NEW PHASE IN CHINA
Sharkey, John
Its mentors are the right wing of the now-deceased Socialist party of Norman Thomas, a small but vocifer- ous group of ideologues who have stonewalled real change and fresh ideas within the...
...portant political skirmishes of the past year and a half have occurred in the area of cultural affairs...
...Under Chou's direction the drive against Confucius was gradually and subtly altered and eventually defused...
...It was this superstructure that Mao Tse-tung had to undo when he tried to regain power in the mid60s by unleashing the Cultural Revolution...
...For the past several years, a major influence in cultural matters has been Ching Chiang, Mao's wife and a leading figure among the radicals...
...By their assessment, withdrawal symptoms are the only treatment necessary to deal with the forces attacking the body politic and the remnants of the "free iiiiii i u u,,,,,,,,,,,,,, fill world...
...The Congress may turn out to be the most destabilizing event in China since the end of the Chlrural Revolution...
...Outstanding among these was Teng Hsiao-ping, who had been denounced by the Red Guards as second only to President Liu Shao-chi as a "capitalist roader...
...He steadily dodged the blows and diverted the campaigns off into harmless backwaters, His adroitness was nowhere more clearly shown than in his handling of the campaign to denounce Confucius which the radicals used to try to cut down Chou himself, The 6th Century B.C...
...Then Commonweal: 49...
...Those around him have the siege mentality of purists, an unlikely defense against the inevitable change which must surely come to America in the second half of the seventies...
...philosopher was denounced for his policies of trying to "restore the former ruling class" and "to reinstate fallen dignitaries...
...It was Chou who brought back to power many of the leading figures purged during the Cultural Revolution...
...Chou, long the pragmatic broker and compromiser, ducked any head-on confrontation at that time...
...IIIIIIIIIIIIIII NEW PHASE IN CHINA JOHN SHARKEY A moderate faction takes the initiative The Fourth People's Congress recently held in Peking was not so much a climax as the opening of a new phase in the political and ideological struggle that has embroiled China since mid-1973...
...Several of the ira...
...It was first changed to a drive to denounce both Confucius and Lin Piao, who had once been Mao's designated successor but who died following an abortive attempt to overthrow the chairman...
...Specifically, there were the campaigns against Antonioni's documentary, C/~na, against Western classical music, and the denunciation of the regional opera, "Three Visits to Fao4eng," the sponsorship of which by the moderates had been a tentative attempt on their part to break the radicals' domination of cultural affairs...
...Another sign of the aggressiveness on the part of the moderates is the new ideological campaign launched three weeks after the People's Congress in the People's Daily.The new drive for the reinforcement of the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, party control...
...Its mentors are the right wing of the now-deceased Socialist party of Norman Thomas, a small but vociferous group of ideologues who have stonewalled real change and fresh ideas within the federation's high councils...
...This, in the words of the editorial, is the "key question" raised by the People's Congress...
...The moderates are making their strongest challenge in that most sensitive of areas in China, restoration of control by the center, especially by the party apparatus in Peking...
...Through administrative changes set forth in the new constitution brought out at the People's Congress and by a series of leadership appointments, the threads of power have been brought together in the tightest weave since the period before the Cultural Revolution...
...In keeping with the usual tactics of Chou, the editorial stopped short of urging purge of dissidents...
...Zeroing in on one of the greatest strongholds of the radicals, the field of culture, the ediJOHN StIAI~EY is an assistant foreign editor on the Washington Post, specializing in Asian affairs...
...For example, once again key figures, in this instance, Teng Hsiao-ping and Chang Chun-chiao, hold major positions in the party, government and military...
...torial quoted from the new constitution to the effect that it is imperative to "exercise all-round dictatorship over the bourgeoisie in the realm of the superstructure, including all spheres of culture...
...The indomitable old Meany, with every indication that he will continue on that course, is ready to preside on the bulwarks of his union-made bunker...
...The convening of the Congress indicates that the so-called moderate faction identified with Premier Chou En-lai has decided to take the initiative after months of trying to negotiate compromise with the group generally known as the radicals...
...The real target for the radicals in these campaigns was, of course, Chou and his policy of reaching out to the world--a policy which involved compromises unacceptable to the radicals...
Vol. 102 • April 1975 • No. 2
