Hua may wish he’d stayed in Hunan

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 7

Hua may wish he’d stayed in Hunan

Bv

JOHN RODERICK,

of Associated Press, through NZPA

By JOHN RODERICK, OF | Associated Press Peking i Hua Kuo-feng jumped from a little pond to a big | one seven years ago and now may have the uncomfortable ’ feeling he is not wanted. He made the leap into the ; big pond shortly after the I 1966-69 Cultural Revolution with the help of the biggest fish of all. Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The little pond he was in was Mao’s birthplace, Hunan province. He caught Mao’s eye with an outstanding performance in agricultural work there, was sent to;] Peking to investigate the re-i( ported defection and death, of the Defence Minister, Lin|; Piao, in 1971, was named I, Securitv Minister, and by I; 1976 was up to his neck in' power politics. When Mao died in Sep-; tember of that year, it look-! ed as if the party’s radicals; would get Mao’s widow,; Chiang Ching, named to suc-l |-ceed him as party chairman,; I China’s highest post. The I party moderates could not! swallow that, so they got! ibehind Mr Hua instead. The! I radicals, including Mrs Mao, | [were arrested. Mr Hua’s ace was a quo-; 1 tation attributed to Mao:; “With you in charge I feel; at ease?’ But two years after as-1 suming the Premiership as’ well as the party chairtnani ship, the 57-year-old Mr; ' Hua’s credentials are being ;questioned. The man behind; ■ the questioning is the ener- [ getic. 74-year-old Senior I Vice-Premier. Mr Teng j 'Hsiao-ping. If he had been [available, the moderates; 'probably would have chosen him Premier and possi-'

Ibly might have made him (Chairman. He was a veteran of the I Long March in the 19305, [one of the top six men of [Red China for the last 40 [years, and an old friend of I Premier Chou En-lai. But; [when Mao made the deci- ' sions, Mr Teng was broken. iand disgraced, a victim of ithe radicals. [ Mr Hua is shrewd, competent, intelligent, and occasionally humorous. Mr [Teng is a stubborn, per- ' sistent, clear-thinking man i [ unaccustomed to admitting ; defeat. He also is witty and loves to play bridge. [ A peppery old Szechuan;ese, Mr Teng once said it '[did not matter if the cat !was white or black as long ■'as it caught mice. This prag- '! matism is characteristic of •, the way he is overseeing an- '; other of those giant econI omic efforts undertaken Lrepeatediy since the 1949 ■' Communist conquest. This ■ [ one is a great industrial leap ;[ forward intended to put the i most populous of nations >[ into the front ranks. Mr Teng is Senior Vice • 1 Premier, Second Vice-Chair*

man of the Party Central! Committee, Vice-Chairman; of the Military Affairs Com- i mission, and Chief of the' Army’s General Staff. Before! the 1966-69 Cultural Revcflu-: tion he was gsneral-secre-■ tary of the party, next to Mao in power and influence. The radicals did not like ! him because he believed — and said — the heavy! emphasis on ideological in- I doctrination they insisted on | was claptrap. With Mao ; himself opposed to him, Mr i Teng made an object con-1 fession of self-criticism. But I the radicals kicked him out I of all his posts and labelled: him the country’s number! I two traitor, after Liu Shao-1 ! chi. i Mr Teng had a powerful. patron, Premier Chou En-lai. | But it was all Chou could do | to weather the heavy storms ; of the Cultural Revolution j . himself. Once that was over; he was in position to bring; ,Mr Teng back in 1973. But the radicals still were I ‘strong enough to break Mr! . Teng once more, in April, ■ 1976, after Chou died and : : with the consent of an old,: • ailing, and some said dod-1 i! dering Mao. Then after ;I Mao’s death, another old! I friend of Mr Teng, Marshal Yeh Chien-ying, led the I ■ party’s moderate wing to: ti power in October, 1976. The t;arrest of the radicals and; ;! another rehabilitation for Mr ; - Teng followed. f Mr Teng is convinced that -if china is to pull itself up. - it needs not only its own; n but many other bootstraps.! ) Anything standing in the > way of China's advance, is > in his eyes, bad. That, essene tially, is at the bottom of ; his differences with Mr Hua,: who thinks there should be e some heavy doses of in- 1 • ‘ doctrination.