Peking poster challenge on fraud claim

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 9

Peking poster challenge on fraud claim

NZPA-Reuter Peking!; A poster stuck on Demo- i cracy Wall yesterday chai- ; lenged the Chinese Government to enforce the law and clear up a number of the ! ■ thorniest political problems now facing the Peking ; authorities The poster, signed by a;j ;worker from Jilin province,! ■ Li Quinchun, referred to a; I recent allegation by the. }unofficial magazine, "Peking} (Spring” that the Communist,l .Party vice-chairman (Mr|i IWang Dongxing) had em- ; [bez.zled $4 million from I; (State funds to build himself}] a luxury villa. [; I "If this is a fact, then as]] (the newspapers say, the law must be enforced, and this!; (kind of party leader must be}l I suitably dealt with according}] ito the law. L what has been;! .revealed is incorrect, then 11 I‘Peking Spring’ should ben prosecuted for libel. Why}; (has neither one thing nor]l 'the other occurred?” it said. ]t “As I understand it, in a] capitalist country, even if h someone as high as a Presi-I: dent or a Prime Minister}; breaks the law, he will be:< dealt with in the same way It (for example, America’s}! Nixon. Japan’s Tanaka, Pa-|i kistan’s Bhutto. . . )” it! added. ' 'the poster also criticised*< the continued detention of!; many dissidents arrested]! earlier this year with no t indication of whether they 1 would be tried or released. “The arrest and detention f regulations were made pub- ‘ lie more than seven months ? ago, so why have the peti-j tioner Fu Yuehua, the edi-|l tors of the magazine,;; “Exploration,” Wei Jing-I

isheng and Yang Guang (and the others), still not been released?” it asked. “I ask the Central Committee (of the Communist Party); If you do not attempt to explain such serious matters, how can you say that you truly want ipeople to ‘liberate thought’?” ! The poster also brought up the case of Zhang Zhixin, a party official executed in j 1974 for opposing the policies of the “Gang of Four” [(radicals purged in 1976) and who has recently been :made the object of a huge } publicity campaign to [emphasise the need for the proper enforcement of law. j “Why have Zhang Zhixin’s [murderers not been exposed? Ilf criminals who persecute people are not dealt with, ihow can you guarantee that I they won’t continue with i their persecution? Why does | the Central Committee project murderers?” the poster I asked. I As most Chinese quietly Jmarked the thirtieth anniversary of communist rule demlonstrators demanding democracy and artistic freedom [took advantage of a more (liberal political climate by [marching through Peking. I The 200 demonstrators [were protesting against the [dosing by the police of an unofficial” art exhibition that began on Thursday in a park next to the Peking Art Gallery. the police declared on Saturday that the show' “interfered with the normal activities of the masses.” The march was organised by four of Peking's largest unofficial magazines and the backers of the exhibition.