Party to return to 1930s

Press, 1 September 1982, Page 9

Party to return to 1930s

NZPA Hong Kong China's Communist Party may no longer have a chairman by the time its twelfth congress, opening in Peking today, is finished. The congress, the first to be held in five years, is expected to. abolish the chairman’s post and concentrate power in the hands of the party’s secretary-general. Both jobs are held by Mr Hu Yaobang, and he is expected to therefore remain as the party's titular head. During a recent interview Mr Hu indicated that leadership of the new secretariat with its enlarged powers would be shared between himself and the Prime Minister (Mr Zhao Ziyang). The institutional changes will in many respects be a return to the structure of the party in the 1930 s and well before it came to power in 1949. The. post of chairman was created by Mao Tse-tung at the seventh congress in 1945.

About 1600 delegates are expected to approve a revised party constitution and elect a’ new central committee at the 10-day congress.

The party's senior vicechairman (Mr Deng Xiaoping) the most influential member of China’s leadership in recent years, is expected to take another step away from the limelight while still retaining a serious role in the shaping of China’sdestiny. Reports from Peking have suggested that he will

head a new advisers’ committee and will keep his post as chairman of the military committee.

The advisers' committee has beenJikenec to “a council of- wise rri§ri” and. will be formed by grouping a number of party elders. Among them are expected to be three other vice-chairmen, Ye Jianving. Li .Viannian (a former Vice-Prime Minister who visited New Zealand in 1980), and Chen Yun. As head of the.military committee, Mr Deng is supreme commander of the People's Liberation Army. All traces of the Cultural Revolution and Leftist ideology are expected to be erased from party statutes during the 12th congress. According to an unnamed leading member of the party’s central committee for in-

specting discipline, the regime is' entering a “most favourable period.” The official Xinhua News Agency has quoted him as saying that political stability and unity have been realised and improved. Mr Hu on Monday told a preparatory meeting that the congress would define “fighting tasks for the new historical period." He replaced the former chairman — Mao’s designated successor — Hua Guofeng last year. Mr Zhao succeeded Mr Hua as Prime Minister in 1980. Mr Hu, aged 67, and Mr Zhao, aged 63, are regarded as disciples of Mr Deng's and their stature has been steadily enhanced since they assumed office. Mr Hu has been praised for his statesmanship — an image reflected during a recent wide-ranging interview

in which he indicated a more flexible approach to international affairs than had been suspected by some observers.

Mr Zhao has travelled widely overseas and impressed with the diplomatic manner in which he has handled some of the sensitive issues affecting China’s relations with »many foreign countries.

If the predicted changes all emerge from the congress, the leadership of China will have completed a significant metamorphosis engineered by the wily Mr Deng. In the process he will have removed much of the legacy of Chairman Mao. Mr Deng is the most important living victim of the Cultural Revolution and was twice purged by Mao.