A new ideological education campaign called the "three accusations and three examinations" is being initiated and led by the army in the northwest province of Kansu.
The purposes of the "three accusations", according to Radio Lanchow, are to accuse: (1) the reactionary classes of crimes in exploiting and oppressing the laboring people, (2) Liu Shao-chi of attempting to restore capitalism and (3) imperialism and social-imperialism of aggression.
The aims of the "three examinations" are to examine: (1) the people's understanding of the importance of political power, (2) their understanding of the importance of preparedness against war and (3) the revolutionary spirit of "fearing neither hardship nor death".
"Factories, villages, government organizations and schools throughout the province must develop widely this movement step by step," the broadcast said. "For it to be done well, we must regard this job the same as fighting a battle."
One of the indoctrination methods is a joint army-people "accusation rally" during which the "bitter past" is recalled and the "happy present" enjoyed.
A production team of Liushu Commune in Yungteng county, Kansu province, claims to have launched the new ideological campaign jointly with a PLA company. During a mass rally at the commune, speaker after speaker was said to have mounted the platform to make accusations against the "old society".
In late 1968, "Defense Minister" Lin Piao initiated a similar movement in the army called the "two recollections and three examinations". This apparently has been all but forgotten. The earlier campaign included these tasks: (1) recollection of sufferings in the old society, (2) recollection of struggle in the "cultural revolution", (3) examination of one's attitude to ward Mao's strategic plan, (4) examination of one's words and deeds to see if they conform to the main orientation and (5) examination of one's determination to carry out the "cultural revolution".
'Kill the rats!' campaign under way
In about half a dozen southern and central provinces, mass arrests and public trials are reported taking place against "counterrevolutionaries" on charges of corruption, sabotage and attempts to restore capitalism.
Communist leaders have put the blame for current corrupt practices on "class enemies" who allegedly are launching attacks on socialism and "corrupting our cadres, our poor and lower-middle peasants, and particularly our leading groups, with sugar coated bullets".
These irregularities have become so serious that People's Daily last December advocated a mainland wide campaign to "give the masses a free hand to energetically hit the corrupt and thieving elements, speculators and reactionary capitalists and carry the class struggle in the realm of economy through to the end".
The newspaper blamed those who are "apathetic" or "scared" to face the economic struggle and who "reduce big matters to small matters, and small matters to nothing".
This view was endorsed by Red Flag in its second 1970 issue when it wrote: "Don't be afraid of offending people and creating bad feeling. Arouse the masses. We must discredit capitalism and make it look like a rat crossing the street with everyone shouting 'kill it!' and leaving no hiding place for it."
In response to the call, mass campaigns and "kangaroo court" trials of corruptors, thieves, speculators and persons accused of waste are unfolding in Hunan, Kiangsi, Chekiang, Anhwei, Honan, Kwangtung and some other provinces, according to provincial radio stations.
For instance, the Fukien Provincial Revolutionary Committee launched its campaign in early February, urging the leadership to "boldly mobilize the masses to fight a people's war against corruption, theft, speculation, waste and extravagance". It said that all chief criminals and "backstage bosses" engaged in corruption and those who refuse to confess must be arrested, sentenced and executed if the facts of their cases warrant it.
Similarly, the Kwangsi Regional Revolutionary Committee has issued a directive calling on the autonomous region in the southwest to wipe out corruption and at the same time practice economy. The directive broadcast over Nanning Radio February 5 said:
"Everyone should do everything possible to save every drop, of oil, every grain of rice, every unit of electricity, every inch of cloth, every sheet of paper, every lump of coal, every piece of timber and every inch of steel."
Among the corrupt practices mentioned are stealing public property, embezzling public funds, undertaking individual farming, dividing all the harvested grain among commune members and eating it all, selling application forms for entry into Hongkong and bribing cadres with wines, cigarettes and rich food. "Eating and drinking is no small matter," Red Flag said. "There is a class struggle being waged at the tips of chopsticks."
According to an ideological commentary written by the Anhwei Provincial Revolutionary Mass Criticism Writing Group published in Red Flag, some people seem to have failed to "fully appreciate the importance of the class struggle in the economic sphere in the countryside" and "are still muddle-beaded even to the point of 'being indifferent and apathetic". Others reportedly hold the view that "the situation is fine. A slight capitalist trend will not affect the whole situation".
"This view is erroneous," Red Flag declared.
A gunshot is Peiping's order
"A gunshot is an order. A battle to thoroughly transform the old-style faculty of arts has begun. Let us forge ahead with great vitality and in high spirit!"
This call for a new battle was carried by a recent broadcast of Radio Hofei in Anhwei province. The "gun shot" was a reference to an article in the first 1970 issue of Red Flag. Since publication of that article, Maoist media have repeatedly echoed the call for changes within liberal arts colleges and universities. According to Radio Shanghai, a "great debate" is developing on the thorough transformation of such institutions all over the mainland.
The Red Flag article which triggered the debate was entitled "Universities of Arts Must Carry Out Revolutionary Criticism and Repudiation" and reportedly was written by the Shanghai Revolutionary Mass Criticism Group.
In addition to criticizing academic anti-Maoists in general, the article particularly vilified "four old men". These four-Chou Yang, Hsia Yen, Tien Han and Yang Han-sheng - are writers who have been officially branded "venerable writers and elders of the bourgeoise" and "representatives of Liu Shao-chi's counterrevolutionary line in the cultural field".
Some members of the intellectual community apparently have been reluctant to criticize the "four old men" and their ideas. Whereas many students have not been pleased with the thought of going to the countryside for "revolutionary re-education", others seem to have welcomed the chance as a way of avoiding the pressure to criticize "class enemies".
According to Shanghai Liberation Daily, some "misguided" persons have left the universities, saying: "Whoever wants to criticize these four men can do so. I am going to the countryside to take part in productive labor and be re-educated."
Such an idea, said the paper, is "absurd, ridiculous and histrionic" because "there is only one purpose for the intellectuals to be re-educated by the workers, peasants and soldiers, and that is, to thoroughly change their old ideology". Merely being made physically strong through productive labor and being able to carry a heavy load are not enough-one must also follow Mao thought, the Liberation Daily said.
How widespread and profound the influence of the four writers has been during the last 20 years of Communist rule over the mainland may be gauged from the following passage:
"What is there to reform, if in re forming the arts colleges we do not criticize the four men? We would like to know: Is there a department in the arts colleges which has no connection with Chou Yang? Are there any poisonous-weed films which have no connection with Hsia Yen? Are there any poisonous-weed dramas which have no connection with Tien Han and Yang Han-sheng?"
The Red Flag commentary charged that some people in academic circles, including university presidents, not only are apathetic toward the reform of old-style arts colleges but also pre vent others from taking part in the mass criticism of certain contemporary literature.
Mainland intellectuals are now told that building socialist arts colleges concerns not only the arts colleges and the science and engineering colleges, but also all trades and occupations.
Ghost of Tao Chu still roams Kwangtung
The ghost of Tao Chu, former "governor" of Kwangtung and "vice premier" of the Peiping regime, appears to be roaming the countryside of Kwangtung province, still asserting a spell over the peasantry he once ruled as the "Tiger King of South 'China".
Radio Canton has frequently broadcast denunciations of Tao Chu, now branded a counterrevolutionary double-dealer who plotted to restore capitalism in the rural areas. These repeated charges against Tao, who was removed from political office and the public eye in January of 1967, have come in the wake of a mainland wide campaign of thrift and war-prepared ness and amid press reports of mass apathy toward the Maoist theory of "perennial class struggle".
According to a Radio Canton broadcast of January 13, 1970, the peasants of a certain production brigade in Ssuhui county revived "crimes" of the type Tao Chu previously advocated. These crimes aimed at sabotaging Peiping's collective economy by: (1) putting production in the forefront, (2) offering material incentives to the peasants and (3) sharing and eating all grain produced. These, explained the announcer, are "the three soft knives which murder people without drawing blood".
Two days earlier, the same station reported that the Foshan Special District Revolutionary Committee deem ed it necessary to remind the people that the "goods peddled by the counter-revolutionary double-dealer Tao Chu have not been thoroughly eliminated", adding that the problem should be solved through struggle criticism-transformation.
Again, on January 21, Radio Canton broadcast an article written by the Revolutionary Leadership Group of a certain production team in Hsinyi county, declaring that "we must thoroughly wash away the evil influence of the counterrevolutionary double-dealer Tao Chu's theory of 'making the family rich and prosperous' ".
Tao Chu's present condition and location are not known. Presumably he is still held incommunicado in Peiping, like his close colleagues Liu Shao-chi and Peng Chen, former "mayor" of Peiping.
The meteoric rise and fall of this stocky 65-year-old Hunanese constitutes one of the most bizarre episodes in the Chinese Communist Party history. From February of 1955, when he was first identified as "governor" of Kwangtung, to early 1966 when he ceased to be first secretary of the Party Central Committee's Central-South Bureau, Tao Chu wielded tremendous influence not only in his home base of Kwangtung, but also in the neighboring provinces of Kwangsi, Hunan, Hupeh and Honan.
In July of 1966, he was transferred to Peiping to become "vice premier" and concurrently director of the party's Propaganda Department and member of the policymaking Standing Committee of the Politburo. At that time, Tao Chu was often described by foreign observers as the regime's "man to watch". His ranking in the Communist hierarchy jumped from ninth in 1956 to fourth a decade later, preceded only by Mao Tse-tung, Lin Piao and Chou En-lai.
Barely six months later, in January of 1967, Tao Chu came under heavy fire from militant Red Guards on the rampage in the early stage of the "cultural revolution". According to wall posters published by Maoist activists at Tsinghua University, Tao Chu was charged with "16 crimes", including giving protection to "capitalist roaders", sullying Mao's image and advocating the good life replete with the comforts of the bourgeoisie. He fell into utter disgrace.
In September of 1967, Tao Chu was formally denounced by the People's Daily as an "out-and-out counter revolutionary revisionist opposed to the party, socialism and Mao Tse-tung thought". According to Politburo member Yao Wen-yuan, Tao Chu's idea of the "ideal of Communism" was "comfortable houses" which "provide every room with electricity at night and enable everybody to dress sprucely and ride in motor cars" and "good food, good clothing and good housing". This is bourgeois decadence, asserted Yao in a 1967 People's Daily article.
According to some observers, Tao Chu's reassignment to higher positions in Peiping was a ruse known in Chinese strategy as tiao hit li shan - moving a tiger away from the mountains. Once he was removed from his power base, Tao Chu was lost. His ghost, however, apparently lingers on.
Safe revolution vs. dangerous production
Radio Peiping broadcast a commentary from the March issue of Red Flag attacking the belief of cadres that "it is safe to grasp revolution and dangerous to grasp !production". This idea, which is a natural result of the enforcement of Lin Piao's slogan "giving prominence to politics", the periodical said, has seriously hindered industrial and agricultural production in the provinces. Some provinces, such as Heilungkiang, have responded by convening conferences to emphasize production.
Certain provinces in which a subtle campaign to squeeze the leftists from revolutionary committees is still being carried out have emphasized the ideological and organizational "revolutionization of the leadership groups". The sending down of cadres to rural areas is a convenient means to this end.
The campaign to eliminate "corruption, theft, extravagance-waste and Capitalist tendencies", currently enforced in all provinces, is being used as a double-edged sword-against the peasants who have taken advantage of the disintegration of the party and regime during the "cultural revolution" to seek some cash income for themselves, and also against the leftists who are obliquely referred to as elements of "bourgeois factionalism and anarchism". Charges are lumped together with such "crimes" of "class enemies" as profiteering and black marketing. Being lumped in the indictment with those accused of these "crimes", the elements of "factionalism and anarchism" are automatically cast into the category of "counter-revolutionaries" and "class enemies". The provincial authorities seem to have found that this campaign suits their own aim of maintaining power.
Mao still cannot get rid of the 'olds'
Recent weeks have seen a mounting campaign in the provinces to stamp out corruption, embezzlement and speculation, which have frequently been reported to exist in various organs and have come under constant attack in the central and provincial press since the end of 1969 as "the new trend in class struggle".
The direct involvement of cadres in these illicit activities has been openly revealed or implied. This suggests that efforts to refashion the old "bureaucratic" and "capitalist-leaning" power structure which allegedly existed before the "cultural revolution" have not availed. Although the Chinese Communist Party may be taking on a new look through organizational rectification, it would seem it is still plagued by the influence of "individualism", so that many of its members still fall victim to practices that are incompatible with Maoism.
The gravity of the situation is stressed by a Honan Daily editorial entitled "Resolutely Smash the Assaults of the Class Enemies in the Economic Field". The editorial claims that the struggle in the economic field against corruption, embezzlement and speculation - "a fierce struggle to defend socialism" - is unfolding well in the province and goes on to describe the "sabotage activities" carried out by "class enemies" in the economic sphere. The editorial continues:
"They go to the back door, buy up important state materials and engage in black market trade in order to make fantastic profits ... Under the pretext of 'cooperation', they carry out exchange of materials in order to sabotage the socialist economy. They make use of the reduction in personnel and streamlining of organs and offices and the abolition or amalgamation of schools, enterprises, businesses and units, to divide up privately public funds and materials. They pursue counterrevolutionary economism, hold feasts and drinking bouts, spend money lavishly and shoot sugar-coated bullets to corrupt the masses and the cadres, vainly attempting to seek agents in the leadership groups and usurp the leadership, etc."
The reference to "class enemies" here, some of whom are said to be "new bourgeois elements" who "want to restore their past good old days and continue their nice dreams", makes it appear that they are cadres who have been making use of their positions in various central organs to embezzle and manipulate public properties and funds for personal ends.
The same situation seems to prevail in Kwangsi. A directive issued by the Kwangsi Regional Revolutionary Committee to promote production included a call to leadership at all levels to "repudiate Capitalist trends in society, methodically deal blows at bourgeois corruption and sabotage and resist the assaults of bourgeois sugar-coated bullets".
In Hunan, the campaign against "capitalist tendencies" and corruption has not only been launched on land but also on waterways, where "bad people" are said to have taken refuge from previous campaigns. Radio Changsha in the provincial capital reported that the Changteh Municipal Junk Cooperative Revolutionary Committee had "tightly grasped and repudiated the four most harmful problems" - "carrying out production by individual junks, keeping junks for private use, indulging in corruption and theft and buying and transporting goods for private profit".
The upsurge of corruption and theft among cadres may have resulted in part from the policy to decentralize Industry, commerce and education which has encouraged each province, county and commune to plan and run things on its own and thereby slackened higher-level control over the lower-level units. Another factor which could be partly responsible is the reluctance of officials to deal with problems in their areas of administration for fear of being accused of letting economic matters take precedence over political tasks and again incurring criticism and attack. This state of mind was condemned by the Honan Daily in these words:
"Confronting this shocking struggle, how can we see it but pretend not to see it? If we do this, we will be colossal political simpletons ... It is particularly necessary to point out that certain leadership comrades, confronted with this severe class struggle, say that the problems are complex and hard to deal with. Thus, they harbor all kinds of fears. Some of them even fear 'making the mistake of carrying out the bourgeois reactionary line'. Hence their determination is small and their leadership ineffective."
Financial and economic affairs are managed by intellectuals, who constitute a source of strong "rebel" resistance to the provincial and regional "power holders" now in command. As charges of corruption and dishonesty could serve to remove the more trenchant opponents of the local leadership to be found in the spheres of economics and finance, there is a possibility that the charges are being inflated. The accusations against cadres could be a stratagem to coerce cadres into action against the "rebels" - action they have been reluctant to take for fear there may be another successful upsurge from the "left".
Nonetheless, the current charges against cadres seem to reflect a factual situation. Otherwise the campaign would be undermined by lack of credibility. All this is eloquent testimony to the failure of four years of "cultural revolution" to achieve the predictably unachievable Maoist aim of altering human nature. This is the rock on which Maoism and Communism are foundering.