The Communist Central People's Broadcasting Station reported December 1 that Inner Mongolia is suffering a drought unprecedented in living memory. Since the beginning of 1965, the area has had no precipitation of importance for nine consecutive months. The drought is expanding westward into Kansu province.
The Central People's Broadcasting Station urged Inner Mongolians to redouble their efforts to find ground water resources. The Inner Mongolian Party Committee has removed large numbers of cadres from their normal duties to reinforce anti-drought operations. Tens of thousands are engaged in well-sinking and canal-digging.
Economist Vanishes
Chen Yun, one of the five vice chairmen of the Chinese Communist Party and the chief architect of the Chinese Red economy from Yenan days until 1959, has disappeared from mention as a member of the hierarchy.
He was not among the "leaders of the party and the state" who wrote inscriptions in memory of the new "hero" Wang Chieh in November and for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist broadcasting system in December.
Chen was mentioned together with the other "leaders of the party and the state" in June and July, 1963, when they wrote inscriptions for "learning from the good 8th company" and "learning from Lei Feng". He was listed as late as March and April, 1965, as having sent wreaths to the funerals of Chang Te-sheng and Ko Ching-shih.
Chen Yun's disappearance is significant in that the third five-year plan began in January, 1966, The mastermind of the first and second five-year plans seems to have no say in the third.
Farming for What?
A letter expressing disgust with farming — "planted" in the China Youth—magazine for purposes of Communist answer—actually expresses the view of most educated young people on the mainland.
The letter said:
"I have been taking part in agriculture for nearly four years, and I still think that farming is simply farming and nothing more. Now I have taken on a lot of work. Every day I teach in a farming-study primary school in the morning, take part in production team work in the afternoon and record work points and do the accounts in the evening. This is how it goes every day. There is no point to it.
"As I work so hard, I earn a lot of work points and rations. I have thought that if all the commune members were like me, worked hard and earned more work points and rations, we would live better. But I have never thought that we live 'for the revolution', so I think that farm work is simply farm work. As long as we work honestly, it does not matter whether what we are doing is 'for the revolution' or not. It is all the same whether or not we have 'revolutionary ideology'."
It's a Hard Life
Ti Chao-yung of Shouning county, Fukien province, has revealed that cash crops such as tea and timber "have been very slow in recovering and developing" and that "the masses still have difficulties about money to spend", the Peiping People's Daily reported December 1.
Ti criticized local officials for not trying to improve conditions for the peasants.
Economic Weakness
A mainland-wide "increase production and practice economy" campaign is being unfolded in connection with the third five-year plan that opened in January.
The Peiping Ta Kung Pao of December 8 said that the Chinese Communist economy is "very weak" and "still far from the great objective" (of making the Peiping regime into a great power) after more than 10 years of Communist rule.
"Waste and extravagance are a reflection of bourgeois thought," said the editorial. "Not only does bourgeois thought exist, but it is constantly attacking weak-minded people. They say that the proletarian 'one-cent' spirit is meanness, and that a life of diligence and thrift is miserliness. This is really the first sign of modern revisionism. Thoughts of being 'generous or liberal' must be attacked at once."
The editorial cited the economic importance of using and re-using waste products, and careful use of equipment, materials, and capital.
Historian in Trouble
Professor Wu Han is an historian specializing in the Ming dynasty and has been favored by the Communists and by Mao himself. He holds many political, social, and academic positions, including the vice mayorship of Peiping and chairmanship of the Peiping Historical Society. But an article in the Peiping People's Daily has accused him of representing the bourgeoisie and opposing the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist regime.
A play on Hai Jui (a prominent political figure of the Ming dynasty), entitled "Hai Jui Loses His Office", and some articles explaining it, written by Professor Wu in 1961 are now severely criticized by a Communist propaganda official, Yao Wen-yuan.
Wu's writings touched the Chinese Communists on some sensitive points. His hero is Hai Jui, an upright official of the mid-16th century whose popularity is legendary among the Chinese people. Hai championed the rule of law and the interests of the ordinary people. In so doing, he be came an enemy of he bureaucrats.
Wu Han drew the image of a righteous official who listens to the people, who cares more for their interests than for his own position, and who dares to oppose the arbitrary rule of officials, no matter how powerful.
In his writings since 1959 Wu has advocated the "realistic meaning" in "learning from Hai Jui".
Mao and A-Bombs
Wang Jen-chung, second secretary of the Central-South Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, wants the people of the mainland to get ready for an all-out atomic war with the West.
Wang said in a speech: "If they (the West) want to hurl (atomic bombs), let them do it. We can rebuild our factories if they are destroyed." Mainland people are urged "to think of war in times of peace", "not to forget, even for a day, to go to war", and "get ready for war throughout our lives".
"Our revolutionary people, revolutionary workers, peasants, soldiers and cadres must one and all be armed with Mao Tse-tung's thinking. Once armed with Mao Tse-tung's thinking, we will be invincible."
"Infantry and bayonets are the prime factors in fighting a war. Therefore, the study of Mao Tse-tung's works must be maintained as a lifelong militant task."
Drills Along Border
People living close to the Vietnamese border are receiving military drill, the People's Daily said December 15.
Militia units in Yunnan and Kwangsi provinces are undergoing intensive training with regulars of the "People's Liberation Army". Exercises include mountain climbing and bayonet, close-combat, and night-fighting drills.
Army garrisons in Yunnan and Kwangsi are reported to have dug trenches, installed artillery and anti-aircraft positions, and set up radar stations along the border.
Army Problems
A long article, originally published in the Liberation Army Daily and reprinted by the Peiping Ta Kung Pao, reveals problems and shortcomings in the Chinese Red army.
The article said recruits do not understand what is meant by "class struggle", "oppression", and other political terms. They do not see why they have to fight "U.S. imperialism". The recommended remedy is class education for young soldiers.
Also discussed is mass study of Mao Tse-tung's works. These questions are raised and answered in Communist jargon,
"How to teach soldiers not to fear suffering and fatigue."
"What to do when soldiers' marksmanship is not good enough." The answer is simple: Read Mao.
"What to do when soldiers want to have home leave and cannot."
"How to make a success of family visits."
Morale is often affected by news of sickness or hunger among family members and neighbors, the article said, and officers should suppress such information.
Why Not Criticize?
How many people are there in the mainland like Li Hua from Tingeheng county, Honan? Li wrote:
"I see a number of unseemly things, and I feel that I ought to criticize them, but I am afraid of offending people and getting the worst of it. What ought I to do?"
Old Novelists' "Crime"
What happens to authors and artists who are criticized on the mainland? An article in the China Youth Journal of December 11 suggests that they are banished to remote parts of the country and set to writing the histories of poor peasants, workers, soldiers, factories, villages, etc., for use as propaganda material.
An unnamed "old novelist" is mentioned as deputy chief of a factory in Liao-ning province. He was sent there as punishment.
The old novelist discovered that a young worker, Chang Li-yen, showed promise as a writer, encouraged him, and criticized his work. He also recommended the reading of novels in Western languages.
"Do not think first of politics when you are writing," the novelist said. He also advised the young man to "write about love".
Party workers sought out the young man and "helped him analyze" the political background of the novelist. They told him it is only necessary to read Mao Tse-tung in order to write novels. They required him to write a denunciation of the "bourgeois influence" of the old novelist.
Faulty Steel
Faults have been found in iron and steel products of the mainland's major producer, the Anshan Iron and Steel Company.
Excusing the shortcomings, cadres said faults are inevitable when there are so many orders to fill.
When whole shipments proved unusable, party officials realized something would have to be done. Last year a party committee demanded that the factory "organize production in accordance with the reasonable demands of the consumers and measure the standard of production by the satisfaction of customers".
Thousands of letters of criticism were found in the files.
Hate U.S. Campaign
Hatred of America is being instilled in mainland youth as part of the Red Chinese campaign to "learn from Wang Chieh". An editorial on the subject in the China Youth Journal said:
"Today U.S. imperialism has replaced all the old imperialisms as the most abominable and deadly enemy of the Chinese people land the people of the whole world. To carryon our revolution and world revolution, we must hate U.S. imperialism and modern revisionism, overthrow the one and struggle with the other to the end."
Time for Criticism
The annual "summary criticism and compare" campaign is in full swing on the mainland. Workers are exposing their own "shortcomings" in work, and living.
Ho Ping, chairman of the Fukien General Trade Union, called on Chinese workers to apply Mao Tse-tung's thinking:
"We must use Mao Tse-tung's thinking as a guideline and class struggle as a principle to carry out mass criticism, self-criticismf and self-education."
Foreign Broadcasts
More and more people on the mainland are listening to Chinese language broadcasts from British and American stations, the Ming Pao of Hongkong reported.
It quoted an arrival from Canton as saying that the Canton Public Security Bureau has sought the assistance of neighborhood officers to conduct checks on the people. Suspects are watched by the "people's police". Those caught listening to foreign broadcasts are jailed without trial.
Death for Deserters
The Communists are harsh and uncompromising in their punishment of official personnel trying to escape.
In recent months, many army and police officers, party members and "government" officials have tried to flee. When caught they are brutally tortured and then shot, Hongkong's Sing Tao Daily News reported.
To Freedom by Sea
Mao Tse-tung's call "to swim in rivers, lakes and seas" has encouraged more youths along the southern Kwangtung coast to escape, said a young Canton refugee who swam to freedom.
He said his friends in Canton are waiting for a chance to escape. Formerly they feared the hills were too steep and the seas too wide.
Since the mass swimming and mountain climbing campaign launched by the Communists at the beginning of 1965, they have new confidence in overcoming such barriers. In practice they say to one another: "Let us practice hard so that we can swim to Hongkong without difficulty."
Opposite Effect
In villages close to Hongkong and Macao, the Communists nave adopted a new measure to check the upward trend of flights to freedom. When anyone escapes, his family is labeled as that of an "escapee household".
Such households receive less food and fewer daily necessities. Overseas remittance coupons are withheld.
The Communists are trying to stop the new wave of escapes with economic sanctions. However, the result is to increase the number of those trying to get away.