Second Thoughts on the Chairman

Not even Mao was perfect, it turns out

Propped up by two solicitous aides, Ye Jianying, 81, the venerable chairman of the National People's Congress, tottered up to the rostrum last week to deliver the keynote speech for China's 30th anniversary celebration. As it was meant to, his appearance before an audience of 11,000 packed into Peking's Great Hall of the People emotionally evoked the most sacred day in the calendar of Chinese Communism: Oct. 1, 1949, when Ye and other victorious revolutionary leaders stood at the side of Mao Tse-tung as the Great Helmsman proclaimed the People's Republic of China, declaring: "The Chinese people have stood up."

Ye's anniversary address was hardly all boast and triumph. He made plain in his nationally televised speech that the ideals of the revolution had failed to become tangible reality, and he implicitly placed much of the blame on the late Great Helmsman. Pushing de-Maoification to its furthest limit to date, Ye made the electrifying charge that Mao's Cultural Revolution of 1966-69 had been an outright "calamity." Said he: "The most severe reversal of our socialist cause since the founding of the People's Republic," the Cultural Revolution "plunged our country into divisiveness and chaos abhorred by the people, into blood baths and terror." The scapegoats explicitly singled out were the late Lin Biao (Lin Piao), once Mao's chosen successor, and Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing), Mao's widow and ringleader of the "Gang of Four." Still, Ye was clearly pointing at Mao when he stated that "leaders are not gods; they are not infallible and therefore should not be deified."

Ye also repudiated two other major policies associated with Mao. In connection with the 1957 campaign against "bourgeois rightists," Ye said, "the mistake was made of broadening the scope of the struggle." It was a euphemistic but clear reference to the imprisonment of more than 100,000 of Mao's opponents who were not released until after his death in 1976. Ye had a similar complaint about the 1958-60 Great Leap Forward that left China's economy in a shambles. Said Ye: "We made the mistake of making arbitrary decisions, being boastful and stirring up a 'Communist storm.' " Seated on the dais behind Ye were many officials who had fallen afoul of the Cultural Revolution. Chief among them was Senior Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, 75, whose emergence in 1977 as China's top leader had now made Ye's candor possible. Last week Deng seemed more determined than ever to undo the damage of Mao's fiercely radical policies and set China on an irreversible course toward modernization. One way was to pack China's governing institutions with his supporters: on the eve of the anniversary, twelve elderly victims of the Cultural Revolution were elevated to the Central Committee while two other longtime Deng allies, Peng Zhen, 77, and Zhao Ziyang, 61, were added to the select Politburo. Deng could thus count on the loyalty of 19 of the 29 members of China's top ruling body.

Apparently cooperating with Deng and his gerontocracy was Chairman Hua Guofeng, 57, who made his own contribution to de-Maoification. In a long-winded toast at a state banquet commemorating the anniversary, Chairman Hua did not once mention Chairman Mao.

In keeping with the business-like mood of Deng's modernization effort, the 30th celebration was strikingly subdued. Gone were the lavish fireworks displays and parades of earlier anniversaries. Still, the New China News Agency had promised that Peking would be given "a new look, with many billboards freshly painted." As it turned out, this meant that some Mao quotations were painted over and replaced with road safety signs and exhortations to strive for modernization. Peking's 7.5 million population salvaged some holiday spirit from the capital's markets, which were specially stockpiled with 1 million chickens and 300,000 ducks, geese, grouse, hare and fish. In addition, stores were supplied with copious quantities of mao-tai, a fiery liquor as potent as rocket fuel.

Anniversary day was also marked by a noisy demonstration. Some 400 disgruntled citizens marched to Peking's city hall to protest against the police who had dismantled an outdoor exhibit of unofficial art. Said one of the banners carried aloft on Qian Men Street: "If you want political democracy, you must have democracy for art." Officials benignly promised to forward their complaints and petitions to higher authorities. The fact that the demonstrators dared to take to the streets at all during the national holiday underscored the stop-go permissiveness toward dissent that characterizes Deng's regime. Following a crackdown last spring, similar public protests have been taking place with increasing frequency. Hundreds of poor peasants regularly travel to Peking to object to rural living conditions.

The chief posthumous beneficiary of the celebrations may turn out to be Liu Shaoqi (Liu Shao-chi), the former Chinese head of state who was Mao's main rival in the power struggle of the early 1960s and who reportedly died in disgrace in 1969. There were signs that his escutcheon might soon be refurbished. In his speech Ye paid Liu an indirect compliment by mentioning the "great importance" of a party congress that had been dominated by Liu. More dramatic was the sudden re-emergence of Liu in a huge new painting depicting the leaders who had assembled with Mao--and Ye--for the proclamation of the People's Republic three decades ago.

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