Rising Stars

If China watchers had any lingering doubts about the identity of Peking's rising stars, last week's events should have completely dispelled them. Teng Hsiao-ping, 70, already a party vice chairman and the government's first Vice Premier, was given the powerful, long-vacant post of Chief of Staff of the army. Chang Chun-chiao, 64, a Vice Premier, became the army's political commissar, a post once held by none other than Mao Tse-tung.

With the new appointments, China took another giant step toward consolidating the governmental and military leadership that was almost completely decimated by the Cultural Revolution and the struggles for power that followed it. There had been no Chief of Staff since 1971 and no political commissar since 1973. Now, with Teng and Chang taking up army responsibilities--joining Yeh Chien-ying, who was named Defense Minister at the National People's Congress last month--the command structure of China's 2.5 million-man army is virtually complete.

Significantly, Chang is a civilian; so is Teng, though he is a former member of Peking's National Defense Council and a political commissar who is highly respected by most army commanders. Their elevation to top army posts symbolizes Peking's ongoing effort to reassert firm civilian control over a professional military. The appointments also had political meaning. Just two years ago, Teng was still in disgrace, a victim of the Cultural Revolution's excesses; now, highly placed in all three of China's most powerful institutions, the party, the government and the army, he is seen as the eventual successor to Premier Chou Enlai. As for Chang, many China watchers are beginning to regard him as the long-range favorite to succeed the 81-year-old Mao.

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