‘Gang of Four' blamed for 1967 embassy blaze

Press, 6 March 1978, Page 8

‘Gang of Four' blamed for 1967 embassy blaze

[NZPA-Reuter Peking I The Chinese Foreign Minisi try has blamed the “Gang of i Four” extremist leaders (headed by Mao Tse-Tung’s ‘ widow, Chiang Ching, for the j 1967 burning of the British 'diplomatic mission in Peking i during the Cultural Revolur tion. In a long article carried by r the New China News Agency t commemorating the eightieth ’ anniversary of the birth of ’ the late Prime Minister, Chou ’!En-lai. The Ministry said that ’ j the “Gang of Four” and the I late Defence Minister, Lin . jPiao, had tried to “sabotage _ | China's .oreign affairs in j I their conspiracy to usurp J party and State power.” f Internationally, the article I said, they hit out in all'direct tions to antagonise every- , one and even engineered the , wrecking and burning of a , foreign diplomatic mission in j Peking. The British mission was f gutted and British diplomats > manhandled on August 22. > 1967, apparently in retaliaI tion for the action by I authorities in Hong Kong to

ban three Communist papers and detain a number of people after disturbances connected with the Cultural Revolution in the Crown colony. Decorations in memory of Chou, who died in January, 1976, wero placed around the base of the party’s monument in Peking’s central Square of Heavenly Peace yesterday. The four were purged in October, 1976, as the climax of a power struggle after Mao Tse-Tung’s death the previous month. Lin Piao was reported to have died in an air crash while fleeing the country after a power struggle in 1971. The Chinese Parliament, the National People’s Congress, appears to be close to the end of its week-long session. The N.P.C., holding its first meeting in three years, has spent three days discussing Constitutional revisions and now seems ready to move on to the final item on the agenda, the election of state officers, and approving new words for the national anthem.