New Helmsman with an Old Crew

From the huge, ocher-red viewing stand of Peking's vast T'ien An Men Square, China's newly ordained Party Chairman Hua Kuo-feng confidently smiled and waved. Below were assembled more than 1 million representatives of China's proletarian masses, waving placards, paper bouquets and red flags. The well-organized 80-minute demonstration, which was shown on television around the world, marked the official unveiling of China's post-Mao leadership alignment. It also celebrated the end of at least one chapter in a bitter six-week power struggle that saw China's four top radical leaders, including Mao Tse-tung's widow Chiang Ch'ing, disgraced and placed under arrest. Peking editors waxed absolutely poetic about the new spirit of China: "Everywhere in our motherland, orioles sing and swallows dart."

Grizzled Veterans. With Hua on the viewing stand were the country's other leaders: the top army commanders and the entire membership of the Politburo (except the ailing Liu Po-ch'eng). The four purged radicals--Chiang Ch'ing, Chang Ch'un-ch'iao, Wang Hung-wen and Yao Wen-yuan--had simply been dropped from the Politburo and not replaced, thus reducing the membership of the party's decision-making elite from 16 to twelve. Sinologists believe that three grizzled, durable veterans of Mao Tse-tung's Long March who had long and close associations with China's late pragmatic Premier Chou En-lai will have pre-eminent influence in the new era of Hua:

> Marshal Yeh Chien-ying, 77, Defense Minister and, because of recent deaths and purges, apparently the sole Vice Chairman of the party. China's top military figure since 1971, Yeh is thought to be a chief proponent of continuing Sino-American detente.

> Li Hsien-nien, 69, senior Vice Premier and, until his promotion last year, China's Finance Minister. Li remains the country's chief economic planner. Some China watchers anticipated that Li would be named Premier, but Hua, at least for now, holds that job as well as the party chairmanship.

> Ch'en Hsi-lien, 63, Vice Premier and commander of the Peking Military Region. Once a peasant guerrilla fighter, Ch'en rose through the ranks of the Red Army. His support was probably essential in Hua's lightning coup against the radicals.

Hua ascended the rostrum to the accompaniment of Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman--roughly, China's version of Hail to the Chief and a song that heretofore had been played only in Mao's honor. Significantly, the new helmsman was dressed in full military uniform, as were almost one-third of the other officials on the reviewing stand--a clear sign of the army's importance as the guarantor of the new leadership. Hua did not speak during the coronation-type ceremony, leaving the keynote task to Peking's mayor, Wu Teh, who assured the crowd that the new Chairman had the blessing of the old. "With you in charge, I'm at ease," Mao is said to have told Hua.

Sex Scandal. There was no slackening in the propaganda campaigns against the radical "big-four brigands." An editorial appearing in China's major papers, apparently giving the official version of October's "great purge," said that Mao had warned his wife and her chief allies two years ago against "forming a small faction" that would attempt, in violation of party unity, to seize power for itself. When Mao became critically ill, said the editorial, the radicals' "attacks on the party became more frantic and their attempts to usurp the position of the supreme leaders more hurried." Thus Hua's feat of "smashing their plot" saved "the revolution and the party."

Even a hint of sex scandal entered the campaign. The latest gossip has it that Chiang Ch'ing's daughter Li Na was either married to, or having an affair with Wang Hung-wen, the handsome young Shanghai radical who until the purge was the No. 2 man in the Politburo. More significant politically was an antiradical wall poster in Shanghai that showed four mice standing outside a hole shouting: "You can come out now! Neither black nor white cats are around." Explanation: the radicals had attacked discredited former Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing, the onetime favorite to succeed Chou En-lai as Premier, for erroneously arguing that "it doesn't matter if a cat is black or white so long as it can catch mice." Teng's sin was suggesting that the color of the cat (meaning correct ideology) was less important than such practical results as building the economy.

With or without Teng himself, the way may be open for a revival of his views. Tlie editorial that explained the fall of the brigands also praised the economic program of Chou En-lai--the pragmatic, steady approach to development, emphasizing material incentives and technological skills--which Teng, opposed by the radicals, had tried to carry out. The lineup of leaders appearing with Hua at T'ien An Men seems very much in the Chou-Teng mold. They are the cats that, black or white, are primarily interested in catching mice.

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