The Mainichi Daily News of Japan published on January 9 an article by Stephen Constant from London: "The most important object in (Red) China today is a text book. It measures 3 1/2 x 5 inches, has 270 pages and 88,000 characters.
"It is well and clearly printed on good paper and has a red plastic cover. Its title is 'Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.'
"There are millions and millions of copies. At the recent series of gigantic rallies in Peking everyone clasped the booklet. The book is at once a breviary, a talisman against all evils, a badge of political reliability and the fount of all knowledge.
"It is almost intolerably boring. Indeed a Chinese propaganda publication, in trying to assure the public of the unrivalled excellence of the 'Quotations,' ingenuously told a story about an old peasant who read Mao's work whenever possible, and especially at night when he could not fall asleep.
"Nikita Khrushchev once tried to guy the banality of Mao's thoughts by improvising one: 'In order to walk, it is necessary to put one foot in front of the other.'
"Yet, ludicrous as the book is, it is seen as the chief educational weapon in the Cultural Revolution which will certainly go down as one of history's most depressing examples of official mass-lunacy. 'Mao-think' is intended to replace all other brands of 'think', to stamp out all traces of the 'Four Olds' (old ideology, old culture, old customs and old habits) and replace them with 'Four News' (new ideology, new culture, new customs and new habits).
"There are two aspects of the Cultural Revolution which has convulsed (Red) China. One is the obscure, bitter and violent power-struggle between rival factions in the (Red) Chinese leadership. Here the outside world can only occasionally hear the clank of a weapon.
"The other aspect is far from secret. It is Mao's attempt to capture forever the minds of China's young people.
"As a first step Mao destroyed the entire existing educational structure of China (on the mainland). All schools and higher educational establishments were closed last year. They will remain closed until autumn, 1967, with the exception of some provincial primary schools.
"Some 130,000,000 pupils were ordered to wage a merciless 'struggle' against 'bourgeois' teachers. It was a far from harmless exercise.
"It has become increasingly clear that since last May hundreds of professors, lecturers and teachers have been driven to suicide by their 'Mao-thinking' pupils. Many more thousands of teachers were sacked, humiliated and forced to engage in 'self-criticism' and to perform degrading work, especially night soil collecting, an activity which Mao believes has excellent educational and therapeutic value.
"Mao has always been antagonistic to traditional scholarship and education. This dates back to 1918, when young Mao, unable to take a degree course at Peking University, accepted a minor post in the university library, fetching and carrying books and newspapers. His salary was the same as that of a coolie.
"Whether the slight was real or imagined, he took life-long offence at the offhand way in which he was treated by the rapt scholars in the library. Now he has paid them back for their snubs.
"But that is not the essence of the Cultural Revolution. The fundamental reason for it is Mao's fear that after his death (he will be 73 on Boxing Day) his revolution will fizzle out.
"He is obsessed with doubt about (Red) China's young generation, 'the heirs to the revolution.' He fears that they will go soft and degenerate into 'revisionists.'
"Mao's wife, who is one of the leaders of the Cultural Revolution, echoed her sentiments at a recent Peking rally to commemorate the take-over by the (Red) Chinese Army of the Peking Opera, Philharmonic Society and Ballet Troupe. She warned the rally against the dangers of 'rock-and-roll, jazz, strip-tease impressionism, symbolism, abstractionism, fauvism and modernism - all of which are intended to poison the minds of the people. In a word, there is decadence and obscenity to poison and paralyze the minds of the people.'
"Poison apart. Mao's fears about the youth of (Red) China going soft are well-founded. The educational system is quite inadequate for (Red) China's needs.
"Few young people can get higher education, and most have to accept whatever job is offered to them. Few graduates can find jobs for which they have qualified.
"One way in which Mao has tried to solve the problem is to send school-leavers to work in the countryside, often in regions along the border with Russia.
"Another growing problem concerns youth unemployment in the cities. Reports about hooliganism and gangs in the cities were on the increase until the Red Guards managed to guide the frustrations of some 20,000.000 youths into officially backed vandalism.
"However, the Red Guard movement often had the reverse of the desired effect. When provincial Red Guards arrived in Peking, they were dazzled by what to them were the bright lights, the pretty girls and restaurants. They were extremely reluctant to get back to the boring daily routine.
"Now they have been ordered back home to spend the time studying Mao's quotations during the long winter. In the spring the Red Guards will become active again - at least that is the intention. But much depends on the final outcome of the great secret struggle for power in the very heart of (Red) China." (Partial text)
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post of Hongkong said January 7: "Chiang Ching was almost totally unknown to the outside world by that name as Chairman Mao's third wife until the so-called 'cultural revolution' got well under way towards the latter part of last year. Even that persistent and indefatigable band of 'China Watchers' in Hongkong was stumped when the name appeared on the hierarchical list from Peking after the great August rally when Lin Piao's name was moved up to the No. 2 position after Mao. Mr. Scot Leavitt has written a highly engrossing account in the latest issue of Life Asia how she was eventually identified, after much digging, as Lan Ping, the struggling actress who apparently realized that stardom could be more successfully sought as the wife of China's Communist chief than in a Shanghai film studio.
"Fame she has certainly attained now - nation-wide, even world wide - as First Deputy Leader of the Red Guards. Here is indeed a 'great leap forward.' Wifely zeal added to Communist dedication make her a powerful force in the campaign to convince the masses that her husband's left ideas are right and to put down his political opponents. She has blossomed into a political speaker of the first magnitude, upholding the Chairman's doctrines and castigating all who resist. Red Guard loudspeaker vans have blared out her demand through the streets of Peking for the arrest of all her husband's 'enemies'. It appears that her greatest efforts have been in the direction of drawing attention to the deviations from the Maoist line of the wives of some of the topmost Chinese Communist leaders. Whilst it has been left to others to attack Liu Shao-chi, the Chief of State, Mrs. Mao has gone hammer and tongs for Liu's wife. Attacks by others on Liu himself have, it is reported, produced a 'confession' from him of 'political crimes.' Largely due to Chiang Ching, Mrs. Liu also is reported to have penned a 3,000-word document admitting her own mistakes." (Full text)
Hongkong Standard
The Hongkong Tiger Standard published January 12 a report by Dennis Blood worth from Singapore: "As 1966 gave way to 1967, the supporters of Chairman Mao Tse-tung's 'revolutionary proletarian line' intensified their vociferous denunciation of Chinese 'revisionists' whose own leaders, however, remained obstinately silent…
"While the followers of Mao and his heir-apparent, Marshal Lin Piao, dominated the struggle in the Peking area, little that was decisive happened in the provinces. There were no really massive purge of 'counter-revolutionary elements,' and the local (Red) Chinese radio stations rarely even mentioned the anti-revisionist attacks launched by official publications in the (Red) capital.
"But the Mao-Lin faction has now launched a new, coordinated offensive both outside and inside the People's Liberation Army. For the Maoists are using the rank-less PLA as the champion of their political crusade for a classless Communist society against the entrenched, rank-conscious bureaucracy in Party and government, and it is therefore a priority target for purification." (Partial text)
Daily Sketch
The Daily Sketch of London said last December 29: "Music blares proudly on Peking as the (Red) Chinese explode their fifth atom bomb.
"Red China is now the only nation in the world which fouls the air with nuclear tests. The only nation to denounce the test-ban treaty.
"What a defiance of world opinion! What a smack in the eye for hopes of peace!
"Yet there are no protest marches against (Red) Chinese warmongering led by Canon Collins and Michael Foot. No bearded students sit down outside the (Red) Chinese Legation.
"The fact is these 'crusades for peace' work one way only: in the Communists' favor.
"Note in contrast the shocked reaction to reports that U.S. bombers have accidentally damaged civilian areas of Hanoi ...
"And so long as the Vietcong and their (Red) Chinese allies show no desire for peace, the free world - and that ought to include Britain - must stand firm." (Partial text)
Long Islands Press
The Long Island Press published January 1 a report by Stanley Karnow from Hongkong: "Dining with Mao Tse-tung one evening in September, 1964, a group of prominent French guests focused the conversation on Chinese Communist education. France's newly-appointed ambassador to (Red) China's Lucien Paye, brightly mentioned his recent visit to the University of Peking.
"'It's not a good university,' Mao snapped, as if to cut short discussion on the subject.
"'I saw the university president, the deans, professors and students,' Paye persisted. 'They described their studies and civic spirit.'
"Mao was unmoved. 'That's what they told you,' he said, 'but what they told you they do and what they really do aren't necessarily the same. It is not a good university.'
"Another Frenchman present, the politician Jacques Duhamel, picked up the thread, praising the (Red) Chinese youths he had met at a technical school at Sian, in central Shensi Province. One girl, he recalled, could recite Mao's writings by heart.
"Of course they spoke well - to you,' Mao sniffed. 'But don't believe everything you hear. The future will tell whether those students are good or bad. And it will be real life, not what they learn in books, that will judge them.'
"At the time, as a guest at that dinner recounted not long ago, Mao's criticism of (Red) Chinese students seemed to be scarcely more serious than a cranky old man's impatience with the younger generation. In retrospect, however, the leader's acerbic remarks were significant.
"They were the distant thunder portending the violent storm that has, within the past eight months, thoroughly disrupted and devastated the Chinese (mainland's) educational system. And that tempest, still unabated, is intimately linked to the 'great proletarian cultural revolution,' the wider political turbulence currently rocking Red China.
"Matching his disappointment with the Chinese Communist Party, Mao's dissatisfaction with the revolutionary spirit of (Red) China's teachers and students led in June to a suspension of university and high school enrollment and classes throughout the country.
"The stated reason for the shutdown was to overhaul education in (Red) China, making it conform more closely to Maoist ideology. With all but primary schools due to stay closed at least until next summer, it is not yet clear how the system will be altered.
"Suggestions have been made that arts courses be based on the writings of Mao, and reduced to as little as a year in order to release youths for service as soldiers, workers or peasants. One proposal, put forth by zealous students, urged that our children 'whose ideology is progressive' be admitted to college even without high school diplomas.
"Speaking to Japanese visitors in Peking, (Red) Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi hinted that the new university curriculum would run for four years, with students spending half that time at factories or on farms to learn 'the realities of society.'
"Whatever kind of educational structure emerges, young (Red) Chinese at the moment are apparently in disarray. Millions of them, recruited into the militant 'Red Guards' last spring and summer, have passed the months since going in and out of Peking or shunting around the countryside, supposedly emulating Mao's epic 'long march' of 30 years ago.
"Those still in the capital are cold, hungry, visibly bored. Dressed in quilted blue boiler suits, they sleep in unfinished buildings and spend their days wandering aimlessly through the city, gathering at intervals to recite Maoist aphorisms. Summing up the change in the 'Red Guards,' a European diplomat in Peking observed: 'Last summer they were frightening. Now they are just pathetic.'
"Meanwhile, the capital's two main centers of higher learning, Peking and Tsing-hua Universities, have been converted into campaign headquarters.
"This present upheaval in education is only the latest, and most acute, twist in a zigzag of tactics dictated by Mao and his associates since their rise to power in (mainland) China 17 years ago. And these tactics have shifted in rhythm with Mao's fears and hopes over this period.
"Underlying Mao's approach to education, however, is a basic attitude he has expounded nearly all his life. In contrast to the public image of him as a kindly, sensitive, poetic personality, Mao has always been more Spartan than Athenian. Though labeled 'philosophy,' his doctrines are largely exhortations stressing the need for courage, strength and military spirit as the instruments by which (Red) China's destiny would be fulfilled.
"However it is resolved, the past year has been a wasted year for (Red) China's students. And Mao, who dreams of making (Red) China a major industrial power, has ironically abused and intimidated the very people whose technological, scientific and other skills would contribute to fulfilling his dream." (Partial text)
Japan Times
The Japan Times said January 6: "The news concerning Communist China is the most disturbing factor in the international arena in these early days of the year 1967. With the increasing dispute between Peking and Moscow we feel less concerned than with the obvious encouragement given by Peking to Hanoi's refusal to agree to Vietnam peace negotiations on reasonable terms, and with Peking's absurd pretensions to assume a dominating role in the world's future. The Peking regime is not only attempting to crush all freedom of speech and opinion on the Chinese mainland but is now seeking to make totalitarian Maoism a universal gospel ...
"Whatever explanation fits the case, it is clear that the other nations of the world today, be they Communist or non-Communist, cannot admit the claim that Maoism is a political example for mankind at large ...
"The idea of forcing people, on any excuse whatsoever, to adopt a certain line of political thought to the exclusion of all others is wholly unjustified and we do not think it can ever succeed in dominating the world's people. Humanity is much too large, and man, being a rational being, will insist on using his reason. And after all, the expression 'great proletarian cultural revolution' is either meaningless or a contradiction in terms.
"Communist Chinese Vice Premier Chen Yi on Wednesday declared his country would 'effectively carry on struggle against imperialism, modern revisionism and all reaction' and would 'all the more powerfully support the revolutionary people of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the rest of the world in their struggle for world peace, national independence, people's democracy and socialism.'
"Boiled down to a semblance of meaning these verbal acrobatics really indicate that it is Peking's intention, as far as it is able, to interfere in other nations' affairs with the ultimate objective of provoking violent revolution.
"So much for Peking's attitude toward the world in general. But it reserves its greatest animosity for Washington and Moscow. In the Soviet capital, Communists declared, after a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party addressed by Mr. Leonid Brezhnev, that the anti-Soviet policy of 'Mao Tse-tung and his group' had entered a 'new dangerous phase.'
"The only help we can see ... is that the very absurdity of the Maoist claims is likely to harden the views of more and more thinking people throughout the Free World ...
"In all Communist countries, we can observe bitter struggles among those who presume to 'lead' the unfortunate people. We could not in the nature of things expect Communist China to act differently, for the phenomenon is based on the absence of any proper constitutional or democratic method of making change in the government. .. Rabble-rousing tactics seldom result in permanent success. Pierre Vergniaud's saying about revolution devouring in turn each one of its children may yet once more be exemplified in Red China." (Partial text)
Editor's Note: Style is that of the publication quoted.