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charges againsl 1hem was lhal of
" lampering" wilh the lhoughls of
Chairman Mao. that is , fab ricating
sayings which purportedly ca rne
from Mao in the last monlhs of his
life - sayings designed to assure
th e ir ri se l o power after hi s
death.
The plots and intrigues attributed
to lhe fou r have grown inc reasingly
broad. sugges ting lhat the moder–
ates a re fabricating at leas t sorne o f
the charges lo further discredit the
radica ls. The full slory may nol be
known for years- if eve r.
New Strongman
In sho n o rder, the top Chinese lead–
ership was purged of its ullraleftists.
Repo rts revea led that sorne 50 other
leftist officia ls had been arrcsted in
addi ti on to the top four.
On top - for the time. a t leas t -
has emerged Premier and Firs t
Vice-Cha irman Hua Kuo-fcng (pro–
no unced Hwa Kwo-fung). un til re–
cently a re latively unknown official.
Concurren! with the a rrests of the
radica ls, posters proclaiming Hua as
the new Party Chairman - lhe na–
ti o n's rop pos t - went up in major
urban centers.
With his major r ivals behind bars.
it now appears tha t Hua has suc–
ceeded in ga ining undisputed con–
trol over the party and the country.
He reportedly a lso has the crucial
support of the military.
Hua, thought to be in his mid-50s,
was born in the provi nce of Shansi
in no rtheaslern China. As a provin–
cia l party offici a l wilh a reputati on
as a skil lful administator. Hu a
caughl Mao's eye and was brought
10 Peking in 197 1. He became a
member of the Po litburo in 1973 . In
ea rly 1975 he was named a vice–
premie r and minis ter o f public secu–
rity.
Last February. fol lowing Premier
Chou En-la i's deat h. Hua was unex–
pectedly appointed acting premier.
It
had been wide ly expec ted tha t
C hou's personally designated suc–
cessor , First Vice-Premier Ten g
Hsiao-ping, would s tep into 1h a t of–
fi ce, but oppos ition from the radi–
ca ls a ppa rently prompted Mao to
install Hua as a compromise choice.
With Teng's abrupt ous ter in a
power play two months la te r. Hua
was named permanent premier.
The PLAIN TRUTH December 1976
NEW CHAIRMAN.
Hua Kuo-feng, until
recently
a
relatively unknown officia/,
has emerged as the single most
powerful man in China following
a
power struggle between rival factions
of the Chinese Communist Party.
Pollcy Questions
C hina 's new lead ership will no l on ly
plot the course of China 's interna!
poli t ical a nd economic d eve l–
o pment, but will a lso direct Peking's
relations with the o ulside world. In
thi s regard, it is believed l ike ly tha l
th e main lines of Chinese fore ign
po li cy will be continued for the im–
mediate future.
Possibly the mos t importan! ques–
tio n raised by Mao's dea th is the
future rcl a lionship between China
and the Soviet Union
(The Plain
Truth,
September 1976). Analysts
a(e cautious in their predictio ns, but
mos t view a sudden policy switch to
a more concili atory atti tud e toward
Moscow as ex treme ly unlikely. ll is
known . however. that there are e le–
men ls in bolh factions, including
sorne top military men , tha t would
like to see at least a limited rap–
prochement with the Kremlin. But
to eve n suggest s uch a drast ic
change in policy so soon after Mao's
death would certainly be political
suic ide.
ft
was not surprising, lherefore,
that Cha irman Hua - in the best
tradition o f Maois t anti-Sov ie tism -
recen
ti
y denounced the "imperial–
is tic designs" of the " new czars" in
the Kremlin. If he has a ny prívate
feeli ngs about a future thaw in rela–
tions with Moscow, he is keeping
them to himselffor the time being.
Chi na's relations with the United
States are expected to remain on a
fairl y even keel in the months ahead
- a necessa ry counterba lance lo the
icy re lations between Peking and
lhe Kremlin. "The basic factors
which b rought the United States
and Ch ina together," Secretary of
State Kiss inger observed recently,
"are stil l operating and are likely to
continue."
Peking will continue to see k im–
proved relations with Washington.
most experts feel, but will not com–
promise o n the question of Taiwan ,
the main obstacle to full normaliza–
tio n of Sino-American relations.
The Chinese Communis ts. who a re
committed to the ultima te " libera–
tion" (conquest) of Taiwan, want
the U.S.
10
sever its dipl omatic and
military ties to that island nation.
Washingto n has so far refused.
Chi na's increasingly friendly rela–
tions with Japan- desig ned to keep
Tokyo from cultivating closer rela–
tions with the Kremlin - will also
certainly continue.
Chairman Hua , however, is sli U
some thing of a mystery, both inside
and o utside China. What his per–
sonal vision fo r Chi na and his lo ng–
term polici es mi ght be rema in to be
seen.
Even his durability is somewhat
in questi on. despite h is apparent
grip o n power at present. A "second
genera tion" leade r , he lacks the dis–
tinction of party seniority. He may
no t even have been bo rn when the
Chin ese Communi st Party was
formed in 1921.
Moreover, as sorne analysts sug–
gest, the rad icals may be down, bu t
not out. Like earthquakes, po li tica l
convulsions are sometimes followed
by unpredi ctable aftershocks.
lt may s till be premature to make
any definite predictions about
China's future. But one thing is cer–
tain. Developments in China - the
world's most populo us nation and a
nuclear power of growing strength
- bear close scrutiny. There can be
little doub t that China will p lay a
significan! role in d etermining the
course of world history in the re–
maining quarter of the twentiet h
century.
O
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