North-east China.” The article said the! 'pamphlets openly lauded LinPiao as a commander, “a: i rare genius and a wise lead>er who has always been correct.” “All this was designed to I shape public opinion for Lin I Piao’s usurping party leadership and State power,” it !added. The article said that the

-publication of the pamphlets' fitted in closely with Lin Piao's planned armed coup d’etat of September 8, 1971.: “This shows that the publication of the pamphlets was, a conspiracy,” it added. I P.M. back in office | (N.Z. Press' Associat ion > WELLINGTON, April 22. ■ The Prime Minister (Mr IKirk) was back in his office i today—not at his desk, but reclining on a couch. A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said Mr Kirk was “signing letters and taking things easy” on his first day back after entering Wellington Hospital on April 9 for a varicose veins operation. But 'the Prime Minister will not be back officially i until May 1. No appointments are being made for him until then. The spokesman said Mr Kirk had been advised by his doctor to walk a short distance each day, and coming to his office was one! way of taking this exercise. I