THE PRESS MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1979. 30 years of China

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 18

THE PRESS MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1979. 30 years of China

The description of the Cultural Revolution as an error was one of the stronger, but not the first, criticisms of those years to be made in China. Coming as it did on the eve of the celebration of 30 years of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, it was a statement that looked both forwards and backwards. The speaker who criticised the Cultural Revolution added the customary condemnation of the “Gang of Four” suggesting that this group (the terminology used about the four make them sound like a corrupted and reduced lot from one of Enid Blyton’s novels) spoilt the Cultural Revolution too, but he avoided direct criticism of Chairman Mao, who initiated the Cultural Revolution. No-one is suggesting that Chairman Mao had feet of clay, though his dimensions, since his death, are closer to life size.

Mr Deng Xiaoping, the senior VicePremier, an advocate of modernisation and technological advancement, has also emerged on the eve of the celebration as more surely in control of the direction of China’s development. If the path to industrialisation and quick growth of the economy is to be followed. China will not be able to indulge in its periodical orgies of self-criticism and upheaval. The criticism of the daj’s of the Cultural Revolution and the exhortations to development have to be seen as part of the same process. It is a mistake, however, to believe as many do. in a burst of evangelical fervour about the virtues of capitalism, that all will be well in China now that the country is showing distinct signs of following the Western paths to development. Such movements as the Cultural Revolution had their excesses and almost certainly the development of the country was delayed. But China’s problem in the past has been, and Mao appeared to see this clearly, that there was an undue reverence for the learned, and that hierarchies were built on this reverence and these stultified the development of the country. Mao’s maxims, which had themselves some similarities with the sayings of Confucious, whose system he was trying to replace, caused some amusement, as well as fear, in the West, but they served partly as a basis for teaching near enough to one-quarter of the world’s population the idea of selfreliance.

That was no small achievement. The Chinese are a poor people but are no longer subject to the ravages of disease and famine that used to beset them. One danger with the new direction is that China will slip into a stagnant bureaucracy; another is that the

country will not be able to meet the demands of rising expectations. It is much too soon to regard the new direction as more than an experiment, as the Cultural Revolution, in its time, was also an experiment.

The excesses that have occurred inside China have been matched in the attitudes of other countries towards China. Chinese Communists have been in effective control of China since October, 1949. For most of the last 30 years, much of the world has considered it fit to recognise the Government of a small island off the coast of China as representing China. New Zealand was in the process of changing Governments when the Communists came to power in China. The Fraser Government recognised Taipei as representing China and the Holland Government which took office in December of that year hastily confirmed that recognition. New Zealand persevered with the anomaly until 1972. and the United States until the end of 1978. China could have done more during those years to reassure many nations; but the blame cannot be put on China alone. Wild interpretations were put on China’s motives that now seem as much a dream as the years of the Cultural Revolution must seem to many Chinese.

The swings in world opinion about China now give it a more favourable aspect than it will be able to live up to. The hopes that China will be a huge market, helping to boost a flagging world economy are misplaced. China is likely to remain a comparatively poor country for a long time, the enthusiasm of some of its bureaucrats and some of the West’s salesmen notwithstanding. One observer has noted that West German arms manufacturers are becoming tired of the numerous Chinese missions looking for arms and never buying any. The sound aspects of the West’s relationship with China include a sense of good will and a willingness to help. In its relationship with the Soviet Union China has more to worry about. The outcome of the present talks attempting to settle their differences is not known. But China’s rivalry with the Soviet Union continues to distort the world situation, particularly in SouthEast Asia in ways reminiscent of the distortions at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a neighbour of the Soviet Union, China has cause to be watchful, but it would be a contribution to world peace if those countries now dealing closely with China could bring some influence to bear to ease China’s paranoia, which cannot but help to affect world peace.