Peking govt keeps fate of poster wall secret

Press, 3 December 1979, Page 8

Peking govt keeps fate of poster wall secret

I NZPA Peking The Peking municipal! Government reached agree-, ment at the week-end on what to do about the net-1 [ tling problem of the capital’s' Democracy Wall, but it kept the decision secret. : The "Peking Daily,” organ ■ of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee, reported that; the 73 committee members., presided over by the Mayor; (Mr Lin Hujia) had approved! an announcement in the' spirit of ensuring the people's democratic rights, maintaining the legal sys- [ tern, and outlawing illegal activities. It did not reveal what the 'announcement said, but said I it was approved after exten-

sive debate and a feeling of [great indignation at some < i people with ulterior motives who had disrupted social : order, carried out illegal activities, and interfered i with the national modern- : isation plan through the wall. i At mid-morning yesterday, the wall, with its tattered , .wall posters flapping dis- [ consolately in a wintry ( ! breeze, still stood and noth- , ing had been done to erase its many-faceted messages. On Saturday night, some- [ one put up a confused, near- [ ly unintelligible screed prais- . ing the late Mao Tse-tung. The wall has been under mounting attack lately and ; there is a widespread feeling I

thaf the pasting of posters; on it will be forbidden. A, year ago there were many; such walls but now there is only one, which is the side! of a bus depot and is known ; to the Chinese as Xidan Wall from the name of a nearby street. In the last few weeks it has been notable for what are apparently transcripts of! the trial of a Peking in-1 tellectual, Wei Jinsheng, who was jailed recently for anticommunist activities and allegedly giving State secrets to a foreign journalist. The pasting of “big-char-acter” posters is protected by the Chinese Constitution.