China—the

crisis deepens

By A. DIMIN

HE situation in China early in Aug-
ust became so acute and intense
that the British newspaper Daily
Mail considered it possible to write:
“China now is on the verge of civil
war.” Indeed, at the present time, this
opinion has quite real grounds. As a
result of the adventurist course pur-
sued by the Maoist leaders of the “‘cul-
tural revolution,” the vast country is
more and more sinking into the omin-

ous abyss of internecine clashes.

The 40th anniversary of the People’s
Liberation Army of China (PLA) was
observed on August 1 by a parade of
troops of the Peking garrison and Red
Guards in the large square of Tien An
Men. While Premier Chou En-lai prais-
ed to the skies “Mao’s great ideas” be-
fore the rows of soldiers and crowds
of fanatic youths, in the south of the
country, in the port of Kwang Chow
and also in the 2-million eastern indus-
trial centre of Wuhan, machine guns
fired and blood was spilled. Railway
workers from Kwang Chow have put
up staunch resistance against Maoist
detachments who are trying to seize
power in the city. According to Hong
Kong newspapers, more than 100 have
been killed and many wounded as a re-
sult of the fierce fighting. There was a
24-hour interruption of railway com-
munication between this Chinese port
and Hong Kong. Vast numbers of
Wuhan refugees are fleeing from the
terror of Mao supporters.

Wuhan has, as it were, become the
centre of resistance to the “cultural
revolution” at the present stage. Its
capture was considered in Peking an
exceedingly important task and was to
have coincided with the 40th anniver-
sary of the PLA. This city in the lower
reaches of the Yangtse ‘rizer has been
in the hands of the anti-Mao forces
since about mid-July. Together with
its population — factory and office
workers, and youth—the military units
stationed in Wuhan under Gen. Chen
Tsai-Tao, commander of the military
district, came out against Mao and his
group. On the order of Defense Minis-
ter Lin Piao, the close associate of the
“great helmsman” Mao, paratroops
were landed onthe city. It is also un-
der fire from warships that sailed up
the Yangtse. But the defenders are
staunchly holding their ground.

Nor were of any avail psychological
attacks by Maoists, aimed at intimi-
dating the rebels by spreading leaflets
by aircraft. Foreign observers point
out that Mao and his lieutenants are
evidently mimicking the methods used
by the Americans in South Vietnam.
They often resort to such “psycholo-
gical treatment” of well-protected lib-
erated areas under control of the Na-
tional Front. At the same time, the de-
sire of the Maoist troops to seize Wu-
han at all costs is causing great casu-
alties among the population who are
compelled to flee to other cities and
countryside. As the Western Hong
Kong and Japanese press reports. the

September 1,

anti-Mao movement has spread to the
provinces of Yunnan, Kwangtung,
Tsinghai, Szechwan, Singkiang, Hon-
an, Hunan, Shantung, and inner Mon-
golia. There, too, army units who have
learned well the Maoist slogan “power
comes from the rifle muzzle,” are try-
ing to suppress the indignation of the
working people by bayonets. A mon-
strous thing is happening: the army
which calls itself the People’s Libera-
tion Army has assumed the functions
of a gendarme. and is suppressing its
own people, the very people it libera-
ted not so long ago.

But not the entire army is toeing the
line of the Mao group. There are forc-
es in it which refuse to put up with the
adventurist course of the “cultural re-
volution” inspirers and see its great
menace to the very existence of the
People’s Republic of China. The Hong
Kong newspaper Star claims that 13
commanders of the Chinese military
districts have established contact be-
tween themselves and are demanding
that Mao withdraw from active politi-
cal life. They are also insisting on the
immediate resignation of Lin Piao from
the Defense Minister post and declare
that under no circumstance must he
remain the official successor to Mao.

The split in the army, navy and air
force is probably causing much an-
xiety to the top Maoists in Peking. It
was not accidental that by their ord-
ers a campaign was started early in
August against commanders “taking
the capitalist road.” This is a kind of
general purge aimed at removing : all
influential persons in the army who
are not among the supporters of Mao.
It was they who came under attack in
a lengthy article devoted to the 40th
anniversary of the army, in the armed
forces newspaper Chienfangchun Pao,
the mouthpiece of Lin Pao.

It poured abuse on the former De-
fense Minister Peng Te-huai, that very
“iron Peng’? under whose leadership
stunning blows were delivered against
the American interventionists in Korea.
Picking to pieces this veteran who was
at the cradle of the PLA, the newspa-
per describes him as ‘“‘a person pursu-
ing the bourgeois military line.” What
is this line? It appears that Peng Te-
huai, as is evident from the article, ad-
vocated the equiping of the Chinese
army with up-to-date military weapons
and its training, and not pinning hopes
on the “revolutionary spirit of Mao,”
thus breaking Mao’s canons. But by
stubbornly denying in their propagan-
de statements the role of the latest
equipment in improving the army, Ma-

1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4

BD

Mao’s thoughts all
the working clas

This article, written by A. Rumyan-
tzev and A. Sterbalova, appears in
abridged form.

HE revolution in China which led
to the foundation of the Chi
nese People’s “*Republic in

1949 was an extremely complex
phenomena. Its national liberation
and social tasks were closely _ in-
terwoven. During the first years after
victory the revolution tackled:

e elimination of colonial depend-
ence
eradication of feudal hangovers
agrarian reform
nationalization of basic industry
breaking up of the old govern-
ment machine.

At the outset the Communist Party
autlined a rezlistic long-range program
of agricultural and industrial reform.
Its features were an extensive use of
state capitalism, a gradual step-by-step
cooperation of peasants and building
with the aid of the Soviet Union the
groundwork of modern industry. For
the successful advance to socialism a
close cohesion of all strata and broad
democracy was needed.

However the implementation by the
Chinese working class of its historical
mission was hindered by the class
structure of Chinese society where the
peasantry was dominant. The percent-
age of industrial workers in the entire

‘provement of the W®

population in 1949 was apa
cent. ,%
The great revolutionall 9
peasantry in a countly ue :
is unquestionable. But the the! t
of the revolution solely 1" ag t
a “peasant revolutionaly me
tively led to the underest™
working class. er)
This Ted to a situation int
of the economic demal % AT
ing class on hours of wort Oe

; e
remained a dead issue mae
the opposition of Mao fot

ruggle a
considered the st a ing

+ alist al
conditions a syndicalist rel
deviation restraining

ev i,

‘zeal of the masses. ecot {

A realistic program ve ref
forms was more and Mi
a planning megalomant igi
economic race. The ail
were given the task 10 stil
few years a rate of ! no
ment that would make ial le
overtake and outstrip plo
economic indices 2% ind
among the world’s lem" joie”
scientific and cu tural sot

The extreme acceler og d
industry led to 4 rene A |
ment in agriculturt pil
Chinese village with 1 thes
nology became a 4f@ pant”
industrialization. a

oists are simply being hypocritical,
trying somehow to justify the fact that
after the self-isolation of Peking from
socialist countries, the PLA began to
experience great difficulties in the
equipment of modern combat weapons.

True, the Chinese leaders are seek-
ing to compensate such a lag by the
development of nuclear weapons, al-
though it is not prompted by the- in-
terests of defense. Here Mao and his
minions seem to be contradicting them-
selves. They are claiming that “the
atom bomb is a paper tiger’ and at
the same time are spending colossal
sums on its manufacture. Why? The
reply to this question is given, in my
opinion, in an article published in the
journal Chugkuo Chingnien. The article
says: “A country possessing perfect
means of delivery (long-range rockets
and guided missiles) and a considerable
number of nuclear bombs of the most
varied types is a super-state, and only
a super-state is able to head the world,
lead and control countries that do not
have nuclear weapons .. .”

Now, conditioned by Maoists, units
of the PLA are operating inside the
country. What if in adventurist in-
toxication they will be given orders by
claimants to the leadership of the world
to inculcate forcibly ‘Mao’s ideas”
abroad? The real danger of Peking ex-
tremism and chauvinism, it seems to
me, is clearly seen from the Maoists’
present hostility toward Burma or
Nepal who are refusing to bow to the

“godlike” Mao: 1 fre
the army can OP. i
e!

countrymen, it all
its arms agains
the aim—this :
which is being P irvine
leaders who are tool of” We
army into a plind |
In an attempt

ed control over 10 TO
tinuing his strug” Liv St dh
ficial head of st@ .

is supported
military leaders: a
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him again.
rounded th ee
Peking, the Te iden

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Shao-chi nese dent getty :

ing part in an i

more than 4 thous Ma ‘
young supporter’ reels. ay
all the nearby odo i ine
the Japanese he

nee
trainin by y 4!

the 4 Ay

furious me
Come Out!” ag sha .
i i

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ing chaos and pees if '
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