Of the three Chinese Communist party congresses held since the 1949 usurpation of the mainland, that of August 24-28 was by far the strangest. The total secrecy and brevity reflected the instability of the Peiping regime. Everything was carefully rehearsed and stage-managed. There was no discussion. The 1,249 delegates (supposedly representing a party membership of 28 million out of a population of more than 700 million) had been hand-picked to represent both the Chiang Ching (leftist) and Chou En-lai factions. Beneath the surface, the struggles which led to the purging of Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao in less than seven years were raging as violently as ever.
Not until August 29 did Peiping Radio report that the 10th congress had been held and a Central Committee of 195 members and 124 alternates named. The congress heard the political report of Chou En-lai and then a report on the revision of the party constitution by Wang Hung-wen, the leftist Shanghai labor leader who rose to No. 3 position in the hierarchy behind Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. Mao did not speak.
The Central Committee was enlarged by 25 members and 15 alternates as compared with the ninth committee chosen in 1969. Of the 195 members, 122 were holdovers from the ninth committee, 18 were former alternate members and 55 were newcomers. New members tended to come from the "state council," the ranks of provincial party secretaries and the commanders and political commissars of military regions and districts. Some members were rehabilitated from the disgrace visited upon them during the "cultural revolution;" a number had been members or alternate members of the eighth central committee. Of the 124 alternates, 63 were holdovers, 2 were downgraded from full membership and 59 were newcomers. Of the last, at least 24 were party and administrative officials or "people's liberation army" officers. Some were rehabilitated former party leaders.
Of the 170 full members chosen in 1969, 34 were dropped. Most were Lin Piao followers and some were leftists. Leaders of the Canton military region were included. Twelve of the 1969 full members had died. Twenty-eight of the 109 alternate members of the 1969 committee were dropped.
The new party constitution did not designate any successor to Mao Tse-tung (unlike the 1969 charter, which had named Lin Piao). The number of vice chairmen was increased from one to five. Mao remained chairman of the central committee. He is not, however, chairman of the central political bureau (Politburo) as at the eight congress, nor head of the political bureau and the central secretariat as at the seventh congress.
The new constitution prescribes, as did the old one, that the chairman, the vice chairmen and the standing committee members of the Politburo have the authority to command the party central organs in work of the CCP, the administration and the armed forces. The Politburo as a whole does not share this power. The ninth Politburo was inactive and made no reports.
Power lies with the standing committee. This was reflected in the expulsion of Lin Piao and Chen Po-tao The decision was made by the standing committee and not by the Politburo or central committee. The ninth standing committee had only two members as it came to an end: Mao and Chou En-lai. The 10th standing committee has nine members:
- Mao Tse-tung.
- Chou En-lai, vice chairman and "premier of the state council."
- Wang Hung-wen, vice chairman, secretary of the CCP Shanghai municipal committee, vice chairman of the Shanghai municipal revolutionary committee, political commissar of the PLA Shanghai garrison and director of the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions.
- Kang Sheng, vice chairman.
- Yeh Chien-ying, vice chairman and vice chairman of the CCP central military affairs commission.
- Li Teh-sheng, vice chairman, member of the CCP central military affairs commission, director of the PLA general political department, first secretary of the CCP Anhwei provincial committee and chairman of the Anhwei revolutionary committee.
- Chang Chun-chiao, first secretary of the CCP Shanghai municipal committee, chairman of the Shanghai revolutionary committee and first political commissary of the PLA Nanking military region.
- Chu Teh, chairman of the standing committee of the third "national people's congress."
- Tung Pi-wu, acting chairman of the regime.
Ordinary members of the Politburo are as follows:
- Chen Hsi-lien, commander of the PLA Shenyang military region, first secretary of the CCP Liaoning provincial committee and chairman of the Liaoning revolutionary committee.
- Chen Yung-kuei, secretary of the CCP Shansi provincial committee, vice chairman of the Shansi revolutionary committee, first secretary of the CCP Hsiyang county committee, chairman of the Hsiyang revolutionary committee, secretary of the Tachai brigade CCP branch and chairman of the Tachai revolutionary committee.
- Chi Teng-kuei, secretary of the CCP Honan provincial committee and vice chairman of the Honan revolutionary committee.
- Chiang Ching, the wife of Mao Tse-tung.
- Hsu Shih-yu, Commander of the PLA Nanking military region, first secretary of the CCP Kiangsu provincial committee and chairman of the Kiangsu revolutionary committee.
- Li Hsien-nien, "vice premier" and possibly still "minister of finance."
- Liu Po-cheng, vice chairman of the standing committee of the third "national people's congress" and possibly the vice chairman of the CCP central military affairs commission.
- Wang Tung-hsing, director of the general office of the CCP central committee.
- Wei Kuo-ching, first secretary of the CCP Kwangsi regional committee, chairman of the Kwangsi revolutionary committee and first political commissar of the PLA Kwangsi military district.
- Wu Teh, first secretary of the CCP Peiping municipal committee, chairman of the Peiping revolutionary committee and director of the cultural group of the "state council."
- Yao Wen-yuan, second secretary of the CCP Shanghai municipal committee and "leading member" of the Shanghai revolutionary committee.
These are the alternate members of the Politburo:
- Ni Chih-fu, standing member of the CCP Peiping municipal committee, director of the Peiping federation of trade unions and vice chairman of the Peiping Yungting machine factory revolutionary committee.
- Saifudin, first secretary of the CCP Sinkiang regional committee, chairman of the Sinkiang revolutionary committee and first political commissar of the PLA Sinkiang military region.
- Su Chen-hua, deputy commander of the navy.
- Wu Kwei-hsien, deputy secretary of the CCP Shensi provincial committee and standing member of the Shensi revolutionary committee (she is a cotton textile mill worker).
The most revealing document to come out of the congress was the political report of Chou En-lai. Its three parts concerned the line set by the ninth congress, the crimes of Lin Piao and other "enemies," and the CCP situation and tasks. Most attention was given to Lin Piao and foreign policy. Internal affairs and the economy were glossed over. Toward the end of the report, Chou took up "five newborn things:" revolution in literature and art, revolution in education, revolution in public health, the sending of educated youth to the countryside and the May 7 cadre schools. He ascribed these to "socialism" and not to the "cultural revolution," which was virtually ignored in his report. Some general economic principles were enunciated and there was vague reference to "state plans" but without stipulation of a fourth five-year plan. Chou said the fourth "national people's congress" would be held soon.
At the outset, Chou maintained that the line of the ninth congress was correct despite the machinations of Lin Piao. This, he said, was because Lin was compelled to accept the political report drawn up under Mao's direction. Chou presented Lin as a wicked but inevitable example of revisionism which the party must struggle against. He warned that Lin Piao's would appear 10, 20 or 30 times, thereby adopting the idea of perpetual class struggle set forth by Mao during his tour of the provinces in the fall of 1971. Chou, however, implied struggle against individual targets and not mass upheavals.
Liu Shao-chi's revisionism obscured the view of Lin Piao revisionism, Chou said. He added, "There were many instances in the past where one tendency covered another, and when the time came, the majority went along with it while only a few withstood it." Chou thus excused those who were hoodwinked into following the wrong line during the "cultural revolution." He was also applauding those who, like himself and others attacked during the "cultural revolution" but since repatriated, stayed with the "correct line" even when that meant moving "against the tide." Chou said, "If one's line is incorrect, one's downfall is inevitable, even with the control of central, local and army leadership."
Chou took a hard line in international affairs. The international situation was in disorder, he said, continuing: "Relaxation is a temporary and superficial phenomenon and great disorder will continue. Such great disorder is a good thing for the people, not a bad thing. It throws the enemies into confusion and causes division among them, while it arouses and tempers the people, thus helping the international situation develop further in the direction favorable to the people and unfavorable to imperialism, modern revisionism and all reaction."
The United States and the U.S.S.R. were held up as villains, while the "Third World" was cast in the hero's role of opposing the "nuclear superpowers." Chou made a bid for the goodwill of Japan with a suggestion that the Soviet Union return the Kuril islands seized at the end of World War II. He made no mention of Japanese militarism, which has preoccupied him at other times. Europe was presented as the "key point of contention" between the superpowers. The Soviet Union has been "making a feint in the east while attacking in the west," Chou said, a statement which does not quite jibe with assertions that the Russians have been preparing for a sneak attack on the Chinese mainland. Brezhnev was likened to an incompetent Hitler. Peiping will negotiate a border settlement, Chou said, only if frontiers are "free from any threat," which would imply a Soviet withdrawal.
On relaxation of tensions, Chou had no olive branches for the United States and the U.S.S.R., but told others: "We should point out that necessary compromises between revolutionary countries and imperialist countries must be distinguished from collusion and compromise between Soviet revisionism and U.S. imperialism." He quoted Lenin in saying, "One must learn to distinguish between a man who gave the bandits money and firearms in order to lessen the damage they can do and facilitate their capture and execution, and a man who gives bandits money and firearms in order to share in their loot."
Wang Hung-wen, the Chiang Ching associate and now No. 3 in the CCP pecking order, apparently was Mao's choice to report on the revised CCP constitution. That Wang enjoys special favor with the "chairman" was suggested when he received President Pompidou of France at the entrance to Mao's residence. Like Chou En-lai, Wang had little to say about domestic affairs but did recall the "cultural revolution," which Chou studiously ignored, as a "deep-going party consolidation movement." He went further than Chou in maintaining that the United States as well as the U.S.S.R. would "continue to recruit agents from within our party in order to carry out aggression and subversion against us." The destruction of Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao was a "hard blow to all domestic and international reactionary forces," he said, implying that the latter included Americans as well as Russians.
Wang went far beyond Chou in calling for "mass movements." He attacked "some leading cadres who will not tolerate differing views from the masses," thereby reiterating the leftist attitude which brought on the "cultural revolution." Suppression of criticism and retaliation against it are forbidden in the revised party charter, he said.
On the succession (to Mao's power), Wang said "those to be trained are not just one or two persons but millions. The proletarian revolution initiated by the party under the leadership of Mao will be carried on by an endless flow of successors." He returned to "cultural revolution" ideology in calling for the leadership of "outstanding persons from the ranks of the workers and poor and lower middle peasants" and for the principle of combining" the old, the middle-aged and the young." Wang did not specifically renew recent leftist demands for changes in education policy to give the inside track to those who had been sent to the countryside and were therefore unable to do well in examinations.
The thirtyish Wang (he is said to be 35 but may be several years older) put forward an elitist ideology of leadership which "must act without any selfish consideration and dare to go against the tide, fearing neither removal from his post, expulsion from the party, imprisonment, divorce or guillotine."
Both Chou and Wang used the "going against the tide" phrase but in different contexts and possibly with different intentions. Especially as used by Wang, the phrase could become the summons to a new "revolutionary rebellion" against party powerholders. The concept of "going against the tide" as a Marxist-Leninist principle appeared in People's Daily in mid-August at a time when preparations for the 10th congress were under way and articles presenting the leftist point of view were appearing in the press.
There are indications that Mao authored the "going against the tide" phrase or inspired it. The article in which it appeared was signed with a pseudonym and concerned a letter from a rusticated young man, Chang Tieh-sheng, which was published in Liaoning Daily July 19 and reprinted on the first page of People's Daily August 10. "This letter was filled with the revolutionary spirit of going against the tide," said the article.
The commentary said that the system governing enrollment of university students came into effect during the "cultural revolution." The writer said any attempt to mix the cultural test given to students recommended by communes, factories, military units, etc., with the pre-1966 system of entrance examinations and to accept grades as a principal criterion for admitting students would be an expression of old ideas and old habits and should be opposed.
"What attitude did Chang Tieh-sheng adopt in the face of the force old ideas and old habits? " the article asked. "Having been steeled for five years in the countryside and now serving as a production team leader, this educated youth adopted the attitude of going against the tide. He handed in a blank answer paper in the examination on physics and chemistry and wrote on the back of this paper 'a thought-provoking answer.' Going against the tide is a Marxist-Leninist principle."
The writer said that Engels advocated the spirit of going against the tide in 1889 and that Mao wrote of "an adverse tide in the youth movement" 34 years ago. However, the commentary warned, "Only when one has a relatively high awareness of the struggle between the two lines can one be adept at distinguishing between the tides and have the courage to go against the tide." The conclusion was that "All revolutionary fighters of the proletariat must be rich in the spirit of going against the tide and must perseveringly struggle against the tide."
Chou cautiously directed his treatment of "going against the tide" to past events and extra-party or international struggle. Wang's concern was with intra-party struggle. He maintained that even under Maoist leadership erroneous lines and viewpoints could temporarily prevail. Wang said, "Of course, in the face of an erroneous trend there is not only the question of whether one dares to go against it but also that of whether one is able to distinguish it. Class struggle and the two-line struggle are extremely complex. When one tendency is covered by another, many comrades fail to note it. Moreover, those who intrigue and conspire deliberately put up false fronts, which makes it all the more difficult to discern. All objective things are knowable. So long as one diligently studies the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and those of Mao, takes an active part in the actual struggle and works hard to remold one world's outlook, one can constantly raise the ability to distinguish genuine from sham Marxism and differentiate between correct and wrong lines and views."
This could be more than double talk. Chou and Wang do not have the same idea of "going against the tide." Wang represents the leftist view of opposing the tide and this is now written into the party charter. "Going against the tide" could excuse a new "cultural revolution" or any other efforts of the leftists to oppose powerholders who they insist are "wrong." Wrongness is to be an expression of those who control or manipulate the masses. Wang was careful to endorse the old weapons of the "cultural revolution:" big character posters, debates and any other free expression of opinion by the masses, presumably including violence. "Going against the tide" is an invitation to rebellion and must be considered live ammunition for the leftists of Chiang Ching.
While initial reaction to the 10th congress was cautious throughout the mainland, "going against the tide" quickly came into the vocabularies of mass organizations in Peiping, Shanghai, Kiangsi, Chekiang and Sinkiang. The leftists were doing the talking. One Sinkiang leader spoke anew of getting rid of the "four olds." An article by the Shanghai Municipal Middle School Red Guard Congress said, "During the 'cultural revolution' Mao encouraged Red Guards to rebel against the bourgeoisie and revisionism. We must continue to display the revolutionary spirit of 'five darings' and struggle against the erroneous trends that run counter to the party's line and policy. We must struggle against the 'four olds' of the exploiting classes."
Hunan Daily warned of continuing struggle: "Study of the congress documents and implementation of the congress line are bound to come up against obstacles and struggle. Class enemies who are not reconciled to their defeat are bound to jump out and commit sabotage and wage attacks on us in new form. Erroneous ideas and understandings will also arise within the revolutionary ranks. Therefore we must raise our vigilance and deal firm blows at the sabotage activities of the class enemies." Lin Piao and Chen Po-ta had many supporters in Hunan.
Another difference between the reports of Chou En-lai and Wang Hung-wen involved criticism of Chen Po-ta, former secretary to Mao and once the editor of the party's ideological monthly Red Flag. Chou was brief in his accusations against Chen, who was chief of the CCP central group in charge of the "cultural revolution" with Chiang Ching as his chief deputy. Wang mentioned Chen not at all. The crimes of Chen could all too easily rub off on such old associates as leftists who have survived and one of whom is treading on Chou's heels.
Of erstwhile leaders purged from full and alternate membership on the central committee, most were Lin Piao followers or ultra-leftists. They had served in the Fourth Field Army under Lin Piao in the 1940s or had come to prominence by adhering to the central group of Chen Po-ta and Chiang Ching during the "cultural revolution" of 1966-68.
Others purged by the leftists during the "cultural revolution" made a comeback. They included such veteran central or provincial party officials as Tan Chen-lin, formerly a member of the Politburo, a "vice premier" and director of agriculture and forestry under the "state council;" Li Ching-chuan, formerly a member of the Politburo and first secretary of the old CCP Southwest Bureau; and Ulanfu, an alternate member of the eighth Politburo and formerly a "vice premier," chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission and first secretary of the Inner Mongolia CCP committee.
Three members of the new Politburo were newcomers to such dazzling heights. Li Teh-sheng jumped from about No. 25 in the hierarchy to No. 6. Wei Kuo-ching and Su Chen-hua came out of nowhere. Li, a vice chairman of the CCP's ruling body, is director of the PLA general political department and the party's ranking military man. He is a chameleon who sided both with and against leftists during the "cultural revolution." Wei was a member of the ninth central committee. He suppressed radical leftists in Kwangsi during the "cultural revolution." He is of the Chuang minority. Su Chen-hua, an alternate member, was a political commissar of the navy and developed submarine forces before being relieved of duty in 1967. A Canton Red Guard paper of that year described him as "the biggest time bomb planted in the navy." His rehabilitation and rise may be connected with increased Chinese Communist emphasis on seagoing forces.
Chang Chun-chiao, who is probably closer to Chiang Ching than Wang Hung-wen, was the secretary-general of the 10th congress. His position and that of Wang appear to make up at least in part for the failure of Mao's wife to gain a position on the standing committee. Some observers said Chiang Ching's absence from the ruling body was a setback for the leftists; others were of the view that she is stronger than ever with Chang and Wang as her advocates.
Neither the Chou En-lai forces nor the leftists won any final victory at the 10th congress. The struggle for control of the party continues. If any agreement was reached to keep the long knives out of sight, it was tenuous and could break down at any moment. The standing committee has the balance of a hair trigger. Another "cultural revolution" or more serious upheaval could begin at any time. The 10th congress really decided little more than that Lin Piao and Chen Po-ta are dirty words. Almost nothing was said about Mao Tse-tung and not much about Mao thought. No mention was made of the identity of the man who named Lin Piao as Mao's successor and comrade-in-arms only four years before. It was of course none other than Mao himself. Although he was not designated as successor, Chou En-lai, the primus inter pares of the five vice chairmen, must be wondering how long he can survive as No.2. Those who reach that status under Mao seem not to survive for long.
Following is a chronology of Chinese mainland and peripheral events in the period from August 16 to September 15:
AUGUST 16 - Reconstruction of the "all-(Red) China women's federation" passed the halfway mark. "Radio Peking" reported three more women's congresses had been held in Kiangsu and Szechwan provinces and the Ninghsia Hui autonomous region. This brought the total of congresses to 15 with 14 more to go.
AUGUST 18 - Peiping recalled the rise of the militant "Red Guard" youth movement during the "cultural revolution" and reminded today's youth of the virtues of hard work. Articles in the press marked the anniversary of the first in a series of mass youth rallies in Peiping in 1966 when Mao Tse-tung encouraged young people to abandon their studies and "rebel" against their elders. Thereafter millions of teenagers wearing "Red Guard" armbands swarmed through the country attacking projects and people they considered tainted by "bourgeois" influence.
Peiping's naming of Chin Chi-wei as new "commander for the Szechwan military region" represents "an apparent effort to bring the huge province under firmer control," according to a Hongkong dispatch in the New York Times.
AUGUST 19 - Differences between factions and power groups in the Chinese Communists have sharpened, according to recent evidence in Chinese Communist news media. Some of the evidence seemed to reflect oblique criticism of Chou En-lai; some indicated a heightening of the long-standing tensions between leftists and pragmatists in the Chinese Communist leadership; some could point to rivalry between entrenched military leaders and civilians attempting to assert supremacy in Communist party and administrative affairs.
AUGUST 20 - The next 12 to 18 months is the period of maximum danger of a war between the Soviet Union and Peiping, the U.S. News and World Report said, quoting unidentified experts. According to reporter Joseph Fromm, the Soviet Union maintains 45 to 48 divisions of troops along more than the Chinese mainland border plus 1,000 military aircraft and a substantial number of nuclear-tipped missiles. The Chinese Communists have increased frontier forces to 45 divisions and are pushing ahead with their nuclear arms program.
AUGUST 21 - Canton, the scene of extreme violence during the "cultural revolution," may be facing a crime upsurge. Notices displayed on walls in the city of 2 million told of severe sentences passed on offenders. In the evenings "vigilante" squads of youths and girls clad in steel helmets and carrying long red and white truncheons have been ordering citizens off the streets.
AUGUST 22 - Peiping revalued its currency by 2.1 per cent against the Hongkong dollar after a series of three devaluations in 10 days.
AUGUST 23 - If he lives, Mao Tse-tung may choose Yao Wen-yuan or Chang Chun-chiao to succeed him, Dr. Han Lih-wu, director of the Institute of International Relations, told the 19th Conference of the Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist League in Taipei. Both Yao and Chang are top aides to Chiang Ching, Mao's wife.
AUGUST 24 - "The standard of living is low" on the Chinese mainland and "crime has not been eliminated," reported Frank Ching of the New York Times. Ching wrote: "The limited supply of oil and cloth result in hardship for many. An average person is allowed slightly more than a pint of oil a month and about enough cloth to make a suit of clothes a year."
Prospect of a poor grain crop this year presents Peiping's leadership "with some hard decisions affecting the entire economy," according to a report published by the U.S. Consulate General in Hongkong.
AUGUST 25 - The 10th congress of the Chinese Communist party opened August 24. The congress was prepared amidst a severe internal struggle, the Hongkong Times said.
A diplomat was appointed to head "New China News Agency" operations in Hongkong. Li Chu-sang is a former "charge d'affaires" at the "embassy" in Jakarta. The man he replaced had a military background.
A direct communications link was opened between Peiping and Bangkok. An announcement in Bangkok said that telephone calls and radiograms would be transmitted via satellite
AUGUST 26 - Radical and moderate elements of the Chinese Communist power structure are engaged in "some kind of confrontation" over a number of important issues, according to an analysis prepared by Western China specialists in Hongkong. The issues in dispute involve the method of selecting new college students, the treatment of young people sent from the cities to the countryside and industrial management.
AUGUST 27 - Two former Chinese Communist party leaders disgraced during the "cultural revolution" made their first public appearance in Peiping since the late 1960s. The Peoples' Daily reported that 67-year-old Ulanfu and Tan Chen-lin, 70, attended the first day of the Asian-African-Latin American table tennis tournament. Ulanfu was an alternate member of the Politburo and party chief of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region until 1966. Tan was a full Politburo member and "vice premier" until 1967.
Chinese Communist officials in Sinkiang province, which borders the Soviet Union, warned the people to "enhance vigilance and strengthen war preparations." Peiping's nuclear test site is based in the province.
Higher education on the Chinese mainland "has been hampered by controversy and uncertainty," reported Tillman Durdin of the New York Times.
AUGUST 28 - A movie studio in Canton has not turned out a feature film since the "cultural revolution" because the script writers are not sure of the "correct" line, the Central Daily News reported in Taipei. The studio drew fire from "Red Guards" during the "cultural revolution" for producing films regarded as "anti-party" and "anti-socialist."
AUGUST 29 - The Chinese Communist party, meeting in secret session in Peiping, held its 10th national congress and "reaffirmed" the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. The congress was held from August 24-28. It was unusual for two main reasons: it was held in secret and was much shorter than party congresses of the past. The congress adopted a political report by Chou, adopted a new party constitution and elected a central committee consisting of 195 full members and 124 alternates. A "communique" broadcast by Peiping Radio said 1,249 delegates representing more than 28 million party members attended.
AUGUST 30 - The new central committee of the Chinese Communist party met in its first plenary session and re-elected 79-year-old Mao Tse-tung as chairman. The 319-member 10th central committee also elected the 25-member Politburo, the "New China News Agency" said. Five "vice chairmen" were elected as well as a nine-member standing committee of the Politburo. The "vice chairmen" are: Chou En-lai, the "premier;" Wang Hung-wen, a youthful newcomer to the top party ranks; Kang Sheng, an ailing sidekick of Mao who once headed the party secret police; Yeh Chien-ying, top military man in the party; and Li Teh-sheng, another military man.
The Soviet Union has reportedly proposed a new meeting of World Communist parties, presumably to expel the Chinese Communists from the Communist movement, according to the Washington Post.
AUGUST 31 - Chou En-lai proposed a normalization of relations between Peiping and Moscow in his report to the 10th Communist party congress August 24. But he also warned against a surprise attack by the Soviet Union. He criticized the United States but reported that U.S. relations "have been improved to some extent." He announced that the long overdue fourth "national people's congress" would be held "in the near future."
Relations between Peiping and Moscow "are extremely nasty now although the possibility of military conflict or sizable border clashes is remote," reported Charlotte Saikowski in the Christian Science Monitor.
An American expert on strategic studies charged the Chinese Communists with launching an opium narcotics offensive against the free world. Speaking at the European regional conference of the World Anti-Communist League, Dr. Stanton Candlin said the Chinese Communists have been operating on a large scale in the narcotics trade.
SEPTEMBER 1 - Students of Chinese Communist affairs in Taipei said analysis of the Politburo elected by the 10th congress of the Chinese Communist party showed the further rise of the Chiang Ching faction and the failure of the Chou En-lai group to form a center of gravity.
Peiping said Lin Piao, once designated as successor to Mao Tse-tung, had been removed from the Chinese Communist party.
Yao Wen-yuan, the moon-faced writer and theater critic whose mighty pen once toppled Mao Tse-tung's political foes, appeared to be in relative eclipse. Diplomats in Peiping said it is increasingly unlikely he will play a prominent part in CCP leadership.
SEPTEMBER 2 - A Chinese Communist delegation left Tokyo without concluding a trade agreement. The group left after two weeks of bargaining with only vague promises of concluding an accord later. The failure underlined the lack of any meaningful progress in Tokyo-Peiping relations since diplomatic relations were established last September.
Based on intelligence reports, Thai government officials said the Russians and the Chinese Communists have already begun their struggle for influence over strife-torn Cambodia.
SEPTEMBER 3 - Peiping's new collective leadership group prepared to call the "national people's congress" into session. Diplomatic reports in Peiping indicated the date may be before October 1.
Soviet Communist party leader Leonid I. Brezhnev sent Algerian President Houari Boumedienne a letter charging Peiping was trying to split the non-aligned nations, Paris newspaper reports said.
SEPTEMBER 4 - The birth of a massive campaign of vigilance against the external enemy - the Soviet Union - and the internal enemy, represented by the figure of Lin Piao, appeared to be taking place following the 10th Chinese Communist party congress. The campaign will extend, according to NCNA, to all levels and in every sphere: to factories, universities, army units and the countryside.
The Chinese Communist army in Shanghai is increasing firing range practice at night to guard against a sudden Russian attack, Peiping Radio reported.
The Soviet Union will deal with the Peiping regime with diplomatic isolation and containment instead of a military attack, the Central Daily News said in Taipei. The paper said the Chinese Communist leadership knows a surprise Russian attack is not likely. "But they keep shouting with a view to winning American sympathy and stepping up their political blackmail and material and technological extortion."
A Chinese Communist freighter carrying aid supplies arrived at the port of Cua Viet-Dong Ha, an area of South Vietnam under control of the Viet Cong, NCNA reported.
Chinese Communist troops are manning anti-aircraft installations along a road they built in northern Laos.
SEPTEMBER 5 - New "Red Guard" riots are in the making on the Communist-controlled Chinese mainland, an observer in Hongkong said.
Chiang Ching, Mao Tse-tung's wife, is trying to subdue the "barrel of the gun" by launching a new "Red Guard" movement, he said.
Commenting on Chou En-lai's political report to the Chinese Communist party's 10th congress, the Washington Post said editorially, "We must accept the unsettling fact that within Red China, and between Red China and Russia, great tensions exist which could yet lead to traumatic world developments."
SEPTEMBER 8 - There are tensions within the Chinese Communist party ranks as a result of the infighting between the so-called radicals led by Chiang Ching, Mao's wife, and the group headed by Chou En-lai before, during and after the recent party congress, according to the Washington Evening Star. The dispatch said the restoration to leadership positions, under Chou's machinations, of a number of victims of the "cultural revolution" left the radicals bitter and defiant.
Peiping's party magazine Red Flag has condemned Lin Piao, "defense minister" and "close comrade-in-arms and successor" to Mao Tse-tung, as a "bourgeois high-flier, plotter, counter-revolutionary fence-sitter renegade, traitor and superspy."
Peiping's army is busy preparing against any Soviet surprise attack. NCNA said frontier guards in Sinkiang, the northwest province bordering the Soviet Union, and soldiers and militiamen in Fukien, the province opposite Taiwan, and troops in Inner Mongolia have stepped up training.
SEPTEMBER 9 - Hundreds of qualified professional people, including engineers and medical practitioners, have recently been permitted to leave the Chinese mainland legally and settle down in Hongkong and elsewhere, Hongkong reports said. Previously, Peiping approved exit permit applications only for elderly people, housewives and the disabled and unemployed.
Peiping expressed "firm support" of the North Korean struggle for "reunification" and demands for "U.S. withdrawal from South Korea."
Peiping's attempts to romanize the Chinese language is meeting with strong opposition from intellectuals on the Chinese mainland. People's Daily published an article signed by Liang Yu urging caution in scrapping the Chinese characters.
SEPTEMBER 10 - "Mongolia" launched a bitter attack on Peiping and accused it of sending its troops across the border between the two. The accusation was made in the Mongolian newspaper Utga Dzohiol Urlag.
SEPTEMBER 11 - Deputy Prime Minister Prapass blamed Peiping for making trouble in Indochina and Southeast Asia. "The Chinese Communist party still supports so-called 'liberation' movements in various countries, although the Peiping regime announced it would not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," he said.
French President Georges Pompidou arrived in Peiping to become the first West European head of state to meet face-to-face with Chinese Communist leaders.
Pompidou and Mao Tse-tung had a two-hour meeting in Peiping. Earlier, Chou En-lai told Pompidou that Peiping believes the world is facing the threat of a new war. He said the Chinese Communists are digging deep underground shelters and stockpiling grain reserves. In a virulent attack apparently directed at the United States and the Soviet Union, Chou hailed Pompidou as the representative of a nation opposing "superpower' attempts to rule the world and meddle in other countries' business.
Reporters covering the Peiping visit of Georges Pompidou were conducted around an underground shelter in Peiping. A civil defense official of the shopping district of Ta Cha Lan, south of the city center, led reporters underground through a concealed trapdoor behind the counter of a big shop. The passages visited were 25 feet below ground level and about a mile and a halt long.
SEPTEMBER 12 - The Chinese Communist party congress ignored the urgent problems facing the Chinese people and merely rubber-stamped the Maoist political line, according to the government newspaper Isvestia in Moscow. The paper said the Maoist leadership cannot face up to its real problems - economic and technological backwardness - without repudiating policies it has been following for years.
SEPTEMBER 13 - A U.S.-(Red) China confrontation on the future of Korea promises to overshadow the annual fall session of the General Assembly in a complex test of evolving superpower relationships. The Soviet Union finds itself on the Chinese Communist side.
SEPTEMBER 14 - Radio Moscow predicted that Chou En-lai would be the next target of purge. The forecast was made in a Mandarin commentary on the denunciation of Lin Piao and Chen Po-ta at the congress of the Chinese Communist party.
Arnold R. Isaacs of the Baltimore Sun reported from Hongkong that a possible thaw between Peiping and "Outer Mongolia" which some observers detected a year ago has" thoroughly iced over again." He based his judgment on a Mongolian complaint that its "territory" was being repeatedly violated by Chinese Communist soldiers.
Peiping denied allegations in a Mongolian newspaper that its troops had repeatedly violated the border. The "foreign ministry" said: "This is a fabrication and a slander with ulterior motives."
The Malaysian government said Peiping was indirectly linked with Communist terrorist and subversive activities in the border areas. The charge was made by the deputy secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hashim Sultan.
SEPTEMBER 15 - Peiping is stepping up war preparations along its northern border with the Soviet Union, according to a radio broadcast monitored in Taipei. It said troops in the Sinkiang "military district" had been ordered to complete "full preparations against aggression."