As the Chinese mainland power struggle continued, analysts were hard put to find why the powerholders of Chou En-lai did not crush the leftist movement of Chiang Ching, the wife of Mao Tse-tung, and her associates of the Shanghai clique.
The most likely reasons were Mao himself, his leanings toward the leftist camp and his support of Chiang Ching. Yet Mao appears not to have gone overboard in the neo-leftist cause recently. It could be he fears the destruction of Chinese Communism. A Mao warning against destructive internecine warfare made during the "cultural revolution" has recently been quoted by the Chou En-lai forces.
Only the Chou powerholders seem to stand for unity, and even they have not offered any real compromises. The leftists are not in favor of yielding on any score, perhaps aware that to do so would seal their doom.
The journal "Study and Criticism" of Shanghai has been presenting the leftist point of view since the 10th CCP congress of last August. This publication has now been joined by "The Peking University Journal- Philosophy and Social Science Edition," apparently a bimonthly. The first of the new issues emerged in February and the second in April.
Peking University was the scene of the first big character posters attacking the authorities in the "cultural revolution." The new periodical, fielded in this same Peiping hotbed of leftism, wants no part of accommodation. One article said, "Confucius' doctrine of 'loyalty' advocates the permanent maintenance of the unity of old contradictions; his doctrine of 'forgiveness' amounts to a compromise of contradictions, the negation of struggle and opposition to reform."
Another article said, "The struggle between the Marxist line and the opportunist line within the political party of the proletariat is a great motive force of the development of the proletariat and is a course bound to be taken in winning victory. Only through such struggle can the proletariat gradually clean away the dirty stuff which the old society passed on to it and unite into one on the basis of revolutionary principles and realize its great historical task of being the gravedigger of the old world and the creator of a new one ... We must absolutely not go in for compromises. "
The powerholders have recently followed a policy of rehabilitating officials disgraced during the "cultural revolution." Leftist articles continue to oppose this. The contention is that to do so is a repetition of Confucian "forgiveness," which is identified with getting "slave-owning aristocrats" off the hook. If the parallels are weak or non-existent that doesn't bother the leftists.
Another article appears to explain this year's Communist military reshuffle in leftist terms. The writer said that in order to consolidate a unified state of centralized power, the First Emperor of Ch'in had to deal with the old forces of the six formerly independent states. Following Legalist reasoning, he compelled them "to move to places where easier control could be exercised or to remote regions. This was to prevent them from making use of deep-rooted and old social relations to carry out sabotage and trouble." The emperor replaced the system of "title and estate by heritage" with the feudal system of appointing officials. Officials of the center and the provinces were appointed, dismissed or transferred by the emperor.
Also approved by the author was the First Emperor's employment of severe measures against assassins and opponents alike, imposing the death sentence on their ringleaders and denying amnesty.
One article refers to "huge bodies" usurping leading posts within the CCP. This is a thinly veiled attack on the powerholders. Recounting the history of internal struggle in the international Communist movement, the article said "there were counterrevolutionaries and ambitious persons who sneaked into the party. They camouflaged themselves to win by deceit the confidence of the party and the people, usurping important party and state posts. Once the time was ripe, they could usurp supreme power of the party and of the state and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into that of the bourgeoisie."
This article continued: ''The spearhead of the struggle between the Marxist line and the opportunist line has always been directed against 'huge bodies' who usurped leading posts. Such bodies were the chief representatives of the bourgeoisie in our party and the chief backstage bosses of all monsters and freaks. They were sham Marxists who stubbornly persisted in the bourgeois reactionary stand. Making use of their usurped power, they deceived the party and the people, changed the party's Marxist line and policies and were the most dangerous and vicious enemy to the proletariat and its party."
"Good-hearted men" may not advocate inaction against the "huge bodies" without destroying Chinese Communism. To remove the "huge bodies" would be no more than the elimination of an abscess to save Maoism, the article concluded.
This is the record of the Chinese Communists and related events from April 16 through May 15:
APRIL 16 - Chou En-lai has been in "semi-retirement" for the last several months, the Central Daily News of Taipei reported. Quoting an intelligence report from the mainland, the paper said "vice premier" Teng Hsiao-ping had been placed in charge of foreign policy and economic production. The arrangement reportedly was made on Mao Tse-tung's order after Chou asked for retirement on health grounds at the end of last November.
Chao Tzu-yang, once denounced as a counterrevolutionary element, has been reinstated as first secretary of the Kwangtung provincial committee of the Chinese Communist party, a Peiping broadcast disclosed. The post had been vacant since the military shake-up last January, when Ting Sheng, the Canton military commander and first secretary of the Kwangtung provincial committee, was transferred to Nanking.
Wall posters attacking Li Teh-sheng, one of the senior figures in the Chinese Communist leadership, have been seen in several towns in central and southern China, according to Canton reports. Li is the highest ranking official to come under public attack so far in the campaign to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius.
APRIL 17 - U.S. Ambassador David Bruce is fed up with Peiping. He wants to get out - and soon. That's the word from diplomats and other well-placed sources in Peiping and Washington who are close to the 76-year-old chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Peiping, UPI reported from Hongkong.
The Daily Telegraph reported from London that a wall poster campaign has been launched on the Chinese mainland against Li Teh-shing, a member of the nine-man standing committee of the politburo. Li has a reputation for radical sympathies and appointed many officers of leftist tendencies to senior posts.
APRIL 18 - The theoretical journal of the Chinese Communist party, in a new attack on Western classical music, denounced "some people" in the party for "fawning on things foreign." But Red Flag insisted the party was not advocating a blanket anti-foreign policy.
APRIL 19 - An Australian businessman said in Hongkong his colleagues attending the Canton trade fair told him 31 people were executed by a firing squad in Canton for crimes linked with the anti-Lin Piao and anti-Confucius campaign. His report coincided with an earlier one by Reuters Peiping correspondent Jonathan Sharp, who quoted travelers from Canton as saying they saw public notices in the city's side streets listing the names and ages of people recently executed.
APRIL 20 - Pro-Soviet Chinese Communist Wang Ming wrote just before his death that Mao Tse-tung was preparing for the succession of his wife, Chiang Ching, to the "Maoist throne," Tass reported. Wang Ming died in Moscow March 27.
A Peiping top military commander who for years wielded considerable influence in East China has mysteriously disappeared from public view. He is Hsu Shih-yu, formerly commander of the Nanking military region, who was transferred to Canton in a reshuffle of most regional commanders. His disappearance prompted speculation that he had fallen victim in the anti-Lin Piao, anti-Confucius campaign.
The anti-Lin Piao, anti-Confucius campaign spread to Hongkong with union cadres attending special lectures conducted by senior Communist officials. The briefings were given by three top Communist union officials who had recently returned from Canton.
APRIL 22 - People's Daily hailed the "oil battle" of Third World countries and suggested the possibility of similar raw materials embargoes against "the superpowers."
APRIL 24 - A man Confucius called a bandit chief was praised by People's Daily. A lengthy article in the paper recalled a turbulent period of more than 2,000 years ago and spotlighted Liu-hsia Chih. Confucius regarded him as an outlaw but the article described him as the leader of an armed slave uprising.
Fu Tso-yi, one of Peiping's more prominent generals, died in Peiping April 19. He was 79.
There seemed practically no doubt that Li Teh-sheng, one of the five "vice chairmen" of the Chinese Communist party, had fallen from grace, most probably as a result of the criticism campaign against Lin Piao and Confucius. Although there had been no confirmation of Li's disgrace, observers believed there was no doubt of it. The "New China News Agency" failed to mention his name in its account of the funeral of Fu Tso-yi.
APRIL 25 - Clarence Kelley, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, characterized Peiping's "mission" to the United Nations and its "liaison office" in Washington as "potential bases of operation for intelligence officers" of the Communist regime. Kelley made the statement while testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations. According to Kelley, the Chinese Communist "mission" to the U.N. had a staff of 109 as of February 1, 1974, while its "liaison office" in Washington had 55 persons.
The Chinese Communist press blamed Confucius for opposition to the reform of written Chinese. The Kuang Min Daily said that reactionaries inspired by Confucius were putting obstacles in the way of the reform which aims at simplifying the Chinese written characters.
APRIL 26 - The British weekly Economist reported the Burmese government was increasingly concerned about Peiping's support for Communist insurgents of the White Flag army. The magazine said a guerrilla force estimated at between 4,000 and 10,000 men had been making periodic forays into the strategic Kentung plateau, which overlooks Laos on one side and Thailand on another. The guerrillas are equipped with Chinese Communist infantry weapons and communications equipment.
Li Teh-sheng, "vice chairman" of the Chinese Communist party, has been criticized as a "traitor" by wall papers in Sian, capital of Shensi province. This was disclosed by Hideji Kawasaki, former Diet member of the Japanese Liberal-Democratic party, who arrived in Hongkong from the Chinese mainland.
APRIL 28 - An army general in Jakarta accused Peiping of trying to revive the Indonesian Communist party. Antara quoted the army commander for Sumatra and West Borneo, Lt. Gen. Widodo, as saying the Communists planned to use Sumatra as the main target for subversion.
Another large-scale exodus of refugees from the Communist-controlled mainland is in the offing, according to Hongkong reports. A total of 1,169 refugees reached Hongkong in the first three months of 1974. This does not include those who escaped to the British crown colony without police detection. During the first quarter of last year, only 729 refugees were detected.
Pravda disclosed further details of the flight of the military helicopter seized by the Chinese Communist authorities March 13. They denied that the aircraft carried any reconnaissance equipment. Pravda said the helicopter had taken off in stormy weather to pick up a sick man urgently needing an urgent operation.
A blood debt of "massacre and arson" committed by Tsarist Russians was recalled by people and army men in Aigun, a border town on the Ussuri river in Heilungkiang province, Radio Peiping said. The "sins" of the "old and new Tsars" cropped up in a recent anti-Lin Piao criticism session at Aigun, where Tsarist Russia and the Ch'ing government signed the "unequal treaty of Aigun" in 1858, the radio said.
APRIL 29- Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev thought Mao Tse-tung and Josef Stalin "treated people like pieces of furniture, useful for the time being but expendable," Time reported.
APRIL 30 - The Chinese Communists are believed to have shifted their nuclear testing base from Lop Nor in Sinkiang province to the Nagchu region of northern Tibet, or at least to have gone through the motions of having done so to conceal the exact location. Observers in Sikkim based their conclusion on the fact that the Nagchu administrative area, including the town of Amdo. had been declared a prohibited area. Non-permit holders, Tibetans and Chinese alike, are not allowed to enter. Even "people's liberation army" units have to take a detour round the town.
MAY 2 - Mysteries about the Chinese Communist power hierarchy deepened as the list of leaders attending May Day celebrations was announced. Li Teh-sheng, long considered as disgraced, was reported as leading the celebration in Shenyang, headquarters of the military region of which he is the new commander. Teng Hsiao-ping, who led a delegation to the U.N. special session, ranked only ninth in the hierarchy. Kang Sheng, one of the five-party vice chairmen, was not listed. Chen Hsi-lien, the former commander of Shenyang military region transferred to head the Peiping military units last December, was among the top ten. Wang Hung-wen came after Chou ahead of "marshals" Yeh Chien-ying and Chu Teh. Then came Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan.
MAY 4 - Chances for an early restoration of ties between the Peiping regime and Indonesia are remote. This was disclosed after two days of discussions between President Suharto and Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak in Penang.
There are still worshipers of Confucianism within the Chinese Communist party. For that reason, the anti-Confucius campaign will never end, People's Daily said in an editorial.
MAY 5 - Chinese Communist housewives have labeled the disgraced Lin Piao a "male chauvinist," the "New China News Agency" reported.
MAY 6 - Going far beyond its attacks on Western classical music, Peiping criticized Greek and Roman culture, denounced the idea that Europe is the world's cultural center and linked all this to Lin Piao.
Four men were executed by a firing squad in Canton last month and the carrying out of the death sentence imposed on a fifth man was postponed for two years, according to posters seen the city.
Kuo Mo-jo, president of Peiping's "academy of sciences," died unannounced, according to a press report in Hongkong. No other details were given.
MAY 7 - War between Peiping and Moscow is not likely this summer, Chen Yu-ching, director of the Kuomintang Overseas Affairs Department, said in Taipei. On the Chinese Communist side, he said, the chief restraining factor is the existence of a free China in Taiwan. "Mao Tse-tung will not risk a war with Moscow so long as the Republic of China exists. That explains why Peiping always makes concessions to the Russians when the tension between them reaches a danger point," he said.
Lin Piao had Kuomintang and Youth League members as part of the social foundation for his abortive coup against Mao Tse-tung in 1971, Peiping asserted.
MAY 8 - Four newly arrived freedom seekers accused the Peiping regime of tyrannical rule and praised freedom in Taiwan at a news conference in Taipei.
The Soviet Union charged that the Chinese Communists had been staging overt and covert violations of the border for many years and said the Kremlin had kept silent to avoid friction.
Russia said Peiping was using the landing of a Soviet helicopter on Chinese mainland territory as a pretext to complicate the relations between the two.
Peiping made a further revaluation of its currency against the Hongkong dollar. The increase was 1 per cent coming on top of a 1 per cent rise April 24. The new rate was RMB (renminbi) 37.54 to HK$100.
MAY 9 - Chou En-lai was unable to attend a banquet because he was ill, a "foreign ministry" spokesman said. It was the first time diplomats could remember Chou missing such an occasion. The spokesman said the 76-year-old Chou was not seriously ill but felt unwell "because of his old age. "
Lin Piao had to be made Mao Tse-tung's successor because he had the army behind him, Chou En-lai said. This was revealed by Shuji Kawasaki, former senior Japanese Diet member of the ruling Liberal-Democratic party, who saw Chou in April.
The peremptory tone of the Soviet demand to Peiping for the return of three helicopter crewmen "might be interpreted as intended to prepare the way for an attack on (Red) China," wrote Henry Bradsher of the Washington Star-News.
The Chinese Communists gave varying treatment to foreign visitors at the Canton fair with the Japanese being favored, a European businessman said.
More than half of the Peiping regime's 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have been caught up in some form of political ferment linked with the drive against Confucius and Lin Piao.
MAY 10 - Soviet and American talk about detente is only a "facade" covering up an intense rivalry that ultimately will be resolved by war, People's Daily said.
Moscow and Peiping now have 45 divisions each along their 4,000-mile border, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said. This implies a considerable increase of forces on the Chinese Communist side. The Russians have equipped their forces with the latest type weapons for nuclear and non-nuclear operations, the Institute said.
The London Daily Telegraph reported that "scores" of supporters of Lin Piao had been executed in Nanking. The newspaper's Paris correspondent, Michael Field, quoted businessmen as his source.
MAY 11 - Is Chou En-lai indisposed physically or politically? While the possibility that he is actually ill cannot be ignored, there is a strong case that his unprecedented failure to appear at a banquet in Peiping was a major new development in his political decline, Henry S. Bradsher reported from Hongkong.
A severe earthquake rocked the interior of the Chinese mainland, a Hongkong government spokesman said. The tremor measured 7 on the open-ended Richter scale and was centered near the border area of Yunnan and Szechwan provinces. The shock was severe enough to be measured by the U.S. National Earthquake Information Service at Boulder, Colorado.
MAY 12 - Chou En-lai has been advised to take a complete rest because of an undefined indisposition, Radio Pakistan reported.
MAY 13 - Chou En-lai, who complained earlier of not feeling well because of his age, canceled a round of talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. A spokesman said Chou was convalescing following "a recent indisposition. "
Peiping warned South Korea that its fishing boats must immediately stop interfering with Chinese Communist fishermen. "New China News Agency" alleged South Korean vessels had recently "brazenly and truculently" rammed Chinese Communist fishing boats operating in the East China Sea.
MAY 14 - The end of an era may be near on the Chinese mainland. There are signs that Chou En-lai, who has served as the sole "premier" in the 25-year history of Communist regime, may be stepping aside. There is mounting speculation - and some evidence - that he may be withdrawing from the main seat of power in favor of a more collective leadership.
Chou En-lai's role in the visit to Peiping of Pakistan's premier emphasizes Chou's reduced status. Chou was well enough physically to meet Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan but not well enough politically. Chou seems to be going through a minimal routine of entertaining foreign leaders just to keep up appearances for the outside world. His actual importance to the regime has faded.
Chou En-lai is suffering from high blood pressure and his doctors have advised him to restrict his movements, diplomatic sources in Peiping said.
Li Teh-sheng, the Chinese Communist army's top political commissar and one of five "vice chairmen" of the Communist party, appeared to be in trouble. There was increasing speculation among experienced mainland analysts in Hongkong and in Peiping that he could be the first major casualty of the current political struggle.
MAY 15 - Chou En-lai is likely to be kicked upstairs to fill the ceremonial post of head of state of the Chinese Communist regime, an expert on Communist affairs predicted in Taipei. The expert said Chou was likely to get his "promotion" in the next couple of months for reasons of failing health.