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The ‘Gang of Four‘—and Hua Kuo-feng: Analysis of Political Events in 1975—76

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Jürgen Domes
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Extract

Early in March this year visitors to China reported seeing in Canton a wall-poster with the headline “ [I]t's not a ‘gang of four’ but a gang of five!” (pu shih ‘ssu-jen-pang,’ erh shih wu-jen-pang!). The poster alleged that the new chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and premier of the State Council, Hua Kuofeng, had been a loyal follower of the Cultural Revolutionary Left led by Chiang Ch'ing, Wang Hung-wen, Chang Ch'un-ch'iao and Yao Wen-yüan from the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. It went on to claim that although he had turned against the personnel of the Left, he nevertheless remained a supporter of Leftist policies even today. We do not know whether the wall-posters “vilifying Chairman Hua,” for which seven men and two women were reportedly executed in Hangchow on 11 March 1977, and 26 people in Shanghai in early April, had carried the same accusation. But there is some evidence that certain, as yet unidentified, forces in China take a different view of the policies and attitudes of Hua Kuo-feng during the intra-elite conflict of the last few years, from that of most foreign observers of Chinese politics. Such observers have generally argued, since the spring of 1976, that Hua is a “middle-of-the-roader,” a politician having more in common with the ideas and values of the now dominant complex of veteran cadres and generals than with those of their “radical” Cultural Revolutionary adversaries.

Type
Recent Political Issues
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 71 , September 1977 , pp. 473 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1977

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References

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20. Jen-min, 16 September 1975.

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43. Among others: Jen-min, 3, 7, 11, 22 and 30 November 1976.

44. In “Hsüeh-hsi” (Study) (Peking), No. 11 (1955)Google Scholar, reprinted from an article by Hua in the spring of that year.

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49. The Chinese text of this wall-poster can be found in Mou, Hsüan (ed.), Li I-che ta-tzu-pao lun-chi (Collected essays on the wall-poster of Li I-che), T'aipei, 1976, pp. 155–208Google Scholar.

50. The full text of this document is not available outside the PRC, but it is mentioned in, Public Security Bureau, Yünnan Province, Yünnan Provincial Higher People's Court, Revolutionary Committee of the K'unming Railway Bureau, Circular Note, 14 April 1975 (unpublished document in the author's possession).

51. Chekiang jih-pao (Chekiang Daily) (Hangchow), 13 07 and 24 August 1975Google Scholar; Chekiang PBS, 22 and 25 July, 8, 10, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25 and 26 August 1975; NCNA (Hangchow), 2 08 1975Google ScholarPubMed; Heilungkiang PBS, 18 August 1975; Hunan PBS, 23 and 26 August 1975; and Hopei PBS, 12 and 14 September 1975.

52. NCNA (Lanchow), 24 08 1976Google ScholarPubMed; Chekiang jih-pao, 8 and 24 October 1975; Chekiang PBS, 9 and 22 October, 16 November 1975; Kiangsu PBS, 7 November 1975; Kiangsi PBS, 11 November 1975; Liaoning PBS, 6 November 1975; and Peking Central PBS, 3 December 1975.

53. Cf. CNA, No. 1046, 9 July 1976.

54. For official reports on the Ten An Men demonstrations, see: Jen-min, 8, 10, 18, 25 and 27 April 1976; NCNA (Peking), 7, 10, 11, 12 and 23 04 1976Google ScholarPubMed; Peking Central PBS, 7 and 16 April 1976; and Hung ch'i, No. 5 (05 1976) pp. 7–34Google Scholar.

55. NCNA (Peking), 7 04 1976Google ScholarPubMed; also Jen-min, 8 April 1976.

56. Ibid.

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58. Honan PBS, 11 April 1976, and Peking Central PBS, 12 April 1976; Fukien PBS, 9 April 1976; Kiangsi PBS, 3 May 1976; Chaowuta League PBS, 18 and 28 May 1976; Hainan jih-pao (Hainan Daily) (Haik'ou), 11 04 1976Google Scholar; and Yünnan PBS, 22 April 1976, respectively.

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61. Kwangsi and Szechwan PBS, both on 8 May 1976.

62. A copy of such a leaflet, issued by an “En-lai Activities Committee” (no date, no place, but from Kwangtung province), is in the author's possession.

63. Chekiang PBS, 20 August 1976.

64. Kiangsi PBS, 26 September 1976.

65. Yünnan PBS, 9 December 1976.

66. Hunan and Shansi PBS, both 1 January 1977.

67. Szechwan PBS, 1 January 1977.

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71. Jen-min, 24 December 1976. Cf., Riskin, Carl, “China's economy: at the crossroads Jet again?” in Contemporary China (New York), Vol. 1, No. 1 (01 1977), p. 2Google Scholar.

72. Cf. the present author's “Die Aprilkrise in China” (The April crisis in (China) in Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (Bonn), No. B 30/76 (24 07 1976), pp. 36–38Google Scholar.

73. Wang Hung-wen, Chang Ch'un-ch'iao, Ms Chiang Ch'ing, Yao Wen-yüan, Dr Ch'iao Kuan-hua, Chuang Tse-tung, Hsia Pang-yin, Ms Hsieh Cheng-yi, Hsü Ching-hsien, Hua Lin-sen, Ms Liu Hsiang-p'ing, Ma Ning, Ma T'ien-shui, P'an Shih-kao, T'ang Ch'i-shan, T'ang Chung-fu, Ting Sheng, Tung Ming-hui, Ms Wang Hsiu-chen, and Yü Hui-yung.

74. Ms Teng Ying-ch'ao (vice-chairman, NPC Standing Committee); the ministers Huang Hua (Foreign Affairs), Liu Hsi-yao (Education), and Ms Ch'en Mu-hua (International Economic Relations); Chang T'ing-fa (commander-in-chief, PLA Air Force), Nieh Feng-chih (commander, Nanking Military Area); and the 10 newly-appointed first secretaries of the CCP Provincial Party Committees: Su Chen-hua (Shanghai), Liu Kuang-t'ao (Heilungkiang), Wang En-mao (Kirin), Hsü Chia-t'un (Kiangsu), T'ieh Ying (Chekiang), Ch'iao Hsiao-kuang (Kwangsi Chuang Region), An P'ing-sheng (Yünnan), Ma Li (Kweichow), T'an Ch'i-lung (Tsinghai), and Huo Shih-lien (Ninghsia).

75. The age of three of the 20 is unknown to the author.

76. Jen-min, 30 November 1976. Cf., CNA, No. 1065, 7 01 1977Google Scholar.

77. Jen-min, 19 and 28 December 1976.

78. Cf. Bonavia, David, “Hua takes a firmer hand,” in Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), Vol. 96, No. 22 (3 06 1977), p. 14Google Scholar.

79. Derek Davies, “Traveller's tales,” ibid. p. 17.