Mao Tse-tung's "proletarian cultural revolution" appears to have undergone a fundamental change since last August and September. Instead of "revisionism", which had been the arch-enemy from the outset of the "cultural revolution", the campaign's spearhead is now aimed at the "selfishness" of the pro-Mao/Lin "rebels", particularly the ingrained rebellious tendencies of the student Red Guards or "young generals".
This means that the "cultural revolution" in its original form bas been halted. Indications are that there is a fresh political tempest now mounting in Peiping which threatens to curtail the power of Mao Tse-tung, his wife Chiang Ching, and his partner Lin Piao and to increase the influence of the group of military leaders who have troops at their beck and call.
This drastic change is marked by the ascendancy of a cabal of powerful generals which since late July has been staging a vigorous counterattack against pressures from Chiang Ching and her "Central Group in Charge of the Cultural Revolution" in Peiping and against those student Red Guards in the provinces who act broadly in accordance with Chiang Ching's instructions with an eye to gaining personal power during the present political free-for-all.
It can be foreseen that these unruly "revolutionary rebels", mainly the "revolutionary young generals", will be forcefully restrained and even suppressed by the national, regional and local military authorities. The coming struggle between these "rebels" and the military "powerholders" will not inevitably involve military action. The provincial military authorities will strive to create political stability and restore production. They have shown that in order to achieve these ends they prefer to employ the nominally "transformed" former "powerholders" together with their own followers (who will serve the new military regime under cover of the "three-way alliance") and are against giving administrative power to the "rebels". It can also be foreseen that the entire mainland will be ruled by an alliance of military leaders who will elect the ruling central Party and government bodies, and that they will not brook opposition from the "Central Cultural Revolution Group" or other organizations. The situation on the Chinese mainland is likely to become comparatively calm under strong military rule, while the "cultural revolution" continues only on paper.
On the surface, the new "cultural revolution" formula of "struggle and criticism" would not appear to be any great departure from the former slogan of "struggle-criticism-transformation". In fact the targets of "struggle" and "criticism" have been changed.
Under the previous formula, the first task was to "struggle" against the "Party powerholders walking the capitalist road" in order to root out revisionism. The second task was to "criticize" bourgeois academic authorities, the bourgeoisie and all its ways. The third task was to "transform" education, literature, art, and "all superstructures that do not suit the basis of socialist economy". These tasks were summarized as "one struggle, two criticisms, and three transformations".
Under the present formula, "to struggle" against the "selfishness" of the "revolutionary rebels" and student Red Guards becomes the first task, the "criticism" of revisionists and revisionism the second. The previous third task has been dropped.
The official announcement of this drastic change was made by Lin Piao at the Peiping rally of October 1 when be said:
"Chairman Mao has recently instructed us that 'It is imperative to struggle against selfishness and criticize revisionism'. By struggling against selfishness we mean to use Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung's Thought to oppose revisionism and struggle against the handful of Party powerholders walking the capitalist road."
There is a new departure in this passage of Lin Piao's speech. He puts Marxism-Leninism on a par with Mao's Thought, indicating that they are two different things. Previously he had argued that Mao's Thought was Marxism-Leninism itself, or its brand-new stage of development and highest level.
Lin Piao did not specify where the "selfishness" lay but mentioned the Red Guards. He said:
"We must respond to the great call (for the struggle against selfishness, etc.) of Chairman Mao and ... strengthen the ideological education of the army and civilian cadres of the Red Guards. Various kinds of study classes should be organized ... These studies will help our veteran and new cadres and revolutionary young generals to liquidate all sorts of non-proletarian ideas in their minds ... "
The People's Daily, in its October 6 editorial, echoed Lin Piao by declaring:
"It is necessary to use Mao Tse-tung's Thought to overcome anarchism, small-group mentality, sectarianism, individualism and pragmatism in our ranks; it is necessary to sweep away these non-proletarian ideas."
There must have been a drastic change in the political atmosphere for Red Guards to have fallen into such disgrace. The change results from the defeat of the Red Guards by the provincial military authorities.
New Trend of Thought
Student Red Guards in Inner Mongolia are heading for a direct clash with the military authorities in that autonomous region. They have been propagating a so-called "new trend of thought" to oppose the "revolutionary committee" set up since last June by regional military authorities under the leadership of acting commander Teng Hai-ching and political commissar Wu Tao of the Inner Mongolia Military District.
On September 13, a speech delivered by a supporter of the "preparatory team" counterattacked "some comrades" for propagating the "new trend of thought". Although no names were mentioned, these "comrades" could have been none other than the student Red Guards. "Young people" in other regions had already been attacked for following this "new trend of thought".
The speech began with the statement that "Some comrades are of the opinion that in Inner Mongolia the genuine revolutionaries, the so-called 'revolutionary faction', are those representatives of the new trend of thought. They, and they only, persist in revolution. If anybody does not follow them, he does not understand new-born things and is ignorant. If anyone disagrees with their viewpoints, he is a 'new royalist', a 'guard of the old order', a resister against the new trend of thought which advocates thorough revolution. This trouble is caused by the ideas that 'only we are the revolutionaries' and that 'only we are the Leftists' ".
The speech then accused these "some comrades" of not trusting the "People's Liberation Army", i.e., the local military district, and of saying that "In Inner Mongolia, what has been established is the absolute authority of the Preparatory Team, not that of Mao Tse-tung's Thought".
The speech indicated that these "comrades" were advocating "disorder" in Inner Mongolia, in other words, the disruption of the preparatory team. These "comrades" had complained that Huhehot was calm, implying that the regional capital had returned to the "old order" under military rule.
The speech quoted "some persons" as saying that, "In the face of the present class struggle, it is not permissible for certain authoritative persons to spread the allegation that the situation is very good", and that "It is precisely over this issue that differences exist between the theory of the present new trend of thought and certain distinguished personages".
The speech also disclosed that "some comrades" opposed the "great alliance" by putting forward the slogans "long live the split", "split the leftists", "great upheaval, great reorganization, great split, great disorder and extraordinary disorder of the leftists". These "comrades" opposed the employment of former cadres who had been serving under the Party powerholders.
In conclusion, the speech categorized the "new trend of thought" as a "bourgeois trend of thought" and identified it with "anarchism" and the "extreme left".
"At present, a prominent expression of the petty bourgeois trend of thought is anarchism. Anarchists always appear as extreme leftists, deny revolutionary authority and condemn revolutionary discipline."
In Hunan province, as in Inner Mongolia, the military authorities are endeavoring to put down the rebellious activities of the student Red Guard organizations.
A speech by Li Yuan, "responsible person" of both the PLA's No. 6900 unit stationed in Changsha and the preparatory team of a Hunan provincial revolutionary committee, was broadcast by Hunan radio September 30. The speech must have been approved by the Mao/Lin leadership in Peiping. The Hunan radio on September 28 reported that Mao Tse-tung had met and talked with Li Yuan and two other persons from the Hunan preparatory team during Mao's recent tour of his native province. Li Yuan said:
"At present, the extreme left trend of thought must be criticized. The extremely left trend of thought is a reactionary trend of thought which makes a pessimistic estimate of the situation, appears in an extreme left guise, 'doubts everyone and strikes down everyone', undermines and splits proletarian headquarters, undermines and splits the Liberation Army, undermines and splits the great unity and great alliance of revolutionaries. If the extreme left trend of thought is not thoroughly criticized, it is impossible to establish the proletarian revolutionary authority or to achieve revolutionary great alliance.
"The ideas which hold that 'only we are the leftists', 'only we are the revolutionaries', which regard other revolutionary mass organization as 'middle-of-the-roaders' and 'conservatives', which have plenty of sectarian character and which hold firmly to small mountain-tops must be thoroughly criticized."
Price for 'Revolution'
"Premier" Chou En-lai finally has admitted that the "cultural revolution" made a shambles of the mainland economy. In a speech at a mass rally in Wuhan on October 9, he said the "cultural revolution" has had an adverse effect on industrial production, that great disturbances continued, and implied that the "great alliance" so enthusiastically acclaimed in September had not held together.
At the same time, he attempted to convince his audience that the industrial losses had been taken into account beforehand as the price that had to be paid for the "cultural revolution"; that the great disturbances were useful in that they favored the Maoists; and that the great alliances could be made to stick together if the opposing groups would only correct their ideology-with the assistance of the PLA.
The text of the speech as released by the "New China News Agency" included these major points:
Chou said it was already clear that there would be "another bumper harvest in agriculture" this year, but, apart from referring to the three additional nuclear tests, "including a guided missile weapon test and a hydrogen bomb test", made no claims for industry. He elaborated on this point this way: "Such a world-shaking revolutionary movement of course exacts a certain price in production in certain places and in certain departments. We took this into account in advance. Production is affected to a certain extent, especially in places where disturbances occur. But this is only a transient thing. As soon as disorder is turned into order, production can quickly pick up and rise."
Chou implicitly repudiated Mao's slogan "Rebellion is justified" which has become so dear to violent Red Guard groups. He made it clear that henceforth "disturbances" are to be regarded as criminal acts. He stated:
"It can be clearly seen at present that whenever disturbances occur, they are instigated by a handful of Party persons in authority taking the capitalist road or by elements and rightists who have not really reformed or enemy special agents who make trouble clandestinely.
"We do not approve of creating disturbances, but if the class enemy is bent on making them, this is nothing to be afraid of. When they act in this way they are lifting a rock only to drop it on their own feet. Through such disturbances our class enemies fully reveal themselves in their true colors. This by negative example awakens proletarian revolutionaries and arouses greater indignation, makes misled people see more clearly and mobilizes the masses more fully. Where disturbances are great, the enemies themselves are in fact greatly disturbed, and the masses are tempered better, and on the contrary problems can be solved more thoroughly there."
On the subject of the so-called "great alliance", Chou barred outside Red Guards or other revolutionary groups from intervening. He left the ultimate responsibility in the hands of the PLA.
"If there are some people in revolutionary mass organizations who sabotage the great alliance based on revolutionary principles, then we should rely on the revolutionary masses in these organizations to expose and deal with them. Other organizations must not interfere. The headquarters of the People's Liberation Army units in the Wuhan area should do more ideological and political work and help and encourage the mass organizations to promote great alliances."
Foreign Trade
Communist China's foreign trade is down. There are deficits in international payments for the first time in 10 years.
Red China exported 18,300,000 pounds sterling worth of goods to Britain in the first six months of 1967 while importing 28 million pounds sterling of goods.
Trade with West Germany in the same period resulted in a US$113 million unfavorable balance. With Italy, the deficit was 6,000,000 pounds sterling. This reflects the reduction of industrial production as a result of the Red Guard rampage.
Peiping's trade in the last decade has been at an average of US$3,000 million a year. In 1959 during the "great leap forward", trade reached US$4,290 million. The figure had dropped to US$2,670 million by 1962.
The volume rose again as the Chinese Communists promoted trade with Japan, West Germany and Italy. It climbed to US$3,700 million in 1965 and to US$4,165 million last year.
Mao's "cultural revolution" began to have its impact early this year. Suspension of production in factories and on farms and the disruption of transportation led to a sharp decline in production. Peiping's policy of supporting the Viet Cong in Vietnam and its nuclear buildup also have aggravated the decline.