Chinese radio tells of murders, woundings

Press, 2 December 1978, Page 6

Chinese radio tells of murders, woundings

NZPA-Reuter Peking A Chinese radio broadcast has reported an incident i during the Cultural Revolu-1 tion of the late 1960 s in which 94 people died and 692 were dis-abled in the I eastern coastal province of| Shantung. 11 The radio station at the; Shantung capital of Tsinan said a rally had been held recently in the coal-mining 1 city of Tsaochuang to vindicate those who took part in the event. It accused Wang Hsiao-yu, then a leading member of' the Shantung Provincial Revolutionary Committee, of having instituted a “white terror” in Tsaochuang in July, 1967, during which I

10,695 people had been “cruelly beaten up.” The result had been that 94 had died and 692 had been dis-; abled, the radio said. The report is the latest ini a series revealing violent i (confrontations in different! (parts of the country during! (the Cultural Revolution. Tsinan Radio said the recent rally had been held “to reverse completely the verdict in the grave and unjust case of the so-called antiparty, rebellious, counterrevolutionary incident in Tsaochuang — a shocking case concocted single-hand-edly by Wang Hsiao-yu, an agent of (late Defence Minister) Lin Piao and the Gang

(of Four in Shantung prov- • ince.” II It did not say what had happened to W’ang. I The Cultural Revolution i— and its originator, the (late Communist party leader. (Mao Tse-tung — have come under fire in the current poster campaign in Peking. One recent poster dei manded to know just what benefits had emerged from : the movement. The Tsinan report was seen as a further examole of moves taken by China's 1 post- ; Mao leaders to lessen the! . aftershock of the Cultural Revolution and rehabilitate! those who fell victim to ex-! tremist campaigns during! the period.