... but they don’t always tell the whole truth

Press, 28 October 1977, Page 13

... but they don’t always tell the whole truth

Those who believe one picture is worth 1000 words — as the old saying has it — should take a second look at the picture, particularly if it comes out of Communist China, claims the Taiwanbased Chung Hwa News Syndicate. It is well-known that the Red Chinese are experts at deceptive propaganda and mass-communication manoeuvres. Now, it develops, the deceptive methods include the use of dark-room techniques by which they both "create something out of nothing,” and change, erase, or doctor pictures. This trickery was exposed by a Hong Kong pictorial, the “Ups and Downs of Red Empire,” published recently by the Continent Press. It cited three cases, each with supporting photographs:

Case one: “The twoheaded woman-man.” The head of Mo Tze-chen, Mao Tse-tung’s third wife, was replaced by that of Lin Piao.

A photograph of Mao Tse-tung and Lin Piao standing side by side was released during the “Cultural revolution” days by the "People’s Pictorial” in the August issue of 1967 to show the intimacy between Mao and the then militarily-powerful Lin.

But it has been proved that the picture was a fabrication created from alteration of an old one taken many years back. Those in the original were Mao Tse-tung and his wife, Ho Tze-chen. Case two: “The vanishing mayor.” Peking Mayor Peng Chen “disappeared” from a picture. Back in 1958, the “People’s Pictorial” printed a picture showing Mao Tse-tung and Peng Chen doing voluntary work at a dam project site near Peking. When the photo was re-

published by the same magazine in its November, 1976 issue, the liquidated Peng Chen had been rubbed out. Case three: “Gang of Four’’ eliminated. “People’s Daily” of September 19, 1976, published a photograph of Chinese Communist leaders participating in a memorial service for Mao Tse-tung on September 18. The participants included, in the first row, Ni Chi-fu, Wu Kuei-hsien, Li Teh-sheng, Hsu Shih-yu, Wang Tunghsing, Chen Hsilien, Yao

Wen-yuan, Sung Chingling, Yeh Chien-ying, Hua Kuo-ieng, Wang Hungwen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching, Li Hsiennien, Chi Teng-kuei, Wu Teh, Wei-kuo-cning, Chen Yung-kuei and Su Chenhua. When the same photograph was republished by the “People’s Pictorial” in November 1976, the purged "gang of four," Chiang Ching, Chang Chun-chiao, Wang Hungwen and Yao Wen-yuan, were out of the picture — literally.