They Are Maligning the Madame

They are plastered on public buildings and humble dwellings, on fences, cow barns, tool sheds and much of the other available wall surface in China. The ubiquitous presence of these uniquely Chinese ideological weapons--wall posters--testified to the relentless campaign being carried out by party leaders against Chiang Ch'ing, the widow of Mao Tse-tung. Every week brings a graphic new twist to the pictorial record of her wicked ways. As the leader of the radical "Gang of Four"* accused of attempting to seize power after Mao's death last September, Chiang Ch'ing is pictured as a scheming empress of days long past. Alternatively she is depicted as a treacherous snake in woman's dress, a harridan spitting venom and a wily warrior wielding a spiked club. Perhaps most shocking to the puritanical Chinese are caricatures of Chiang Ch'ing as a trollop. In one of many variants on this theme, she is shown reclining on a divan decorated with dollar signs, her skirt hiked up, while two of her sycophants nibble on her fingers and toes.

The pictorial attack on Madame Mao has been reinforced by a 9,000-word editorial in the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily. The article offered the first official blow-by-blow account of the plots perpetrated by the Gang of Four in the weeks surrounding the death of Mao and focused on the gang's prowess as forgers. The forgery involved the last instructions issued by Mao, which are presently being trumpeted all over China in order to legitimize the rule of Mao's successor, Hua Kuo-feng. Mao reportedly wrote to Hua, "Act in line with past principles; with you in charge I am at ease." Days after Mao's death the gang altered the final instructions to read, "Act according to the principles laid down." The forged quote was published in several of China's newspapers before it was unmasked by the vigilant Hua.

Sole Guardians. There is a politically significant difference in the meaning of the two quotes. According to People's Daily, the "principles laid down" citation was concocted to indicate that only Chiang Ch'ing and her supporters were licensed to interpret Mao's instructions, thus becoming the sole guardians of his heritage. Among the gang's wrong "principles," the paper charged, was seizing power illegally. Chiang Ch'ing had aspired to nothing less than the party chairmanship. Only three days after Mao's death, one member of the gang "arranged for people to write to Chiang Ch'ing affirming their oath of fealty," while the lady herself was reportedly "so eager she couldn't sit still." Another member of the gang was so confident of the plot's success that he had a photographer shoot "standard portraits" of the gang for publication when it took office. The paper further charged that in their plot to usurp state power, the four were prepared "to kill" certain people--presumably Hua and other members of the Central Committee.

New details of Madame Mao's love of luxury appear every week for the benefit of China's 800 million men and women who live a spartan existence, clothed in the ubiquitous unisex padded jacket and trousers. It has been alleged that Chiang Ch'ing secretly ordered two dozen custom-made dresses in the space of one month, at a total cost of 760 yuan ($400). On a visit to the agricultural commune of Tachai, Chiang Ch'ing "arrived by special train with an entourage of 100 persons," recalled a local official. "Her personal effects had to be carried by several trucks, and she occupied the entire guesthouse, which has a capacity of receiving more than 100 guests. She opened her big mouth shouting orders. At various times, she demanded perfume, carpets, black curtains, and floor lamps that produce no sound when switched on."

The endless ridicule of Madame Mao's "criminality" and "stupidity" has been accompanied by press and radio reports in China's provinces accusing Chiang Ch'ing's supporters of widespread sabotage and inciting to riot. If only a fraction of these charges are true, there may be far greater chaos in China than most analysts have suspected. One broadcast from Shansi declared that followers of the Gang of Four broke into a meeting of the provincial Communist Party secretariat last summer and kidnaped top local leaders. Another broadcast reported that the gang "was the main root causing the protracted unrest in Hupei and Wuhan." Earlier this year the gang is said to have dispatched agitators to the industrial center of Wuhan in Hupei province for the purpose of forming a Chiang Ch'ing power clique. According to one broadcast, the conspirators spoke to each other only in Spanish in order to foil eavesdroppers.

It is unclear whether most of the unrest is being caused by last-ditch supporters of the discredited radicals or by squabbling factions trying to settle old scores with political enemies. Whatever the reason, stringent measures are being taken to suppress troublemakers, who have been denounced as "criminal gangs." Earlier Hua was forced to send 12,000 troops into Fukien province to deal with "sabotage." From Yunnan last week came stern warnings that "we must resolutely suppress the counterrevolutionaries who beat, wreck and loot."

* The others were Wang Hung-wen, Chang Ch'unch'iao and Yao Wen-yuan.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.