The Unsettled Question

Now that everyone--especially the Communist leaders of Eastern Europe--had become disturbed and confused about Mao Tse-tung's "secret" speeches (TIME, May 27, June 24), Red China decided to publish one of them to get the European comrades off the hook. "The author," noted the New China News Agency gravely, "has gone over the text and made certain additions." Among the additions, as a sop to Moscow, was the phrase, "We do not think other countries must follow the Chinese way." And among the tactful deletions was Mao's admission that the Reds had liquidated 800,000 Chinese.

Fashion's Changes. Watered down as it was, Mao's speech remained a cry of warning against the danger of the Marxist rigidity that led to revolt in Hungary. Above all, it made clear that what Mao called the "contradictions" in Chinese Communist society were actually symptoms of widespread disaffection. Items:

P: "Certain people in our country were delighted when the Hungarian events took place. They hoped that something similar would happen in China, that thousands upon thousands of people would demonstrate in the streets. Other people in our country took a wavering attitude toward the Hungarian events."

P: "Many of our intellectuals are diligently studying Marxism and some have become Communists. Their number though small is steadily growing. [But] it seems as if the Marxism that was once all the rage is not so much in fashion now."

P: "In 1956 small numbers of workers and students in certain places went on strike. The immediate cause of these disturbances was failure to satisfy certain of their demands for material benefits. Because of their lack of experience in political and social life, quite a number of young people cannot make a proper comparison between the old and the new China."

P: "Some people are complaining that cooperative farming will not do, that it has no superior qualities. Only a very small minority are really dissatisfied. But quite a number of persons have failed to analyze the situation."

"Queer Talk." Even more revealing than Mao's own admissions was the violence of the public criticism unleashed by Red China's current "rectification" campaign. At a discussion meet in Peking's China People's University, Ko Pei-chi, lecturer in industrial economy, chemistry and physics, took at face value Mao's slogan "Let a hundred schrools of thought contend." Wrote Ko, recalling Communist promises of a higher standard of living: "Who are those whose standard of living actually has been raised? It is those party members and cadres who used to wear torn shoes but are now riding in sedan cars. China belongs to its 600 million people, including the counterrevolutionaries. It does not belong to the Communist Party." Then, in a final access of daring, Ko warned the Communists what would happen if they did not mend their ways and do something for the Chinese people: "The masses will beat you down, kill you, overthrow you."

To the Peking People's Daily, which published it as an example of the kind of criticism Chairman Mao does not welcome, all this was nothing but "queer talk and absurd theories." But perhaps Ko's remarks had some bearing on the most startling admission in Mao's no longer secret speech: "The question of whether socialism or capitalism will win [in China] is still not really settled."

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