China may recall Teng

Press, 14 March 1977, Page 8

China may recall Teng

[ NZPA Hong Kong A Hong Kong newspaper reported on Saturday that | wall posters had appeared in Canton announcing the ap-' I pointment of Teng Hsiao- [ ping, the former Deputy Prime Minister, as a deputy; 1 chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Prime | Minister. The report, printed in| [ “Ming Pao,” an independent , and often well informed [, Chinese-language daily, could] '[not be confirmed. But it I I coincided with other signs 1 -and statements by Chinese] • I officials in the last few days ] ■[that the talented if abrasive] 'Teng, aged 73, might soon! ' be rehabilitated. I He was dismissed from! s the post of Deputy Prime] > Minister as a so-called] i Rightist in April 7 last year,* T after 100,000 people held a -day-long demonstration in* 1 - Peking to honour the latet (premier Chou En lai. j

Since then, four senior “radical” members of the Communist Party Politburo, including Chiang Ching.

chairman Mao Tje-tung’ widow, have been blame for precipitating that in cident. Before his ousting last year, Teng was a deput; chairman of the party anwas expected to becomi P.M. when Chou En-lai died Because he had also bee. toppled earlier, during t‘ Cultural Revolution of th' 19605, Teng has become a important symbolic figure t< many Chinese, who associao him with the pragmatic pol icies of orderly government and planned economic growth advocated by Chou The new regime may nov feel the need to use Teng’s proven ability as a toupri administrator. In Peking the “PeopleDaily,” has reported serious energy, food and industrial problems in China with unrprecedented frankness, as • the Government launches a i, two-pronged campaign to .boost the ailing economy.