2024/11/28

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Taiwan Review

News from the mainland

March 01, 1958
The Closing In

For seven months after the "blooming and contending" of May and June, 1957, Mao Tse-turig took his time in laying out the net and setting the trap for an estimated 500,000 "bourgeois rightists" on the mainland, most of them affiliated with the so-called "democratic parties and groups." In spite of severe criticisms on the Chinese Communist party and its ironclad rule, he laid down the course of "criticism – unity - criticism" as the method to patch up the cracks on the monolithic front of his regime.

Foreigners marveled at the leniency shown by the otherwise ruthless despot. Some were led to believe Mao's announce­ment at the beginning of the "rectification movement" that it would be conducted in a manner "soft as a breeze and gentle as a drizzle." The Chinese Communists encouraged such illusions by announcing no major arrest or execution, and even allowing the top rightists - charged with "crimes against the Chinese Communist party, the Chinese people and socialism" - to remain at their puppet jobs as cabinet ministers, generals and whatnot.

After seven months, in which Peiping's propagandists successfully staged "the great debate on socialism," Mao felt that these rightists had been subjected to so much debasement and had so totally denounced themselves that the time had come to sack them. He gave the signal for the final closing in.

The timing was good. The "National People's Congress" was about to hold its 5th plenum on February 1. He decided that he would first fire them all from both party and government posts.

The "China Democratic League," largest of the splinter parities wound up its criticism meetings against the "Chang (Po-chun) – Lo (Lung-chi) clique," allegedly the center of all conspiracies against the Communist regime. The League held an enlarged session of its central committee on January19, attended by 2,000 people. According to the New China New Agency. Shih Liang, vice-chairman of the League and concurrently "minister of justice" in the Mao government, made a formal summary of their crimes which she said consist of eight counts:

"(1) Publicizing bourgeois 'democracy and freedom,' opposing the political system and basic policies of the state, opposing the socialist system, proletarian dictatorship and democratic centralism;

"(2) Opposing the Communist party's leadership instate affairs and, first and foremost, its leadership of intellectuals and scientific, cultural and educational organiza­tions, wanting the Communist party to with­draw from institutions of higher learning and scientific, cultural and educational institutions;

"(3) Opposing the Communist party's leadership and supervision of the democratic, parties arid groups, changing the political direction of the democratic parties and groups, and using them as instruments to attack the Communist party, the people and socialism;

"(4) Negating the achievements of socialist reconstruction and of the successive revolutionary movements led by the Communist party, such as the three-anti's and five anti's; ideological remoulding and the suppression of counterrevolutionary movements; inciting anti-Communist sentiment and attempting to turn the tables and reverse decisions in settled cases;

"(5) Publicizing bourgeois democratic individualism and bourgeois science and culture among intellectuals, opposing the study of Marxism-Leninism and obstructing intellectuals from carrying out ideological remoulding and integrating themselves with the workers and peasants;

"(6) Diverting the political direction of the Kuang Ming Jih Pao, the Wen Hui Pao and other publications and using them as strongholds in its propaganda against Com­munism and socialism and for the bourgeois type of freedom of the press and publication;

"(7) Propagandizing the might of the aggressive imperialist camp, slandering the socialist camp and opposing the foreign policy of leaning to on side;

"(8) Applying the policy of crowding out or attacking the left and deceiving or misleading the middle elements, expanding the position of the rightists, giving posts to their own men so as to control the organi­zation and take over the effective leadership of the Democratic League, extending their ranks by recruiting counter-revolutionaries and other vicious elements to the democratic parties and groups so as to establish and ex­tend its reactionary organizational basis among them."

The Unemployed List

Within ten days before the opening of the "National People's Congress" session, the following lost their government and party jobs:

Chang Po-chun, as "minister of commu­nications," deputy to NPC and vice-chairman of the "China Democratic League."

La Lung-chi, as "minister of timber in­dustry," deputy to NPC and also vice-chair­man of' the League.

Chang Nai-chi, as "minister of food," deputy to NPC, vice-chairman of the "China Democratic National Construction Associa­tion," and vice-chairman of the "All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce."

Lung Yun, former warlord of Yunnan, as "vice-chairman of National Defense Council," and vice-chairman of the "Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee."

Others expelled from the "democratic, parties and groups" were:

From the, "Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee": Chen Ming-shu, former warlord of Fukien, as member of central standing committee and chairman of theory and policy research committee; Huang Shao-hung, former governor of Chekiang, as member of central standing committee and vice-chairman of the "work committee for peaceful liberation of Taiwan"; Tan Ti-wu, former lady legislator, as member of central standing committee and vice-chairman of the women's work com­mittee; Li Chung-lung, as member of central standing committee and deputy organization chief; and scores of members of its central committee.

From the "China Democratic League": Yeh Tu-yi, as member of central standing committee, deputy secretary-general and director of the general office; Shen Chih-yuan, Ma Cheh-min, Kuo Chiao-jan, Pan Ta-kuei, Chien Tuan-sheng, and Han Chao-ngo, as members of central standing committee; Tseng Chao-lun, as member of crntral standing committee and chairman of higher education research committee; Fei Hsiao-tung, as member of central standing committee and director of the cultural-educational department; Huang Yao-mien, as member of central standing committee and director of the propaganda department; Pan Kuang-tan, as member central standing committee and vice-chariman of the public relations department: Li Po-chiu, Chen Jen-ping, Peng Wen-ying, Huang Chi-hsiang and Chien Wei-chang, as members of central committee. Many of these are well-respected professors and scientists. Huang Chi-hsiang also lost his job as a member of the "National Defense Council."

From the "China Democratic National Construction Association" and' the ''All­ China Federation of Industry and Com­merce": Pi Meng-chi, central standing com­mittee member of the former and vice-chairman of the latter; Chien Sun-ching, central committee member of the former and standing committee member of the latter; and many "rightists" on the central committees of both organizations.

From the "China Association for Promot­ing Democracy": Lin Han-ta, as vice chairman, and "other rightists."

From the "China Peasants & Workers' Democratic Party," which became headless with both Chang Po-chun, its chairman and Huang Chi-hsiang, its vice-chairman and secretary-general, kicked out of all their posts: Li Po-chiu, as member of central executive bureau and deputy secretary-general: Yang Yi-tang, as member of central executive bu­reau and first deputy director of organization department; Wang Yi-fan, as member of cen­tral executive bureau; ChangYun-chuan and Li Shih-hao, both members of central executive bureau; and "other rightists among members and alternate members of the central committee."

From the "China Chih-Kung Tang" with branches in overseas Chinese communities: an undisclosed' number of ''rightists."

From the "Chiu San Society": Ku Chih-chung, chairman of the Society; Lu Kan-ju, as member of central standing committtee; Tung Wei-chuan, as member of central stand­ing committee and vice-chairman of the scientific, cultural and educational committee; Yuan Han-ching, same jobs as Tung; Hsueh Yu, as member of central standing committee and deputy director of the organization de­partment; Chu An-ping, as member of central committee and deputy director of the propaganda department; and "other rightists among members of the central committee."

And last but not the least, from the "Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League": Hsieh Hsueh-hung, its chairman. She was earlier-expelled from the Chinese Communist party of which she was a member.

On the first day it met, the "National People's Congress'" obediently confirmed the recall of 16 "rightists" by local "assemblies" arid ruled that 38 others "were no longer legally qualified to be people's deputies and should not be seated at the session." With this business thus conveniently disposed of, the NPC settled down to its usual task of rubber-stamping every thing proposed by the Communist regime.

The Rubber-Stamp

The fifth conference of the "National People's Congress" met for 11 days, but the whole business could be taken care of in two hours. The lengthy reports, including one given by Chou En-lai on the international situation and foreign policy, arid another by Li Hsien-nien on the national budget, were either repeating the familiar party line or exaggerating figures to cover up the regime's economic troubles. Every recommendation of the "government" was unanimously adopted without any change. There was no debate on policy, no scrutiny of the administration, and no variation in the praises heaped on the regime by the so­ called "deputies."

A good part of the 11 days was taken tip by "discussions," in which the participants rose one after another to make speeches. A standard text, released by the New China News Agency on February 5 and credited to Chao Wen-fu, "deputy" from Honan, began as follows: "Fellow deputies!. I am in complete agreement with Vice Premier Li Hsien-nien's report on the execution of the 1957 budget and the draft budget for 1958, Vice Chairman Peng Chen's report on the work of the NPC Standing Committee, Vice Premier Po I-po's report on the draft national economic plan for 1958, and Chairman Wu Yu-chang's report on language reform work of the Committee for Reforming the Chinese Written Language and the draft phoneticization plan. Now, I shall only report to you on the development of water conservancy construction campaign in Honan province…"

And so it went. Realizing that they had nothing important to say and couldn't afford to make any mistake in the wake of the anti-rightist campaign, the 970 conferees outdid themselves in choosing the subject of their perfunctory speech, making it as trifling as they could. Lu Hung-ping, "deputy" from Shantung and a "model agricultural worker," told of members of his agricultural produc­tion cooperative so bent on collecting green fertilizer that "they even scraped three tenths of an inch of ground in their yards." Kuo Cheng, "deputy" from Kwangsi, cried that "last year every district level cadre in Kueihsien averaged $2.50 in Jenmingpiao in administrative expenses, but this year we think $2.20 per person per month should be enough." And Miss Chang Hsin hua, "deputy" from Chekiang and a "model industrial worker,'' said: "The people of Hangchow were so inspired by Chairman Mao's personal visit to Little Camp Lane to inspect sanitation conditions recently that we have resolved to make our city free of mosquitoes, flies, rodents and sparrows within two years'."

Among the resolutions rubber-stamped by the conference was one proposed by Chou En-lai on "adjustment of organs under the State Council." It was authorized that:

(1) The "National Reconstruction Commission" should be abolished;

(2) The "Ministry of Commerce" be renamed the "First Ministry of Commerce" while the "Ministry of City Services" be known henceforth .as the "Second Ministry of Commerce;"

(3) The "First Ministry of Machine Industry," the "Second Ministry of Machine Industry" and the "Ministry of Electrical Equipment Industry" be combined into the "First Ministry of Machine Industry," while the ''Third Ministry of Machine Industry" become instead the "Second Ministry of Ma­chine Industry;"

(4) The "Ministry of Electric Power Industry" and the "Ministry of Water Conser­vancy" be made into one, to be called the "Ministry of Water Conservancy and Electric Power;"

(5) The "Ministry of Building Materials Industry," the "Ministry of Urban Recon­struction" and the "Ministry of Building" be combined into one, with the old name of the "Ministry of Building;"

(6) The "Ministry of Light Industry" and the "Ministry of Food Industry" be integrated into one, retaining the name of the form­er;

(7) The "Ministry of Forestry" and the "Ministry of Timber Industry" be put under one roof under the name of the former;

(8) A "Commission for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries" be established in place of the "Bureau for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries;" and

(9) The "Ministry of Higher Education" be integrated into the "Ministry of Education."

The Shake-Up

On February 11, Mao Tse-tung put his chop on the list of partial reshuffle of the "State Council" submitted by Chou En-lai, following close upon the heels of the organizational changes. Sha Chien-li got Chang Nai-chi's vacated post as "minister of food;" Yang I-yao was named "minister of Second Ministry of Commerce;" Chao Erh-lu moved over to the "First Ministry of Machine Industry" as boss; Fu Tso-yi retained his seat at the "Ministry of Water Conservancy and Electric Power;" Yu Chiu-li became "minister of petroleum industry;" Li Chu-chen kept his job at the integrated "Ministry of Light Industry;" Wang Shou-tao took over from sack­ed Chang Po-chun as "minister of communi­cations;" Chang Hsi-jo was made "chairman of the Commission for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries," leaving the "Min­istry of Education" for Yang Hsiu-feng.

What caught the interest of westerners was the announcement that Chou had resigned from his concurrent post as "foreign min­ister" of the Peiping regime, and was succeeded by Chen Yi, "vice premier" and titular "mayor of Shanghai." Rumors immediately sprang up and speculation ran wild.

Unidentified "observers" in foreign capi­tals ventured a number of guesses, all based on the assumption that Chou had somehow lost the favor of Mao Tse-tung. Others strained their necks to see what would be Peiping's new foreign policy. In both cases, they were as far from the fact as could be.

Contrary to the practice in democratic countries, the Shifting of "foreign minister" did not imply any change in the Communist regime's foreign policy, directed not from Pei­ping but from Moscow. It was rather an in­dication of internal striving for power within the top command of the Mao dynasty, a clever manipulation of Chou En-lai in vying for the role of the heir apparent against the other aspirant - party theorist Liu Shao-chi; who is "chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress."

Some 37 years ago, when Chou En-lai formed the first cell of the newborn Chinese Communist party in Paris, Chen Yi, then a student in the French capital, was one of the first to join. In the years since then, the two had been close pals. Chen rose like a comet in the Chinese Communist hierarchy, via several trips to Soviet Russia, a military command starting with the "New Fourth Army" and culminating in the "Third Field Army," and the chairmanship of "All-China Federation of Labor." He went to Tibet as special emissary of Mao, and for the last several years was "vice premier" while retaining the title of "mayor of Shanghai." His appointment only strengthened the hand of Chou En-lai in the power struggle instead of weakening it.

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