Waiting for the Big Verdict

The Gang of Four trial reflects uncertainty at the top

"We're all waiting to see if they will execute her or not." That comment last week, by a university professor who had been imprisoned during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, typified the growing curiosity of China's millions about the outcome of the show trial of Mao Tse-tung's widow Jiang Qing and nine other Chinese "evildoers" in Peking. Hearings ended nearly four weeks ago, after the prosecution demanded the death penalty for Jiang and her notorious Gang of Four. The sentences could finally come this week. However, according to TIME Peking Bureau Chief Richard Bernstein, the failure of the court to deliver a quick verdict reflected a mood of uncertainty among China's political leaders. Bernstein's analysis:

China's leaders have not offered any explanation for the delay in sentencing. They maintain that the decision rests entirely with the 35-member panel of judges that presided over the eight-week-long trial. Yet many Chinese are convinced that the politically explosive verdict is being handled by the highest officials of the Communist Party. Indeed, one member of the court, Anthropologist Fei Xiaotung, left Peking for a visit to Canada last week--a sure sign that the judges' participation was no longer necessary.

The dilemma for the leaders seems to be this: Should they execute Mao's widow, or impose the death penalty but not carry it out? Peking sources say that powerful Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping fears that executing Jiang Qing would not only deeply offend those Chinese who still cherish the memory of Mao but would also turn her into a martyr. Deng, however, has apparently not convinced members of the Politburo, as well as other party leaders who suffered at Jiang's hands during the Cultural Revolution, that executing her would do more harm than good. "There are different opinions," admits one well-placed party official. "Some believe that if Jiang Qing's terrible crimes do not bring on an execution, then nobody can legitimately get the death sentence again. Others are more concerned about the political situation."

In the end, Deng is likely to get his way, and sentences could be announced this week. Nonetheless, the failure to dispose of the Gang of Four case comes at an awkward moment for top party leaders; they have frankly admitted that there is widespread disillusionment as to the party's ability to achieve results in just about everything. One problem is the persistent appearance of disunity at the top, brought about most recently by Deng's unceremonious dumping of Hua Guofeng as party chairman in late December. Deng sought to allay rumors that China was in the grip of a new power struggle by telling a group of Japanese visitors last week that "our situation is the most stable it has been since the 1960s."

Most observers agree that Deng is firmly in power. One sign: the circulation of a secret party document confirming that his close ally, Secretary-General Hu Yaobang, has been chosen to succeed Hua as chairman; that decision will be formalized by the party Central Committee later this year. "Hu is the perfect choice," insists one Communist official. "He is different from many of our leading comrades --Hu is not at all conservative. He dares to think."

Even so, both Hu and Deng face a grave crisis of public confidence; except in agriculture, the party leadership has been unable to show many tangible benefits from Deng's Four Modernizations program, proclaimed with much fanfare nearly four years ago. Article after article in the official press has admitted recently that "our party prestige is not high." Hu himself, in a publicized speech late last year, portentously declared the reform of the party to be "a matter of life and death." Over the past few months, newspapers have stressed the need to reduce the excessive scale of new construction, and to check an inflation rate (officially estimated at 5%) that threatens to wipe out pay increases and bonuses that have been distributed in factories and enterprises.

As one official puts it, "A lot of leading cadres pay lip service to the economic readjustment, but refuse to carry it out in practice. Especially at the ministerial level, many leaders believe that reduced spending is good for somebody else."

At a meeting of top party leaders last month, Deng issued a fervent call for renewed unity and discipline. In his speech, which is being circulated to all party officials, he listed a host of problems, including the failure of many officials to carry out party decisions, and social disorders that ranged from "setting off explosions" to "stirring up trouble by using methods employed during the Cultural Revolution." (One example: an aborted attempt by workers to organize a Polish-style independent labor union in Shaanxi province.) Deng demanded a harder line on obedience to party leadership, less tolerance of those who "pursue liberalization and oppose socialism," and stricter measures to "suppress counterrevolutionaries, criminals and lawbreakers." By week's end Page One editorials in every major newspaper in the country were echoing Deng's themes and calling for "political stability." The meaning was clear: despite its lowered prestige, the party was mounting a new campaign to warn that it will tolerate no opposition to its power. qed

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