China leans on Chiang faction

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 8

China leans on Chiang faction

By

FOX BUTTERFIELD,

of the “New York Times”

NZPA Hong Kong Large crowds of dancing people carried effigies of Chiang Ching, Mao Tse-tung’s widow, through the streets of Shanghai on Saturday night as indications mounted that China’s new authorities were preparing a major campaign to discredit the leaders of the country's so-called “Leftists.”

Diplomatic sources in Peking reported that more key members of the Left had either lost their jobs or been arrested in the last few days. And at the same time, Army units, including the Peking Garrison, pledged to fight against “intrigues and conspiracies” and “those who practise revisionism and splittism.” Sources in . Shanghai, where the Leftists came to power during the. Cultural Revolution 10 years ago, reported a huge, organised demonstration against Miss Chiang and the three others —Senior Deputy Premier Chiang Chun-Chiao, Wang Hung-wen, and Yao Wenyuan.

The four leaders, all members of the Politburo, were reportedly arrested late last week for either distorting Mao’s directives or plotting against China’s new Communist Party chairman, Hua Kuo-feng. A crowd said to be in the hundreds of thousands carried effigies of Miss Chiang dangling from a hangman’s noose and banners demanding that she be “knocked down.” The sources said that the demonstration went on all day on Saturday around the Shanghai Party headquarters, with mass meetings in factories and neighbourhood courtyards to explain the latest developments to the people.

Other posters criticised local officials in Shanghai associated with the Leftist leaders. Witnesses said at times the crowds were so large it was impossible to drive in downtown Shanghai. The scene was oddly reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, except that this time it was the Leftists who were under attack.

Saturday’s demonstration in Shanghai followed the appearance there on Friday of wall posters denouncing the four leaders as an “antipartv plot group.” Other posters denouncing the four as “dogs” were put up on Friday at Tsinghua and Peking universities in the capital, which for the last decade have also been a stronghold of the Leftists. Although there has still been no official confirmation that the four leaders have actually been arrested, and no explanation of the charges against them, it seemed increasingly certain that they had been swiftly outmanoeuvred, if not totally routed, by Hua and whoever is backing him in the party, and the Army. The sudden turn of events still stunned analysts here, though they had long believed that Miss Chiang and her radical associates were basically unpoular with the majority of Chinese and that they would be badly weakened without the presence of Chairman Mao.

The radicals, a ’ generally younger group of party officials; came to power in the Cultural Revolution because of their backing for Mao’s attacks on veteran power holders in the party and their support for his reforms in education, the economy and the party. Among other things, these barred bonuses and wage rises for workers, required party cadres to spend more time at manual labour, and made millions of city youths settle in the countryside after finishing school. The speed with which Hua and his allies were moving was indicated by fresh reports from Peking of Leftists who had apparently either lost their jobs or been arrested.

These included: the acting Minister of Education, Chou Hung-pao, a Leftist who took over last spring when the Minister, Chou Jung-hsin, was said to have been either fired or committed suicide after prolonged criticism as a Rightist.

Both the Minister and First Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Culture. An Australian delegation of artists and writers visiting Peking was told only five minutes before a banquet they were giving that the Vice-Minister would not attend. His place was taken by an official who had been purged during the Cultural Revolution.

The head of Tsinghau University, Chih Chun, a protege of Miss Chiang, and the leaders of the workerpropaganda team at Tsinghua and Peking Universities, who were active in this year’s anti-Rightist campaign. They were reported to have been arrested in Peking. The acting head of Hsinhua the New China News Agency. The director, a Moderate, was believed to have been purged some time last summer.

Diplomats in Peking also reported that there were more Army troops, police and militiamen on the streets of the capital yesterday. But the city was calm as it has been over the last week.