Persistent rumors swept the Chinese mainland last month that Mao Tse-tung soon will take the bull by the horns and convene the "National People's Congress" despite his failure to rebuild the Chinese Communist Party and thereby complete the "great proletarian cultural revolution." With the 50th anniversary of the CCP's establishment less than a year away, he has reason to be in a hurry.
Mao has never accepted the collapse of his "great leap forward" and is intent upon undertaking a new one as quickly as possible. His problem is how to get past the opposition of the masses of the people who let him down during the "great leap" and again during the "cultural revolution." These are people who have shown they do not want Communism, Maoism or the "thought" that Mao tries to stuff down their throats.
Some of this came to light in the joint editorial of People's Daily, Liberation Army Daily and Red Flag on the CCP's 49th anniversary July 1. Only last January Mao had asserted that most CCP members were good-meaning they were faithful to Mao thought. Six months later the Maoist line was holding that revolutionary mass criticism had to be pursued day after day, month after month and year after year because even if the overwhelming majority of party members were good, they were not yet ready to become the "vigorous vanguard group" needed to lead the masses in the class struggle.
Those who attended the anniversary celebrations were overwhelmingly from the military and did not include the new or reformed faces from the grass roots hat Mao is seeking. The people continued to sit on heir hands or oppose the Maoists when opportunity permitted. Factionalism is far from dead and the editorial indulged in new denunciations of "mountain strongholdism." Red Guardists and the leftists of Chiang Ching, Mao's wife, were still bidding for power. They, too, received their warning from the party central in an editorial that almost seemed to advocate a strong arm clad in a velvet glove.
Externally, the Maoists continued to give priority attention to Indochina in general and Cambodia in particular. Norodom Sihanouk, late of Cambodia, was made a lion of Peiping. Chou En-lai said the Chinese Communists would put him back on his throne, an ironical promise considering the source. Armaments and other supplies were moving from South China to the border of North Vietnam by rail and truck.
The count of "ambassadors" sent out to foreign posts rose to 21. A dozen or more special missions had been dispatched abroad this year compared with only nine in 1969. A military group headed by General Su Yu went to the Congo-Brazzaville. Other visitations included those to North Korea, North Vietnam, Nepal, South Yemen and the United Arab Republic. Of the new envoys, Shih Tzu-ming in Finland and Meng Yueh in Mali are not professional diplomats. Changes apparently have taken place in the "foreign ministry," including the merger of departments in keeping with Mao's directive for simplification of the administrative structure.
Reports trickled out of the mainland that an attempt would be made to reopen the universities this fall. They have been shut down, in effect, for more than three years except for Red Guard activities, Mao thought study and indoctrination by workers, peasants and the army. The Communists may be able to follow Mao's dictum that arts and letters are of no importance but apparently have found they cannot get along without engineers and scientists. The emphasis of the "new higher education" is expected to be on functional skills.
To solve the problem of a severe shortage of loyal low-level cadres, the Maoists appear to be relying on the so-called "May 7" schools established to train administrative personnel briefly while they remain at their jobs. NCNA said that 1,100 cadres had been sent out from the Liuho "May 7" school in Heilungkiang during the last two years. These schools are "re-educating" those who have failed to adhere to the "mass line." People's Daily said the schools are changing cadres ideologically. They study Mao thought and directives and the new party charter. Goal of the indoctrination is a cadre who leads a "frugal and self-sacrificing life while serving the people as an official and doing everything for them." Old and poor peasants lecture cadres on "past bitterness and present happiness to foster strong class feelings."
Without a reservoir of reliable new or reformed cadres at local levels, the task of establishing county revolutionary committees must be held in abeyance. So far only a few county bodies have been reported in Heilungkiang and Hunan.
This is the record of mainland and peripheral events in the period from June 20 through July 19:
June 20
Peiping said it was not prepared to reopen the Warsaw talks with the United States because "of the present situation which is very clearly known to both sides." "As to when the meeting will be held in the future," the announcement continued, "it will be discussed by the liaison personnel of the two sides at an appropriate time." The decision was conveyed to the U.S. government at a Warsaw meeting between Second Secretaries Thomas P. Simons Jr. and Chi'en Yung-nien.
French journalists reported the Chinese Communists were training more than 2,000 young Africans to make bombs and organize demonstrations and other disorders. Training camps are located at Kamapanda and Chinona in Zambia and Gambona and Impfonda in the Congo-Brazzaville. Most of the trainees come from Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroun, Gabon, Zambia, Angola, Chad and the Ivory Coast, the report said. Each camp was reported to have about a dozen Chinese Communist instructors who speak French, English or Portuguese.
Hongkong press reports said more than 50 Hongkong Chinese who traveled to mainland China had been executed since March. Twenty-three others were said to be under arrest, some for as long as 18 months. Travelers from Hongkong are suspected of being spies or of having connections with spies, the reports said.
June 21
Peiping extended its fishing agreement with the "Japan-China Fishery Association," a pro-Peiping organization, for two years effective June 22. The original accord was signed in 1965 and was extended for six months last year. Restrictions were imposed on net fishing.
Japan's foreign ministry said the Chinese Communists doubled their merchant marine in the last 10 years. The report said Peiping launched three 15,000-ton tankers and five freighters of from 10,000 to 15,000 tons at the Hungchi and Chiangnan shipyards between 1967 and April, 1970. Also launched in 1969 were a 10,000-ton dredge and 3,200-ton icebreaker. Imports of vessels from the non-Communist world were reported at US$20 million in 1967 versus US$100,000 in 1963.
June 22
Diplomatic sources in London said the Soviet Union had offered the Chinese Communists a huge loan and been turned down. The Russians were said to have been bidding for improvement of Moscow-Peiping relations plus an enlargement of trade.
More than a million Shanghai youths have been deported to the Sinkiang frontier region, according to Hongkong reports. Most were said to be serving as soldiers or forced laborers.
June 23
Reports of an imminent meeting of the "National People's Congress" circulated in Peiping. An academician, Kuo Mo-jo, was identified as "vice chairman of the NPC." Use of such titles was said to be increasingly frequent.
"New China News Agency" lashed out at Japan for renewing its security treaty with the United States. The Sato government was charged with being a "pawn and accomplice" of the "American reactionaries."
June 24
Hongkong sources told of increased tension and terror in Tibet as the Communists sought to quell anti-Mao and anti-Red activities. Many Communist cadres were said to have been killed at Shigatse.
June 25
Reports in London told of Chinese Communist attempts to launch missiles from a submarine. The sub was said to have been shadowed by units of the U.S. 7th Fleet after it was spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft near its base at Talien in Manchuria.
Intelligence reports said the Chinese Communists were executing some of those caught trying to escape from the mainland and sentencing others to prison instead of sending them to labor camps. Arrests of overseas Chinese making trips to the mainland were said to be up sharply. Of 1,400 detained in Canton in recent months, only 1,000 had been released. Of 60 persons receiving death sentences in Sanshui connty of Kwangtung in March, 30 were from Hongkong.
June 26
Peiping is already involved in the war in Cambodia, said Dr. Wei Yu-sun, spokesman of the Republic of China foreign affairs ministry. He said weapons and ammunition were flowing into Cambodia from the Chinese mainland and that this was a problem for all the free countries of Southeast Asia.
NCNA said 100,000 people attended a Peiping rally marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Mao Tse-tung, Lin Piao and Chou En-lai met with a North Korean delegation that had been invited to attend the ceremonies.
Radio Moscow blamed the Chinese Communists for lack of progress in the eight-month-old Peiping border talks. The Russians accused Peiping of continuing ideological and political attacks on the Soviet social structure, party and government policy.
Hongkong press reports told of Chinese Communist "smile diplomacy" efforts to promote trade and tourism in the British crown colony. Several dinner parties were given for foreign trade and consular officials.
June 27
NCNA attacked the United States for the "forcible occupation of Taiwan." The agency said that the Chinese Communists would "liberate Taiwan and drive out American imperialism."
People's Daily said many young people on the mainland have taken the "evil road" as a result of the influences of class enemies and the political lassitude of Communist cadres. Parents were blamed for not exercising thought control over their children.
June 28
Red China accused the United States of continuing to send spy planes over the mainland and of helping the Republic of China carry out aerial and seagoing reconnaissance. Peiping also complained that ROC agents were penetrating the mainland. Since 1964, the Reds said, 20 pilotless high-altitude reconnaissance plans and 11 other U.S. aircraft had been shot down.
Hongkong sources summed up Peiping's most active diplomatic offensive in more than five years. Activities include the backing of ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk and the Red bid for Cambodia, patching up of relations with North Korea, a bid for Romanian friendship, re-establishment of relations with Yugoslavia, assistance to Arab guerrillas in the Middle East and new penetrations of Africa. Su Yu, "vice minister of defense and former chief of staff of the army," led a military mission to the Congo-Brazzaville.
June 29
A team of China mainland watchers reporting to the British foreign office said that another "cultural revolution" may be in the offing if Mao Tse-tung lives long enough. Their study said Mao still wants a new "great leap forward" and is trying to change the basic character of the mainland people to make it possible.
Hongkong reports told of command personnel changes and the strengthening of Chinese Communist forces along the Soviet border. Name lists show the increasing prominence of leaders loyal to Mao Tse-tung and Lin Piao in provinces of the north, northeast and northwest. Included were Pan Fu-sheng, chairman of the provincial revolutionary committee in Heilungkiang, and General Chang Chieh-cheng, deputy to General Lung Shu-chin in Sinkiang. Chang heads the 600,000-man construction and production corps in the frontier province.
June 30
A traveler from the mainland told of heavily loaded camouflaged lorries moving through Wuchow in Kwangsi province toward the North Vietnam border. Army personnel were in charge of the lorries and of heavy railroad freight traffic also moving toward North Vietnam. Ordinary rail traffic was disrupted by freight trains presumably carrying armaments and supplies under the newly augmented aid agreement between Peiping and Hanoi.
Military men are continuing to increase their hold on mainland administrative power, according to further study of name lists. Most new names were those of military leaders, some of whom were purged earlier and then returned to posts of responsibility in provinces distant from those where they held forth before. Additions and changes have been made in Shantung, Shansi, Kweichow, Fukien, Szechwan, Yunnan, Sinkiang and Heilungkiang.
Hongkong reports said Mao Tse-tung had ordered the people of the mainland to surrender all gold objects to the regime as donations to support Communist aggression in Southeast Asia. Noncompliance is to be punished by imprisonment and even death.
Radio Moscow twitted the Chinese Reds for their failure to take Taiwan and for collaborating with "imperialists" in Hongkong and Macao. The Russians noted that the Peiping regime had failed even to grab Kinmen (Quemoy) and Matsu.
July 1
Peiping agreed to accept Vladimir I. Stepakov as the Soviet Union's new ambassador. It took the Chinese Reds about three months to make up their minds. The U.S.S.R. has not had an ambassador in Peiping since Sergei Lapin departed in 1967.
Border talks between Moscow and Peiping were at a complete standstill. London sources said Vasily Kuznetsov, the Russians' ailing chief negotiator, would not return to Peiping. The Chinese Communists said they would meet with the Russians in Heiho, Heilungkiang, July 10 in the 16th annual session of the Joint Commission for Navigation on Boundary Rivers.
People's Daily took a confusing line on party re-construction on the 49th anniversary of the CCP. Recent editorials had stressed "democratic centralism" in party affairs. The anniversary editorial said "leading cadres of the party must have the broadness of mind of the proletariat and not be narrow-minded. They must understand that people change. We should persuade those who have made mistakes to mend their ways and help them correct their mistakes. We must not keep on criticizing a person without end once he has conscientiously corrected his mistakes." Also omitted were two usual party reconstruction themes: (1) that the party must direct all other organizations, including the army, and (2) that the party must be purged of the "counterrevolutionary and revisionist Liu Shao-chi line."
July 2
Peiping said a crowd of 300,000 turned out to welcome Norodom Sihanouk, who returned from a 17-day visit to North Korea. This was announced as Peiping's biggest welcoming crowd since that for the Albanian prime minister three years ago. Chou En-lai was on hand.
Tokyo sources said Japanese exports to the Chinese mainland were between US$240 million and US$250 million for the first six months of 1970. Japan's imports from Red China were placed at from US$120 million to US$130 million. Two-way volume is expected to reach US$700 million for the whole year.
July 3
Britain's new conservative government summoned the Chinese Communist "charge d'affaires" to inquire about seven Britons detained in mainland China.
July 4
People's Daily claimed the U.S. troop withdrawal from Cambodia was "a smokescreen to cover expansion of the war of aggression." Issuing their "475th serious warning" to the United States, the Chinese Communists charged the Americans with two intrusions into air space over Communist-held islands.
A former Israeli intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Haim Herzog, said Peiping was seeking to spread Communist revolution into the Middle East by way of Arab guerrilla organizations. He said that the Chinese Communists want Israel destroyed and urged Israelis to seek closer relations with anti-Communist countries in Asia.
NCNA followed People's Daily in revelation of plans for naval expansion to match Soviet penetration into the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Two new iron and steel mills were opened in northwest China July 1, NCNA said. They were identified as the Chinghai and Sining plants but no details were given.
July 5
Dr. Stefan T. Possony, associate professor of the Foreign Policy Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, told a U.S. Senate security subcommittee that Red China might try to avert a war with the U.S.S.R. with an atomic attack on U.S. military positions in South Vietnam. Possony said that the United States would be compelled to retaliate and that Peiping then would invoke its mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet Union.
July 6
Speaking at a Peiping dinner honoring Norodom Sihanouk, "premier" Chou En-lai said the Chinese Communists stand solidly behind him and assure the "liberation" of Indochina. Among those at the dinner was Chiang Ching, Mao's wife, who has been little in the public eye recently.
Bidding for trade, the Pompidou government of France announced that State Planning Minister Andre Bettencourt would be dispatched to Red China for a stay of two weeks. He visited the mainland in 1964 just after Charles de Gaulle recognized the Chinese Communists. France hopes to sell aircraft to Peiping.
July 7
Mass public executions were continuing through the mainland. Kwangtung has been particularly hard-hit, according to Hongkong press reports. Details are kept secret because the Maoists fear uprisings.
July 8
U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin Laird said the Chinese Communists could be expected to fire their first nuclear missile at the east or west coast of the United States, where there are no antiballistic missiles to intercept. The safeguard defense system so far approved would protect only a central area of the United States where missiles and missile-carrying bombers are stationed.
July 9
William Rogers, the U.S. secretary of state, said that Red China is the key to any peace settlement in Indochina. Peiping's backing of Norodom Sihanouk reveals increased Chinese Communist aggressiveness in that area, he added.
Hongkong sources said Red China has purchased four Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft from Pakistan International Airlines. The planes will be used to open up routes to Albania and pro-Peiping countries of Africa. PIA bought the planes in 1966. They have a range of over 2,000 miles and can carry up to 115 passengers. Speed exceeds 600 miles per hour. Mainland domestic flights depend on Russian-made Iluyshins and six Vickers Viscount turboprops.
People's Daily called on "young intellectuals" and public functionaries to join the peasantry in manual labor. It said that the CCP had done a good job in moving youths from cities to rural areas but implied that "re-education" had not been going so well.
July 10
Russia and Red China resumed talks on border river traffic, according to Tass. The site was Heiho near the Amur River.
North Korea said that a Japanese foreign ministry policy paper discusses a possible invasion of Taiwan as a move against Red China.
Roman Catholic Bishop James Walsh, 79, was released by the Chinese Communists and walked across the border into Hongkong. He had been charged with spying and imprisoned for 12 years. The Peiping regime announced the death by suicide of Hugh Redmond Jr. of New York, a businessman, who was arrested in Shanghai in April, 1954. Americans known to be still in Chinese Communist hands are John Thomas Downey, a civilian employee of the U.S. Army, whose plane was forced down en route from South Korea to Japan in 1952; Richard Fecteau, who was with Downey; Air Force Capt. Philip E. Smith, whose plane was shot down near Hainan Island in 1965; and Navy Lt. Robert J. Flynn, whose plane was shot down near Kwangsi province in 1967.
July 11
General Huang Yung-sheng, the Peiping army chief of staff, said the United States will be thrown out of Asia. He was speaking at a reception marking the 27th anniversary of the Albanian People's Army.
An American television network commentator said President Nixon told him that he favors diplomatic relations with the Chinese Communists. The White House subsequently neither affirmed nor denied the report but said Nixon's (anti-communist) views are well-known.
July 12
Mao Tse-tung and Lin Piao met with visiting delegations from Tanzania and Zambia. Other Chinese Communist leaders present were Chou En-lai, Kang Sheng, Huang Yung-sheng and Li Hsien-nien.
With Anna Louise Strong gone from the scene at 84, the Peiping "American colony" spotlight fell on Frank Coe and Sol Adler, two aging former officials of the U.S. treasury department. They were listed as present at an official function for the second time in a little over a month.
Red Flag, the CCP theoretical journal, said the party would have to attain ideological purity before its organization could be consolidated. The party emerged from the "cultural revolution" stronger than ever, said the article, but members have yet to "temper and remold themselves and mature in the constant struggle against bourgeois ideology."
An American freighter collided with a blacked-out Chinese Communist junk near Hongkong. Crewmen from the freighter saved 16 of the 19-man crew of the junk. But pro-Communist papers in Hongkong assailed the Americans for "criminal activities" and demanded compensation.
July 13
Red China agreed to build a railway to link landlocked Zambia with the coast of Tanzania and to loan £ 167 million for the project. The loan will be free of interest and repayable in 30 years, starting in 1973 and with a grace period of five years. Work is scheduled to start this year. The Chinese Communists carried out survey and design missions in Zambia and Tanzania.
Romania reported its defense minister, Ion Ionita, had departed for Peiping and Pyongyang. The Romanian news agency said Chou En-lai may visit Romania later this summer. The Romanians recently signed a new friendship treaty with the Soviet Union.
Mao Tse-tung and Lin Piao met with a visiting French delegation headed by Minister of Planning Andre Bettencourt.
Peiping told of a "people's war" against snails in South China. The army, party, peasants and barefoot doctors were said waging an all-out campaign to eradicate snail fever in an area including 11 provinces, 1 autonomous region and Shanghai municipality.
July 14
Reports from the mainland hinted that universities may reopen this fall after more than three years of "cultural revolution" disruption. At many universities and colleges, the few remaining students have been attending Mao-thought classes and struggle criticism-transformation sessions organized and con trolled by worker propaganda teams and the "people's liberation army." Academic courses have not been resumed. Most former students have been sent to the countryside to learn from peasants. They are not expected to return. New students will take their places in the classroom.
Russia named Leonid I. Ilichev, veteran Communist Party official, as its new chief delegate to the Peiping border talks. He succeeds the ailing Vasily Kuznetsov. Ilichev, 64, is a former editor of Pravda and Izvestia.
July 15
Returning to Washington from an 11-day trip to Asia, Secretary of State William Rogers said: "We don't know much about Communist China. We do know they have increased their influence with Hanoi as a result of the Cambodian incursion. We think Soviet influence has decreased at the expense of Communist China. Whether the Communist Chinese have any reason to bring an end to the war we don't know. We rather doubt it. We think it serves their purpose to have the war continue. In effect, they use Hanoi as their instrumentality in causing trouble. We don't expect the Communist Chinese will get directly involved but one never knows for sure."
Sources in Ottawa said Peiping is stalling recognition talks with Canada in the hope that the Canadian Maoist movement will compel the Trudeau government to accept Red Chinese terms. The Chinese Communists want Canada to acknowledge their right to seize Taiwan. The last discussion between the Canadians and Chinese Reds took place in Stockholm March 24.
July 16
"Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs" Lin Hsing-tan has been named Peiping's new "ambassador" to the Soviet Union, according to informed sources in Moscow.
July 17
NCNA told of swim-ins on lakes and rivers to mark the fourth anniversary of Mao Tse-tung's supposed 65-minute swim in the Yangtze River. Mao was said to have swum nine miles in 65 minutes, which would have broken all world records. Sports were being revived by the Communists after the "cultural revolution" interim.
The pro-Peiping trade organization in Japan said it would suspend sale of raw materials from Red China to companies which participated in the recent trade meeting between the Republic of China and Japan. Several companies were named but all said they were no longer using materials from the mainland.
July 18
Rumors were rife in Canton that the "National People's Congress" would be summoned for September. The meeting supposedly would complete the purging of Liu Shao-chi as "president" and probably name Mao Tse-tung to that office concurrently with his party chairmanship. "Progressive elements" of Kwangtung were said to be holding meetings in preparation for the congress. The reports said delegates would be appointed, not elected.
Intelligence sources said anti-Communist guerrilla forces in South China were forming regional united fronts. Reports of such cooperation had been received from Kwangtung, Fukien, Kwangsi and Hunan.
Anti-Communist student organizations in Shanghai were reported trying to get in touch with the Republic of China through Hongkong. A leader named Wu Shou-chun and about 1,000 anti-communist students were said to have escaped after attempts to arrest them. Universities named were Fu Tan, Chiao Tung and Kung Tu.
July 19
London diplomatic quarters said the Soviet Union has been losing ground diplomatically to the Chinese Communists in Hanoi and Pyongyang.
Peiping boasted again of progress in building small and medium-sized hydroelectric generators in rural areas. One claim was that the number of plants built last winter and spring exceeded the total constructed in the previous 20 years by two times.
Hongkong said the Chinese Communists have eased restrictions on parcels. More than 2 million parcels were sent to the mainland from Hongkong in the first six months of 1970, an increase of half a million over the same period in 1969. About 390,000 parcels were returned by the Chinese Communists, down by 75,000. The name and address of the sender are required on all packages sent to the mainland.
Five Germans are detained in Red China, according to reports in Hongkong. Some have been in jail as long as 15 years. The Chinese Communists refuse to give information to the Bonn government because each of the five has one Chinese parent.