THE FATE OF CHINA'S INTELLECTURAL COMMUNITY DURING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03061A000400020015-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 27
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 1998
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 1, 1969
• Content Type: REPORT

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25X1C10b
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THE FATE OF CHINA'S INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITY
DURING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
February 1969
Early in June 1966 the Principal of the renowned Peking University
was attacked by what was soon to become an all too familiar weapon -- the
wallposter. Similar attacks spread like brushfire to dozens of other re-
spected institutions of learning throughout China and, almost as simply
as that, the Cultural Revolution had been launched. By August of 1966,
the Revolution and its adolescent apostles, the ubiquitous Red Guards, had
become an unpleasant fact of life for many thousands of China's teachers,
scholars, artists and all those comprising that segment of the population
known as the intellectual community. But wallposter attacks, initially
accompanied by verbal denunciations, demonstrations, speeches and ridicule
of the victims, were only prelude and destruction of property; and armed
clashes, (and, in a few cases, deaths and suicides) became the order of
the day. A similar scenario was being written at the same time by extrem-
ist elements in factories and within Communist Party organizations, but
that is another story, in many ways quite removed from that of the intel-
lectuals. The methods applied against all the victims, however, bore a
depressing resemblance to one another.
The Cultural Revolution might have died after the initial impulse had
ebbed but for two events. Chairman Mao Tse-tung (presumably to prove he
was still able to command), after (allegedly) taking his famous swim across
the Yangtze, returned to Peking where he wrote his own poster called "Boma
bard the-headquarters," praising the Red Guards and in effect putting him-
self at their head as they began to flood into Peking. Then, on 8 August,
the Central Committee of the CCP produced a document (undoubtedly at Mao's
behest -- probably even drafted by him) giving Party blessing to Red Guard
actions in China's schools (as well as to extremist actions in China's
factories). Thus, the Cultural Revolution was assured a future, for at
least as long as it took to accomplish its purpose: cleansing the Party
of "rightist" elements, which, of course, is translatable into moderates.
The intellectuals were certainly the most dramatic victims of the
Revolution although this was not necessarily the initial intention of Mao
and the Central Committee. Certainly Mao is aware of the qualms tradi-
tionally suffered by the intellectual in being obliged to conform; surely
he is also aware that many intellectuals hold Party membership as a matter
of highly cynical expediency. Mao did, however, make concessions for one
segment of the intellectual community in the Central Committee's document
on the Cultural Revolution.* Not surprisingly, that segment was the scien-
tific community; China, after all, had her nuclear weapons program underway.
~"Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concern-
ing the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution." Also known as the "Sixteen
Points of August 1966."
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"As regards scientists, technicians and ordinary members
of working staffs, as long as they are patriotic, work energet-
ically, are nat against the Party and socialism, and maintain
no illicit relations with any foreign country ... special care
should be taken of these scientists and scientific and techni-
cal personnel who have made contributions. Efforts should be
made to help them gradually transform their world outlook and
their style of work."
Scientists
Despite Mao's effort to insulate China's scientific community from
i;he turmoil of the Revolution, the violence generated in the course of his
purges inevitably disrupted regions such as Sinkiang, where Chinese nuclear,
missile and other defense installations are centered. Mao's special pro-
visions for the scientific segment of the intellectual community apparently
cii.d not win over as many adherents as he had hope d, for quite recently five
scientists, including three associated with China's nuclear program, have
~;een arrested on charges of treason and spying for the Soviet Union. The
mast prominent of these, Chien San-Chiang, was the head of China's Atomic
Energy Institute. Now in h:is late fifties, Chien studied in Paris under
Communist physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie, winning the physics award of
i;he French Academy of Science for his work on gamma and alpha rays and the
1~ri-partition of nuclear fission of uranium. The other two arrested
scientists had, like a number of China's senior scientists, been trained
abroad. Wang Kan-Chang, charged with "relying too heavily on foreign text-
books and conventions," had studied at the University of California before
lzi:s apointment as Deputy Director of China's Institute of Atomic Energy.
Wang is a nuclear physicist specializing in the fission process.
Not only has the Cultural Revolution done damage to China's nuclear
:installations, caused dissension among her leaders on scientific and de-
fense policy and the arrest and disgrace of some of her leading scientists,
but the Revolution has also dammed up the international exchange of scien-
tific information. The flow of scientific publications from China has
~~.x~ied up almost completely: not one Chinese scientific journal has been
;gent to Great Britain, for instance, since October 1966. Internally the
situation is almost as serious; the number of publications listed for
internal subscription in China fell from 650 in 1966 to 58 in 1968. This
~~utoff, plus the curtailment of visitors to China, has reduced meaningful
assessment of the role of science and the scientific worker (at any level)
in China today to semi-educated guesswork. From what can be observed and
deduced, however, and even taking into account the Chinese hydrogem bomb
test on 27 December 1868, it is apparent that Mao's Cultural Revolution
has done considerable damage to scientific training and research programs.
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Scholars, Teachers, Students
After the opening gun of the Cultural Revolution was fired at the
head of Peking University, hundreds of scholars and teachers met the same
fate: ridicule, scorn, physical indignities, loss of job and standing in
the community and in some extreme cases even the loss of life. Now, a
national "do-it=yourself" campaign has been launched in China to revise
the entire educational curriculum, a campaign so alarming in its implica-
tions for the future of education that China's harried and despairing
scholars and teachers must view it as the end of learning. The aim of the
campaign is strictly ideological and the revamped curriculum will over-
whelmingly consist of study of the thoughts of Mao. The authority of the
headmaster over the school and of the teacher over his class has been
abolished completely. Entrance examinations, grades, traditional rewards
and punishments and final examinations have been swept aside and the
workers and peasants are now in charge of education. Peking apparently
will be content to leave the education of the nation's young almost en-
tirely in these hands, and has gone so far as to abolish or severely limit
allocations of state funds to primary schools all over China.
Looking beyond the primary schools, there is apparently no intention
on the part of the regime to resume meaningful higher education in the
near future. Canton's technical colleges are not to reopen until the fall
of 1969 at the earliest; a Shanghai university specializing in architec-
ture and civil engineering has already had its courses cut from five to
three years and courses at Tung-chi University in Shanghai have been re -
duced from four to 'three years. In addition, all curricula in upper
schools are being revised and the subjects taught are being more closely
geared to production requirements. Ideological outlook is to play a very
large part in students' promotions from one educational level to another.
The regime's two most recent dicta with regard to education offer
little promise of improvement in educational standards. Particularly
disheartening is the first of these which decrees the dispersal of 500,000
college level youth in Kwangtung to the countryside for an unspecified
time in order to engage in "agricultural pursuits." The peasants -- who
begrudge these usually unwilling recruits food and shelter and are uni-
formly intolerant of their inexperience -- can offer little to replace
the loss of formal education. The possibility of inculcating a minimum
of discipline in the students in the present circumstance is almost non-
existent. Also disheartening is a second regime dictum that provides for
the immediate "graduation" of older students. These older students tended
to be leaders of the Red Guard movement and the great majority of them have
had no schooling in more than two years. It scarcely requires a scholar
to predict how this cavalier approach to academic disciplines is going to
affect China's young and the quality of her once-proud educational system.
Doctors,composers, artists
Medical facilities in China, already below international standards,
deteriorated during the Cultural Revolution and the training and standing
of doctors was lowered appreciably. Like the veriest criminals, doctors
3
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and nurses were dragged out of their hospitals, laboratories, clinics and
classes by the Red Guards and forced to do manual work. Some have been
sent to rural areas where they spend half their time doing manual labor.
The Chinese authorities are encouraging medical personnel to use Mao's
"Thought" in lieu of drugs and equipment, and presumably medical textbooks,
with what ludicrous and sometimes appalling results for the patients as
can scarcely be imagined.
The same frighteningly f ami.liar treatment accorded the scholars and
the teachers was meted out to composers and artists who failed to measure
up to the standards of tYie regime as interpreted by the Red Guards. The
isolation of men of talent is inevitable in today's China for it is in-
escapable :in the arts that the dominance of politics will produce Philis-
tinism, a dreary sameness of tone and color and thought and a smothering
lack of imagination. Ma Sitson's story is a commentary on what has happened
to many of China's talented artists, musicans, composers. Himself a com-
paser of international rank and head of Peking's Central Music Academy,
Ma along with Academy profess>ors and administrators, was humiliated,
harassed, beaten and threatened in the name of the Cultural Revolution.
It was only because he managed to escape China in the winter of 1967-and
flee to the United States that the world outside learned what had happened
to men like Ma and his fellow artists who included pianist Liu Shih-kun:,
runner-up to Van Cliburn in the 1958 Moscow competitions.
The Communist ]'arty and the Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, which has done such damage to China's intel-
lectuals, was actually fashioned by Mao to excise "Party persons in au-
thority" eu2d to give youth the vicarious experience of a synthetic "revo-
lution." Perhaps this is the reason he was so much more adept at manipu-
lating party personnel under cover of the Cultural Revolution than he was
in manipulating the intellectual community. In any case, the Chairman
cannily managed to smoke out his adversaries in the Central Commute with
very little fanfare, severed, their lines of support without destroying the
Central Committee and is now apparently much readier to face the problems
which China's long-delayed Party Congress may bring. The Congress' first
task will be to name a new Central Committee since less than a third of
the presently listed 172. full and alternate members are still active. It
requires .Little imagination to guess wher- the loyalties of the survivors
l.ie.
The :new membership named in this Congress will undoubtedly be domi-
nated by the military since the army has proved loyal to Mao, is trusted
by him and has been extensively used by him as a checkrein on the Red
Cxuards and on the older ext~?emists during the Cultural Revolution. In
this context, it seems high=Ly appropriate that the New China News Agency
announcement of China's December 1968 hydrogen bomb explosion described
i;he test as "a signific:s,nt gift to the forthcoming 9th National Congress
,~
of the (Communist) Party.
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Attachments
Look, (Hong $ong Chinese-language fortnightly magazine), 16 Novembex
1968, "Can Workers Lead the Intellectuals?" by Chi'i Ming.
London Times, 3 January lg6g, "China's Youth 'Volunteer' for Rural
Life."
Los Angeles Times, 19 December 1968, "Chinese Now Exalting Ignorance
and Illiteracy," by Robert Elegant.
Sing Tau Man Pao, (Hong Kong daily),. 19 September 1968, "Where Can A
Chinese Scientist Go?" by Cha Ling, from Chinese nuclear physicist
Li Ming-thing.
London Times, 10 December 1968,."Chinese Education Reshaped."
Far Eastern Economic Rev2ew, 16 May 1968, "Science for the Masses?"
New Statesman, 18 October 1968, "Mao's Second Take-over," by
Roderick MacFarquhar.
Excerpts from Chinese mainland media (including NCNA and the CCP
organ, People's DaiZz~) revealing regime treatment of scientists and doc-
tors -and the status of medicine in China as a result of the Cultural
Revolution.
Additional References;
International Affairs, London, April 1968, "The Cultural Revolution
in China."
China Quarterly, October-December 1968, "The Cultural Revolution and
the Party."
Life Magazine, two articles on the story told by Chinese composer
Ma Sits on following his escape from China in'the winter of 1967, 2 June
and l~+ July 1967 issues.
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CPYRGHT
'~ youth `val~nte~r' for r~ra1
By RICHARD HARRIS ~~~~
. .. a a~
Chairman Nfao hag now thrown where parents and children are refornt being introduced .-Il aver
LOI1DQi~I TIMES
3 J~nu.~.ry 1969
his weight behind tMe campaign tv equally eager and serious about Ghina trutsfers the responsibility
persuade the educated youth of education there are s'smply not for all but higher education from
t:hina to leave the cities and settle enough jobs for the educated, the Cio~?crnmcnt do~in to the com-
for alife in the countryside. "I~he especially of the mandarin status, nnroe. ~llte nudway ante of the
usual nrief message front China's which survives in China as an ideal production brigade--lying between
leader has been splashed over the even if this note takes the form the villafie level production team
ncwapapcrs for the past week as of the party otlicial. 1t has.- of and the 50 or more vi{{ages of the
the fervour of volunteering is course, been one of Chairman
brought Lo a peek. Civilians and bfao"s chief aims in the cultural commune itself---is bcint; _iven
soldiers in thctr hundreds of mil- rcvofution to demolish this status more responsibility and may han?e
Gans. according to Peking radio, the job of running juniw? xhouls.
in fact and in imagination. He
arc all helping to whip up enthu- insists that all men should dirty Students are not the only class
siasm. fiheir hands, that the barrier be- betels culled from the cities. As
The '? intellectuals " who are tween town and country must be par of the party purge sifting
going are tsnivcrsity graduates. bridged. and that the sharpest of pi;c 'Maoists from the tm{Here
sensor high school graduates and all clasp distinctions in Chinese t>zre has been a thinnin_ out of
aometimcs lQ to 15-year-old }union society-between the educated ewer level caiires. l'hc same
school leavers, alt soldiers of ;,nd the uneducated, ixtn~een the applies to inflated bureaucracies
Chairman Mao who have hitherto manual worker and the brain in national enterprises. The (l~~~-
provided the backbone of the feed worker--must at Tact be nbliter- ' hot (inner 1lungolia) raihvay
Guard movement. They are part ated. bureau staff, for example, was cut
of the vast internal migration AnMher reason for the great 4 from 8dl to 93. Such cadres Lind
which the cultural rcvofution has march outwi+rds from the cities ' themselves jobless and are in no
brought to a peak proviousty un- follows on Chairman lfao', ~1i3- position to turn down thrr hurny-
- known in Ghina. When the Red covers last year that the young handed life of a peasant.
Guards were called up in 1966, 11 were not exactly the incorruptible Finally, there arc the educated
million of them made their way to r?cvndutionaries he had hoped tor. with skills "'hu are unevenly clis-
organited demonstrations in They had to be dropped in favo?t: tributed, must commonly medical
Peking. of the workers who were organiz.d workers. ilcre, too. the shift is
As many more event from nne into teams to take over all institu- going on by the same cumbin.rtior
part of China to another "making lions of higher education and of persuasion and cocr~iun, b:i;ut-
revulutiun ' against revisionist. knock into them the sense that can si province reports 11.000 medi-
Ica~lers iu the Chiacse Communist come only from experience at a cal workers shifted out to villages
Party. At the same time there factory bench. Much better, there- from towns.
??ere the cvacuecs?of the previous fore, to move out from the cities .tirticlcs in the press castigate
decade sho had -found rural life unemployed and disaffected revo- students who "stubbornly place
ux7 much far them and who. under lutionarics who are now called their personal interests above those
the r~cirsc of 'making rcvolu upon to sense the revolution and of the state ". By contrast the
uon ", sneaked back to their city their leader by settling for a life Chincsc news media arc now Gllcd
homes. These youths too are of political ~~bscurity and co~ls,de:'- with piehrrec of happy girls at
being rounded up for a return to able hardship. home in their new villages. hclp-
the village. Pcrha >> ,nothcr 41ass of ev'acu- ing the peasants and learning Sri,m
Frort~ the figures quoted in the i r them.
press, sometimes for a provincial ees is better off. These arc the
capital, sometimes for the towns educated youths poste4 as scoters \tihcn one reads of 2.400 in?
in a disb'ict, or for a -whole Pro- in remote areas, such as the tellectuals from Peking anc
vincc. a rough figure of 14 million climatically unpleasant i-Ieilung- Tientsin setting out for a new lift
may be arrived at. 13y the tame kiang in the far north. or the uul- with t]~e herdsmen in the grass-
the campaign cods something like totally strange grasslands of Inner lands of Inner Vfongolia one must
15 million may have been shifted Afungolia, ar the rough pioneering ~ ..imagine as best one can ]cow
from town to country. wastes of Sinkiang. change is bein& imposed on
The campaign sits out to soh?e One obvious use for the Chinese society.
several problems. Onc is unem= "intellectuals " is to put them to
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referred as members of
the propaganda teams,
particularly in schools, are
aged workers who have
lever learned the complex
Chinese ideographs.
Some of those workers,
according to Communist
publications, were at first
reluctant to take over the
direction of schools. But
they were convinced that
heir native folkwisdom
could make a greater con-
tribution to the education
of the young than could
the corrupt knowledge of
professional teachers.
The Peking Peoples Dai-
ly, the chief organ of the
r e g i m e, 'recounts with
great pride. the accom-
plishments of Liu Kuei-
ying, 50, who was assigned
to the propaganda team-.
ordered to purify a mining'
academy.
Relies Upon 1Viao
"They- asked her: 'You
are old and you are quite
illiterate. How can you
possibly run a university?'
"She answered: 'Of
course I can.' With the
backing of Alao Tse-tung,
anything can be attained!
Under the white terror of
the capitalist reactiona-
ries, Mao Tse-tung gave
me .heart to resist all the
evil elements. Now Chair-
man Mao calls upon the
workers to back up the
cultural revolution. With
a red soul utterly loyal to
Chairman Mao, Icar. run a
university very well, in
deed!"'
She ran the mining'
academy so' well that the
students, some of whom
had strayed. from the,
paths of Maoist righteous-
ness, all turned spon-
taneously to her for advice,
and respectfully called her
Auntie Liu.
Finally Speaks Up
Old Slogan Is Out
In Honan province, for
example, the local radio
station revealed, . An
evil wind has been
whipped up . The
numerous mosquito pa-
pers-some very influenti-
al, some less so-through-
out the province have
come into action .
Scholars, who are usually
genteel and gracious, can-
not take it any longer.
They rise up and play it
rough . . . The evil wind
is 'by no means small. It
can still raise waves .. .
;Those warriors. opposing
revival 'of the old have
become swollen - headed
... their spearheads are
directed at the workers
Thought of Mao Tse-tung
Propaganda teams ..."
It is ironic that the old
slogan, "oppose the resto-
ration of the old," is now
anathema --- while the
creation of "revolutionary
alliances" is the aim of the
teams. The chief purpose
of the cultural revolution
was to "destroy the old
.. and make constant
revolution through cease-
less class struggle." It was
not the reconciliation of
feuding elements, but the
encouragement of
"struggle."
But reconciliation is to-'
day's goal, and, -according
to Changhsha Radio in
Hunan province, it occa-
sionally works. The radio
said:
"A chieftain of a mass
organization (i.e., a Rea
Guard fighting faction),
had committed most se-
rious mistakes because he
was so highly deluded.
B e f o r e the propaganda
team arrived, he had left
'school. The team visited
literates run universities, Guard adolescents, who him at home, and, under
and washerwomen take were told only a year or the urging .of his parents,
over the direction of major two ago that they were the he returned to school."
hospitals, as did Chieh Jui.- white hope of the future, All this, of course, makes
chug whose given name,' a r e understandably re-
incidentally, has a fine, old' sentful. They naturally re- no sense whatsoever ,in
feudal ring, meaning "atis- sist the bumbling effort's The old Maoist context,
picious chrysanthemum." ' of the workers teams to Not only was "struggle" to
Known as the "political dictate their thoughts and be incited, but the tradi'
mute" becaus "she dared deeds-despite the open tional authority of parents
both w o r k e r vigilantes
and the People;: Libera-
tion Army, true harmony
is still as distant as is a
'consistent patter_i among
China's 29 major adminis-
trative areas.
Two things, however,
remain constant.
Despite all exhortations,
classes have still not been
resumed, except in a' few
scattered localities. Those
students, now the majori-
ty, who simply w;;nt to get
back to their sU dies are
totally frustrated,
r Traditional class preju-
dice persists. Students and
intellectuals loot, down
their noses at ro,ieh-nman-
pered, ill-educate 1wv ork-
ers who are, halt' against
their will, "taking over
direction of the : truggle."
Waiters in re:;taurants
drag their feet when at-
tending poor 1 y dressed
workers -- or refuse to
serve them.
The mess will, of course,
all be cleared up in time-
or so the Chinese press
insists.
"At i 1 itarized construc-
tion" of education and the
economy is the answer of
the army, which believes
that country requires mili-
tary control and training.'
To that end, students and
faculties, as well as work-
men and administrators,
have already been orga-
nized into "squ,As, sec-
tions and platoons" under
soldiers' orders.
The army wa, in the
beginning to "b ,come a
great school of the
Thought of Ilao Tse-
tung." It now appears
that, behind the 1-acade of
Workers Propaganda
Teams, the entire country
is to become a east mili-
tary school.
RiP e J#l4tan fiiitri'roa"1`A0064(9020015-1
.4ciidt~c
ly. encouraged means of
protest) for fear of losing
her job," washerwoman
Chieh finally spoke up
when encouraged by the
propaganda team at the
municipal hospital of
Shihchiachuang, a major
city near Peking. Her
revelations of "capitalist
roading" and dereliction of
duty among the profes-
sional staff, the despised
intellectuals, has now
worked a proletarian revo-
lution in the hospital.
Literally millions of men
and women of propaganda
teams, "guided by the
Peoples Liberation Ar-
my," have invaded every
major institution in China
-ostensibly to "correct
errors in ideological orien-
tation and carry the cul-
tural revolution through
to, the end." They are,
presumably, qualified for
that arduous task by their
pure "proletarian con-
sciousness" and by their
instinctive comprehension
of the canonical Thought
of Mao Tse-tung.
The real point, however,
is by no means what it
appears.
Put Down Excesses
The chief function of the
workers propaganda
teams is to suppress the
excesses of the cultural
revolution-in the name
of Chairman Mao of the
Communist Party, but un-
der the orders of the hard-
headed local generals.
The local authorities'
purpose is to put down the
disorder initiated by the
Red Guards, which ulti-
m a t e I y burgeoned into
full-scale armed conflict
between contending fac-
tions. The workers teams
are their instruments.
The insurgent Red
(previously, the universal- the worker teams. ' Despite the efforts of
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of those scientists and teebni('I pr rsw+tlel who l,avr o,arl'.
&tr1)9t991O8/l24s:,G~IAI-RDP O18'0~8a1'01~db02
transform their world outlook and style of wor c .
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National Importance
Several points arc of interest about this statement. First,
the fact that a special ruling was necessary for scientists anti
technologists suggests that by 1966, many of them still. ditl
not accept the ideas of Mao Tse-tung. Sccond, the ,t,uenlrnt
confirms the. national importance which the Chincsc Oovcrn-
nlcnt gives to scicntific work. Third, the reference to illicit
contact with foreign countries is puzzling but suggests that
all communications between Chinese and foreign scientists
should be funnelled through official channels.
Reports published in the People's Daily make' it appear
doubtful that the policy announced in item 12 has been tip-
held. In July 1966, a month b fore the communiyut: was
issued, a special rally was held in Peking for those rcvulution
ary scicntific workers who were suffering from the "white.
terror", which was being imposed upon the rescarch institutes
of the Chinese Academy of Scicnccs by the supporters of Liu
Shao-chi. There were several attempts during the ensuing
months to seize power from the pro-Liu group who seem to
have been in control of most of the institutes.
One article described how 20,000 revolutionaries, who srtp-
portcd Mao Tse-tung; and who were from the 50 4
 Approv4
been clone to science during the Cultural Revolution. Sdnne
projects which had bccn shelved by the supporters of Liu
the period of intense solar activity in 1968.
when the pro-Liu group gained control in the period around
recently completed. This was begun in 1958, but was stopped
d ' n ;1'et e11` t l .'f fAtb t4Q'0'020O's&1i1ks
When the Communist )'arty has been
rebuilt, Mao may set it the task of takinr
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over l?owcr in the array from the generals
just as today he is sending worker teams
Lg take over power io the universities from
Ilse lied Guards (NS. 23 August). This latter
icralion ;i v well be causing widespread
';ucssian anion,; young intellectuals who
,;ought Ihcy had distinguished themselves
in the Maoist cause, for intellectuals are
being; dcmounced as counter?revolutionarics
who are t0gwif7 dissension in the universities
with suds remarks ac; V c are all rotten
"rtclleciuals and are subject to being dis-
c.udrd', ')'here is a strong current of anli-
icroOkcclualism ,ground. Whep Shanghai intel?
leciuals ohiectcd to worker teams assuming
04riltrul of the theatre, a local newspaper
retorted;
'I bey said that the workcrs were ignorant of
3i,c works of Slanislarusky. Pcrfectly right, my
clear sire, we of the working class truly have
no rmtcrest in those things of feudalism, capi-
i;rlism and revisionism. Not only do we have
no interest but we are also determined to
nvcrihrow and discredit ihcm, What is so
good ghoul Slanislavsky anyway? ills works
me only out-and-out lwurgcois rubbish.
The first objective of the worker teams
is to wrest control of the universities,
schools and other parts of the 'super-
siruclure' from the intellectuals. Their
second and more far-reaching purpose is
to use that control to organise a completely
ce,alilarian system of education in which
working-class children will not be handicap-
ped because their parents do not help them
with their homework but instead require
their help in the fields. Exams seem to he
on the way out and an article in the latest
issue of Red Flag attacks the old system
lo r 'recognising marks only but not persons,
still kss the social classes people belong to'.
Here committees for educational revolu-
tion, consisting of poorer peasants, teachers
and students have taken over from the
school principals. The committees reduced
primary schooling by one year and second-
ary schooling by two, making a total school-
ing period of nine years. On finishing school
at 15 or 16, children will be expected to
spend a few years doing farm work before
being selected for university on the basis of
political as well as intellectual qualifications.
When students get to universities they will
almost certainly find the courses there
shortened too. One Shanghai university
specialising in architecture and civil
engineering has already cut the length of its
courses from five to three years.
Perhaps the most convincing indication
of Mao's determination that all intellectuals
must be proletarianised is that even Chinese
atomic and rocket scientists have now been
attacked along with Nich Jung-chen, the
top party man charged With master-minding
the nuclear weapons programme. 'Capitalist-
roadcrs' have been exposed at the Tachaitan,
rocket plant in remote Chinghai, while a
Red Guard bulletin has stated that the
director and a deputy director of the
Institute of Atomic Energy and (lie director
of the Institute of Mathematics have been
arrested along with two prominent adminis-
trators at the Academy of Sciences. For these
as for all other intellectuals schooled under
the old system, the prescription is re-educa-
tion. The method is a familiar Maoist one
and already tens of thousands have left class-
rooms and desk yobs to settle down as
manual labourers in the -countryside.
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Look, Hong Kong
16 November 1968
No. 163
Can Workers Lead the Intellectuals?
by Chi Ming
-
Lenin sai ommunism equals e boviet union pius nacauna-L
ication." This was an expression that never ruled out the people's desire
or happy life in a socialist or Communist society. However, anyone on
he Chinese mainland enjoying a comfortable life or desiring to live better
will be accused of following the influence of "capitalism," "revisionism"
and "capitalist restoration," and be purged.
In Lenin's time, the desire for "electrification" was a progressive
slogan, but, with regard to the present situation, such a slogan is out-
dated, because with the exception of the Chinese mainland and a few other
laces "electrification" has become reality. In Hong Kong, for instance,
the average middle class family now has in its possession an electric
phonograph, refrigerator, television, electric fan, electric rice cooker,
electric iron and electric washing machine. Thus, if Mao Tse-tung sin-
cerely tries to improve the livelihood of the 700 million Chinese, he
should try to follow Lenin's instruction by bringing all the blessings of
electrification to the Chinese people on the whole mainland.
When China goes for "electrification" or "modernization," she must
have a great army of scientific and technical forces to embark on different
projects with the full support of the common people; they may thus concen-
trate their efforts in inventing and discovering wonders for mankind. The
question remains . how to build up such a great scientific and technical
force, and how to fully develop its creative spirit during the course of
its cultivation. Evidently this isn't the kind of problem that can be
solved through political campaigns or "Mao Tse-tung's thought" or the like.
While it is true that the Chinese Communists have in the nineteen
years of their rule turned out certain numbers of scientific and technical
personnel, the various political campaigns have to varying extents affected
their creative spirit. For instance, in 1956 Chien Wei-chang was awarded
a second-class medal for his research paper on dynamics entitled "On the
Question of the Large Deflection of Circular Thin Elastic Plate," but he
was later branded a "rightist" and has since done nothing useful in his
field of studies; no one can say that his loss in creative thinking does
not represent a waste of talent for the country as a whole.
In terms of China's population and territory, the scientific and
technical personnel currently available is far from enough to cope with
the need for national construction. Liu Shao-chi aptly said: "All our
Party and League members and revolutionary intellectuals should study hard
and earnestly pursue their professional knowledge, and master well all
kinds of technology and scientific learning." This was a sharp comment
on the ignorance of those "empty-headed politicians who never realized
the importance of professional and technical knowledge to the performance
of duties. Is it for the benefit of the country and people that we should
have more empty-headed politicians or well trained personnel thoroughly
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imbued with professional knowledge? Personally I believe we should have
more of the latter. In. the past, when the Chinese Communists were pre-
occupied with political. and military struggles, naturally they needed more
political and military specialists to speed up their success in the seizurl
of political and military power. Once in power, they should concentrate
their efforts in building up the country. They do have such personnel who
understood quite well what type of persons they need in national construc-
tion. Chang Ching-fu in an article published in "Chung Kuo Ching Nien
Pao" (China Youth Journal) on February 25, 1958 said: "... professional
and technical knowledge serves as the tool and weapon for accomplishing all
kinds of tasks; advanced science and technology serves as an advanced tool
and weapon; it would be difficult to try to accomplish all tasks without
thoroughly acquainting the personnel with professional knowledge and
scientific technology. Our tasks in industrial construction, in agricul-
tural development, in financial, trade, communications, legal and cultural
fields are political tasks for the 600 million Chinese people, we should
rely on the entire body of people for their accomplishment. But every
task involves certain professional and technical problems, and without a
great army of specialists possessing sufficient professional and technical
knowledge we shall find it very difficult to accomplish the tasks faster,
better and more economically."
Although Chang Ching-fu mentioned in the above paragraph the term
"political task," the meaning of the term differed greatly from "empty-
headed politician" and political campaigns; what he said completely cor-
responded with Lenin's "Communism equals the Soviet Union plus national
electrification." Without advanced scientists and technical experts and
complete facilities, it would be impossible to accomplish the nation's
construction by merely inciting the revolutionary fervor of the people;
this was illustrated by the disastrous failure of the "steel making" cam-
paign during the Great Leap Forward in 1958.
There had circulated on the Chinese mainland a prejudice that no one
should study anything which was first invented in a capitalist country.
In his article published in People's Daily on June 13, 1956, Lu Ting-yi
(purged former Director of Propaganda of the CCP Central Committee) cri-
ticized such an erroneous trend. Under the title "Hundred Flowers Bloom
and Hundred Schools of Thought Contend," the article pointed out: "It is
wrong to fix a label of '`feudalism,' 'capitalism" and 'socialism' on a
certain medical, biological or other natural science theory by calling the
Chinese medicine practitioner 'feudalistic,'and the Western medicine prac-
titioner'capita.listic,' Pavlov's theory 'socialistic,' Michurin's theory
'socialistic,' and Mendel's study of heredity 'capitalistic' and so forth."
There should not be any class attributes connected with the study of
medical and natural sciences and theories, so that Einstein's theory is
not only adopted by capitalist countries but also by Communist countries;
Michurin's theory should be treated in a similar manner.
The question that really concerns us is whether one can master this
or that kind of science and technology and whether such science and
2
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technology can be properly applied. For instance, atomic energy can be
used to develop industry and other peaceful projects, the same thing can
be made to kill more people and make war more horrible. However, science
and scientists are innocent, if certain sciences and scientists commit
their studies to criminal purposes, for the most part their rulers or
systems should bear the blame.
As mentioned earlier, the intellectuals and scientists should be pro-
tected during the course of building up the new China, because a new crop
of intellectuals and scientists cannot be raised without relying on the
older and experienced ones. An editorial in "Chung Kuo Ching Nien Pao"
on April 9, 1963 said: "Veteran scientists are the treasures of our
country; they are needed to play the leading role in developing science
and technology, and they are of special importance in the training of
talents." This truly sounded fair to the veteran scientists. But, when
the power struggle was launched under the cover of the "Great Cultural
Revolution," many specialists and scientists of outstanding abilities
like statistician Hsieh Mu-chiang were all given harsh treatment; some were
arrested, others were mercilessly-attacked. Such an action inevitably
hinders the progress of our national construction to a very serious extent.
In recent years, Canada has gone all out to recruit and employ tech-
nical personnel from all over the world in order to speed up her national
construction program; thus by comparison Canada attaches greater import-
ance to scientific and technical experts than the Communist regime in
Peking. Meanwhile, if the influence of "conservatism" and "capitalism"
continues to prevail over scientific and technical circles on the Chinese
mainland, the Communist authorities should look squarely into the issue
and try to find out what has been wrong with their system and what has
caused the Chinese scientists and technical personnel to become passive.
Einstein never tried hard enough to make his brilliant achievement in
physics benefit Germany largely because of the latter's discrimination
against the German Jews and Hitler's wars of aggression.
A Chinese proverb says: "In study there is no difference in senior
and junior, he who masters is the teacher." In other words, anyone who
is thoroughly conversant with a certain subject or technique can be a
teacher and leader in his particular field of learning. At present, the
Chinese Communist propaganda goes all out to stress that the "working
class" must exercise leadership in everything, the word "everything" na-
turally covers all activities in factories, mining centers, postal and
telecommunications centers, banks, trade, culture, education, sciences and
all concerned departments. The question is that can the workers lead in
such activities? If the workers have mastered the necessary professional
knowledge and technology, naturally they will know how to exercise leader-
ship over these departments, and they cannot play the leading role if
they haven't learned enough about the different subjects mentioned above.
Before 1957, many Party cadres who were totally ignorant of the ne-
cessary professional knowledge were assigned to leading posts in numerous
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CPYRGHT
government and academic organizations; their presence had aroused wide-
spread criticism which was wrapped up in the laconic sentence "The layman
leads the expert."
On the: other hand, the Chinese Communist cadres in those days were
still open-minded enough to learn from the experts. Liang Szu-cheng, a
well-known bridge construction expert, published in the 23rd issue of
"Chung Kuo Ching Nien," 1957, an article which pointed out. "I frequently
have contact with the leading comrades of the Urban Construction Depart-
ment, Construction Engineering Department of the State Construction Com-
mission, and many designing units; they all fought in guerrilla warfare
in the past, often they would humbly call themselves 'boors from mountain
caves.' In fact, they were all battle-tested and fighters who have
learned never to bow to difficulties of any kind; they have, on the basis
of Marxism-Leninism, learned from the Soviet experts, from veteran scien-
tists, veteran engineers, and they are themselves 'experts' who have grad-
uated from the 'university' of practical work ... there are many technical
problems on which the engineers cannot reach a conclusion through repeated
and sometimes heated debates, but after listening to opinions of both
sides, these comrades are capable of drawing out conclusions. For instance,
the decision on adopting the 'tube caisson foundation' method in building
the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was reached in such a manner. How could
such a correct conclusion be drawn by those without expert knowledge?
Impossible!" Mr. Liang also said: "Besides, of higher learning. In
Tsinghua University, for instance, there are several dozen directors,
section chiefs and Party committee secretaries of industrial and mining
setups who want to 'study from the very beginning.' They average 40 years
old. Their curriculum is similar to that for college students. After
graduation, they will all become engineers." The above paragraph quoted
from Liang Sze-cheng's article clearly showed that the leading cadres must
understand professional knowledge and concerned techniques.
hold no prejudice against the working class. In fact, the workers
occupy a very important position in the construction of different lines of
production and business. However, it is undeniably true that the workers
are, on the average, rather low in educational levels. In the long years
of employment, they are only able to learn general techniques, and they
must rely on the experts in large-scale and precision designings. For
instance, the newly completed Yangtze River Bridge at Nanking could not
have been built without help from the experts in those days; it was beyond
the ability of the ordinary workers with general technical knowledge no
matter how hard they might have tried to rely on Mao Tse-tung's thought.
Therefore, if the working class wants to exercise leadership in every-
thing, the workers must acquire the necessary technical knowledge and
ability. For instance, Nieh Jung-chen, head of the Scientific Commission
under the Ministry of National Defense, and Wang Ping-chang, head of the
Seventh Ministry of Machine-Building, have acquired the most essential
knowledge needed although they are not as nearly accomplished as Chien
Hsueh-sen and Chien San-chiang in science.
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 CPYRGHT
pprove or a ease
Besides, the current campaign to make the "working class exercise
leadership in everything" is nothing more than a political task designed
by the Mao-Lin clique to suppress the "Red Guards" and the intellectuals;
Mao and Lin want the workers to discredit all the "authorities" to pave
the way for restoring peace and order and to further bolster Mao's prestige
as the supreme leader. Worker comrades, you have been fooled!
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Sing Tau Man Pau, Hong Kong
19 September 19 8
WHERE CAN A CHINESE SCIENTIST GO?
by Cha Ling, who received the personal
experiences of Chinese physicist Li Ming-
ching
There are more than 10,000 Chinese scientists living and working in
Western nations. They all have this sentiment "living in a strange
country, they feel sorry for themselves," and they all hope that someday
they can return to the fatherland to live and to work. But under the pre-
sent conditions, none of them are willing to return. As a whole, thaeir
attitude may be represented by the statement of a Chinese electronic ex-
pert, who escaped from the mainland in 1960 and has been living in London.
He said: "In England, I had no relatives, but I felt that I was warmly
welcomed. My contributions were appreciated and encouraged. I have many
friends among the overseas Chinese, but I have begun to feel that my
closest friends are those of the same profession from other countries."
How true! Scientists are not separated by national boundaries and
scientists of mutual interests have warm and friendly feelings for each
other and they are not affected by differences in nationalities. A Chi-
nese medical doctor who is now living in West Germany said it well: "In
China, the Communist Party first forced me to decide whether I was a med-
ical doctor or a Chinese. Because I had studied abroad, they have their
suspicions of me. They made things difficult for me; they insulted me;
they relegated low-class work to me and would not allow me to undertake
responsible work or work in which I could contribute the most to society.
As a result, I had to come to the conclusion that the fatherland did not
need me. Therefore, I gave up,my Chinese citizenship and chose to be a
doctor. Probably every nation in the world needs a doctor like me."
A more typical example
Dr. Li Ming-chiang, a physicist reknown for his technological liaison
work at the research institute of the Virginia Technological Institute,
had made a comparative study of Chinese Communist and Western scientists.
Li Ming-chiang was born in 1935 in Ming-po, Chekiang Province, and al-
though his family was not wealthy, the Chinese Communists placed his
father and mother in the class of capitalists. For this reason, he had
to struggle very hard to stay in school. In a school, aside from one's
scholastic work, a student's standing in the class is based on his family
origin and the student's so-called "political consciousness." For this
reason, although he was excellent in scholastic work, he barely passed
the other standards to get promoted every year. From 1953 to 1958, he
studied physics theory at Peking University. After he was graduated, in
spite of being the best student in his class, he was sent to a teacher's
ormal college in Inner Mongolia to teach elementary physics. Although
he laboratory facilities of the school were pitiful and crude, he, be-
ause of his family origin, was not even allowed to enter the laboratory.
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Finally, after being frustrated and bored with the whole matter, he event-
ually escaped from the mainland upon an invitation to go to the United
States.
P., scientist in a free heaven and on a free earth
At that time his English was rudimentary; moreover, when he took the
school examination, someone discovered that his educational level was
equivalent to a junior in an American college and that what he had learned
in Peking University was at least 10 years behind times. At this he was
annoyed and discouraged; at first, he couldn't believe that his standards
were so low and he turned around and accused the Americans of discrimi-
nating and looking down on his scholastic capabilities. Because of dis-
contentment, he tried harder; so hard that he slept little and ate little,
but studied and studied. His teachers gladly gave him special attention
and special help.
In 2 years, Li Ming-chiang obtained his doctorate in physics, a
spectacular achievement. For this reason, the school decided to send him
to the Princeton Institute for advanced study for further study. Only
the most outstanding and experienced scientists were granted this honor.
The scientists who go to the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies
stay there for 2 years and during that time receive high salaries, live
in luxury apartments and have the use of all sorts of recreational facil-
ities. It has one of the largest libraries in the world and for research
tools it has almost everything available and if not, they are procured
upon request. As to work, the scientists do nothing but use their heads
to think of and to solve scientific problems. Li Ming-chiang fully
utilized those 2 years there. When he left the institute, he received
numerous offers and had the choice of picking the one which paid him the
most and gave him the greatest satisfaction.
The reason that Chu talent was used in China
He is married to a Chinese girl who holds a doctorate in chemistry.
They now have two lovable children and a comfortable and happy life. As
to work, he uses one fourth of his time to teach the research students
and spends the rest of the time for his own research work. His interest
in politics remains as lukewarm as the day when he was on the China main-
land. If the Chinese Communists were not so antiquated in demanding that
in everything "politics commands" and had they not interfered with his
livelihood and. work, he and other outstanding physicists would not have
gone to the United States and would have remained on the mainland to serve
the Chinese Communists,
Speaking of the scientists on the mainland Li Ming-chiang pointed out
that they should not be looked upon as one homogeneous group. For example,
scientists who had studied abroad are generally older and most had studied
in the Soviet Union, the Western nations, or Japan. Those who are rela-
tively young acquired their education on the mainland and
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Buis e y eir ami y origins, good or bad. The
types of scientists also vary according to the changes of events, particu-
larly during the drastic and terrific changes, in 1958, of the struggle
against the rightists and, in 1966, when the great Cultural Revolution
as initiated. Because of the changes of the nature of these problems,
he fates of the scientists on the mainland is absolutely different from
that of the scientists abroad.
feeling of security-and shortcuts
The great problem of the scientists on the mainland today is the lack
f a sense of security. The Chinese Communist regime blows hot and cold
awards them, praising them at one time and putting them down at another.
fter the anti-rightist struggle, the Chinese Communist Party accepted a
arge number of outstanding scientists into their party leaving them to
elieve they could have stability and peace in work; but this was completely
hattered with the launching of the great Cultural Revolution. When the
hinese Communists practice suppression or "brain-washing," they often use
he tactic of threat and seduction. On the one hand, they would select
few scientists and lavish praise and rewards upon them; on the other,
hey would single out another group of scientists and brand them as tar-
ets of struggle and hurl all sorts of invectives and insults upon them.
hese two groups of persons were all selected by the cadres, and the cadres
ade their selections quite at random. Those scientists who received
dulation and rewards naturally felt that "their ancestors were looking
t them and their family tombs were propitious;" scientists who were the
argets of struggle were naturally disgruntled and discontented with no
ay to release their anger. Those scientists who neither received an
ward nor were the targets of "rectification" felt greatly relieved and
onsoled themselves that they were lucky to get away with it again. How-
ver, in this type of struggle, there is not just one obstacle, but many
bstacles ahead. For this reason, all the scientists are still in great
pprehension not knowing when it will be their turn to be struggled against.
Part I of this article]
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Excerpt from China Mainland Media
Revealing Regime Treatment of Doctors
and Status of Medicine in China
June-Nov 1968
Medical facilities in China, already below international standard,
have deteriorated during the Cultural Revolution. Doctors and nurses have
been "dragged out" in large numbers and forced to do manual work in the
hospitals. Other physicians have been sent to rural areas to act as "bare-
foot doctors," doing part manual and part medical work; in some instances
they have been told that they will only receive work points for agricul-
tural labor and not for medical work. Disruptions in the pharmaceutical
industry and in transport facilities have made medicine scarce.
In trying to overcome shortages of both facilities and staff, the
Chinese authorities are encouraging medical personnel to use Mao's Thought
in place of drugs and equipment. But risks are apparently being taken in
Mao's name. The New China News Agency (NCNA), on November 11, 1968, re-
ported on the exploits of Cheng Yu-lu, a "barefoot doctor" who had never
been to a medical college. A patient once went to the commune clinic where
Cheng worked and asked for an operation for an abscess on the right upper
abdomen :
"A doctor at the clinic, who was a medical college
graduate, told the patient: 'Your case is very serious.
Our clinic is not equipped to treat you. We would like
to recommend you to some other place for treatment.' At
this, Cheng Yu-lu came up to examine the patient. The
doctor was angry. He said: 'How can such a poorly equipped
clinic treat such a disease? You will be held responsible
if anything goes wrong.' Cheng Yu-lu ignored the doctor's
comp.laints... He improvised an operating theatre in his
bedroom...".
Lartchow Radio said on November 8 that the political department of the
Kansu Provincial Revolutionary Committee recently called on the people to
learn from "model health worker," Cheng Yu-lu, in being "boundlessly loyal
to Chairman Mao."
Members of a Mao Tse-tung propaganda team of the People's Liberation
Army (PLA) used new acupuncture techniques to treat deaf mutes at the
Liao Yuan school for deaf mutes in Kirin according to NCNA on November 3.
The three doctors and five nurses in the team tried an important acupunc-
ture point which specialists in the past had called a "forbidden point":
"The old acupunture books stipulated that the needle
could be inserted safely only to a depth of one to 1.6
centimeters. But this did no good. The 'authorities'
claimed that insertion to a depth of 3.3 centimeters would
make a healthy person become mute; insertion to a depth of
five centimeters would endanger life."
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Medical worker Chao :Pu-yu first tried the acupuncture needle on his
own body, inserting the needle into his head beyond the danger point. Thus
having satisfied the team that the treatment was safe, they began work on
the children in the school, After acupuncture for half a month, 32 of
the 157 deaf mutes could shout: "Long live Chairman Mao."
NCNA described on November 1, how a Shanghai medical team equipped a
primitive hospital from scratch without any financial help from the State:
"They borrowed some stools and boards to make some beds
and fetched water from a well about half a kilometer away.
The operating table was only a bed of wooden boards and
child delivery was carried out in a bamboo reclining chair.
A washbasin was used as a sterilizer. They did not spend a
penny of State funds The bourgeois reactionary academic
'authorities' looked down on the operating room of this
tiny hospital as 'violating the regulations' and 'not to
standard,' but it was in this operating room which had no
operating table, no shadowless lamp, no blood bank, no
oxygen and no running water that the comrades performed
dozens of medium and major operations, including gastrec-
tomy, cholecystectomy, hysterectomy, and appendectomy by
kerosene lamp and flashlight"
An operation by PLA surgeons on a peasant woman with an abdominal
tumor weighing 90 catties was reported by NCNA in June 1968, The opera-
tion was carried out with the aid of Mao's Thought despite the fact that
the "army health center was not equipped for such a rare operation." Now
the Chinese have opened an exhibition of PLA achievements in medicine in
Peking with the tumor as the center piece.
Ank
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Excerpts from China mainlandMedia June-Nov 1968
Revealing Regime Treatment of Scientists
Warning To China's Nuclear Scientists.
Chien San-chiang, Director of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1958, has been denounced as a "capitalist-
roader and secret enemy agent" who must be "toppled." (Canton Red Guard
newspaper, Red Flag Bulletin No. I, June 1968.)
This attack on Chien, one of China's leading nuclear scientists who,
although he studied and worked abroad between 1937 and 1948, has since
held a number of political as well as scientific posts, reflects the
changed official attitude towards scientists and technicians seen in Mao's
recent instructions on technical training (Peking Radio, July 21) and in
reports on the experiences of the Shanghai Lathe Plant in adopting new
training procedures,
The emphasis in technical training is now to be on practical labor
at ordinary factory or agricultural worker level as opposed to theoretical
research which is said to divorce intellectual workers from the masses.
Foreign influences and revisionist views such as those attributed to "China's
Khrushchev" (Liu Shao-chi) are to be resisted.
The relevance of the latest instructions to scientists has been
clearly underlined. On July 21, the People's Daily, commending an investi-
gation report on the Shanghai Lathe Plant prepared by the New China News
Agency and Wen Hui Pao, urged scientific research departments and "leading
units" to read it carefully as a "sharp weapon for further criticizing
and repudiating" Liu Shao-chi's "counterrevolutionary revisionist line in
science and technology."
Wen Hui Pao warned on July 26 that the situation in scientific and
technological circles was "not satisfactory," and complained that "some
people" sought to put work first, indulged in personal ambition, relied
too heavily on foreign textbooks and conventions, and did not move beyond
the library or laboratory. They did not intend to follow the direction
indicated "long since" by Mao for science and technology. The newspaper
also complained that a "number of so-called experts, extremely politically
reactionary and completely ignorant in their work," had "usurped leader-
ship over science and technology."
And in research bureaus, the strata were "strictly defined" and the
"newly emerging forces," (presumably the revolutionary workers), were sup-
pressed. In short, the structure of scientific and technological depart-
ments had become a "hotbed for the breeding of revisionist intellectual
aristocrats."
Wen Hui Pao warned on July 26 that some scientific and technological
units had abandoned the task of "consolidating and expanding" revolutionary
great alliances and three-way alliances. Instead of struggling against
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"capitali.st-roaders," they were divided by "civil wars." A Special Edition
of Materials (published jointly by two Canton revolutionary groups and
recording Chou En-lai's meeting on April 20-21, with representatives from
the National Defense Scientific Commission, the Military Control Commis-
sion, the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building and the Chinese of Sciences),
disclosed that the "violent struggle of the Seventh Ministry of Machine
Building was connected with the factionalism of the Scientific Commission."
Both these departments are thought to be concerned with China's nuclear
program.
Wen Hui Pao laid down certain tasks for scientific and technological
circles, They were to
"combine revolutionary mass criticism and repudiation
with the purification of the class ranks, with the task of
struggle-criticism-transformation in individual units and
with the rectification of the party organization, and carry
mass criticism and repudiation through to the end."
This sterner attitude contrasts with that revealed in the 16-point
decision of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee on the Cultural
Revolution, adopted on. August 8, 1968, which laid down that during the
cultural revolution,
"the policy of unity-criticism-unity should be con-
tinued toward those scientists, technical personnel, and
working people so long as they are patriotic and work ac-
tively without opposing the party and Socialism, and so
Long as they have no improper association with foreign
countries. Those scientists and technical personnel who
have made contributions would be protected. Assistance may
be rendered in the gradual transformation of their world
outlook and work methods." (NCNA, August 8, 1966)
"Red v Exert" camai_n continues .
Laboratories have also become a target of the new wave of the "Red
versus Expert" battle now being waged in China. In 1963-65 during the
period of recovery from the three previous years,necessity caused greater
reliance on expertise, but currently the emphasis on the leading role of
workers has given rise to a new prestige for "Redness." Consequently pur-
chases of technical equipment and money spent on proper research facili-
ties in 1963-64 are now being condemned as bourgeois and counterrevolu-
tionary
Eight workers at a silk weaving mill in Soochow, Kiangsu Province,
who wrote a report on their investigations at the mill's laboratory (New
China News Agency (NCNA) on October 31, 1968), said that since it was set
up in 1963, the laboratory had been controlled by a "handful of capitalist-
roaders and reactionary bourgeois technical authorities" who believed in
"letting experts run the plant":
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"These fellows were so free with money that they
bought a good deal of apparatus blindly, regardless of
whether it was needed or useful,"
The workers also condemned the "appalling extent to which the labora-
tory placed itself above the masses," and concluded:
"The laboratory staff have gone down to do produc-
tive work on the shop floor where they are being reedu-
cated by the workers."
The story of the laboratory at Chuchou Tientsin Locomotive and Rolling
Stock Works was told by Changsha Radio (October 30). This laboratory was
established in 1958 at which time it was quite simple and in regular touch
with the workers. But in 1964, encouraged by official emphasis on "expert-
ness," the "reactionary bourgeois technical authorities" spent 8,000 yuan
on "a fine-looking laboratory" in the main building of the works and they
also built a second laboratory.
"These persons also made a big thing of buying instru-
ments, trying several of the same kind at one time."
The laboratory personnel were
"gravely divorced from production, sitting around in
their laboratories and going in for so-called creation,
invention, scientific research and theorising? They always
reckoned themselves superior to the workers."
The report ended:
"The laboratory staff must take it in turns to do
production and steel workers must take it in turn to work
in the laboratory,"
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