SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST BROADCASTS TO CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83B00100R000100130045-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2002
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: May 4, 1976
• Content Type: MEMO

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,Now
4 May 1976
TO: DCI
STATINTL FROM:
NIO/China
SUBJECT: Seventh Day Adventist Broadcasts to China
1. Regarding Congresswoman Shirley Pettis's inquiries,
this is the unclassified response.
Macao, although a Portuguese colony, is run
for and by the Chinese. The Chinese, in effect,
took control of Macao during the Cultural Revolu-
tion in 1966. Although the Portuguese have offered
the Colony back to China, China has not accepted
the offer as it would be a major digestive problem.
The point is that if the Chinese Communists don't
like a broadcast from Macao they can have it turned
off very quickly. The Chinese in the past have
been largely indifferent to religious broadcasts
such as those beamed to China from the Philippines
and Korea.
As for the specific questions:
a. The words God and Christ are still in
the Chinese vocabulary (Shang Ti and Yeh Su re-
spectively). According to John Fairbank there
were never more than several million Chinese
Christians but the effects of Christianity have
troubled and consoled China for well over a cen-
tury. You will recall that Hung Hsiu-chuan
launched the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s -saying
that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.
Twenty million Chinese died in this revolt against
the Manchus. Cantonese are particularly well-in-
formed about Western civilization and its vocabulary
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and many of those Cantonese living around Macao
would probably be aware of this Christian terminology.
b. The emphasis on health is very acceptable
in China and I attach an item from Peking which de-
scribes a massive health campaign underway. The
Chinese with their millions of "barefoot doctors"
and emphasis on cleaning up the cities are clearly
concerned with health problems. They believe, how-
ever, that they have the solutions and they seek
advice from the outside only in specific areas such
as cures for schistosomiasis.
c.. As for music, the standard Chinese fare
is muscular and marshall music but there is a
residual love for Chinese operas. The Cantonese
have their own opera and are addicted to it. I
would suggest that Chinese opera would be well
received. by the listening audience.
d. Family life still exists in China particu-
larly as pertains to the immediate family. The
huge family conglomerates have been broken up and
even husbands and wives sometimes are separated in
the interest of the state, but the institution of
the family is still acceptable and there is a strong
bond among Chinese family members. The good family
life can be propagated but not at the expense of
the state as far as Peking is concerned.
2. I suggest that If Congresswoman Pettis would like to
pursue points on China that she contact Mr. Frank Scotton who
is the China Desk Officer at the United States Information
Agency in Washington. His telephone number is 632-5161 and
he has been alerted to a possible call from her. Mr. Scotton
is well-informed on both China and on the media and if necessary
could put the Congresswoman in touch with the Voice of AmeriSTATINTL
people who are professionals in broadcasting to China.
Attachment:
Article
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F 5 Pt(c
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Tne p.?vblce :)f unemployment was cor.,npletely solved i:: new C ina it 1953. Wi.'- c t:rfe
?ievelop-aer , of soeialis' coast:: uetiott t e rank:. of t e employed have been growi.og eve ~v
year and sI:e question of .eemployment ..as never cropped up. Wit, the organization of
people's communes in the rural areas, ti.c broad masses of peasants tool, i,te socialist
road of achieving prosperity in common. Triis uprooted the causes of bankruptcy and
ended their drift into the cities. T::e labour force freed by the mechanization of
agriculture now work on scientific farming, on diversified economy, on full-time basic
r.rricultural construction and in commune or bri._,,ade-run factories. For, example Jr,
Liac'tii
people's commune, Hupei. Province, where mechanization is comparatively hig.r, 2,000 com-
mune members have been freed from routine farmwork even?y year. However, not one of the
5,800 labourin;; people in is commune is. idle. A deputy secretary of the commune party
committee said; "Ttore are many things to do in extensive farming. We need more man-
power for improved cultivation and t,re raising of per-l.ectare yields in grain and cotton.''
Herr Chins takes good care of old workers. Hen over U0 and women over 55, can retire grit=,
a pension ranging from 50 percent to 85 percent of their original wages, depending on
their working years. They Set free medical care. Those who have not reached the retire-
ment; age but are advanced in years do not. take part in heavy labour. Workers employed at
se c;., tasks go on to other work when they get older. For example in coal mines, excavat-
ing;; wor:rers are transferred to lighter work above ground when they grow old; and at iron
and steel plants old workers are transferred from tending furnaces to less taxing jobs,
In oilfields, old workers do not work at t.Le wells. In all these transfers, the workers'
wages .remian unclanged.
Under the capitalist system, new techniques and new installations mean the firing of
large numbers of workers. But tc.ere is no such thing in new China. in every factory,
nine and other enterprise, there are worker-cadre-technician technical renovation groups
with wo?icer's as their main force, to develop mass innovation. The manpower economized
throe h renovation is used in other work. In Taciring, China's biggest oil base, renova-
'cions keep ',ein.-; made and technology is being continually raised, But not one worker has
h-o?en discharged. Amon;, the workers freed by technical transformation, some are excavat-
in- new oil wells, some work in now oil fields, others go in for scientific research.
In new China, every year the new graduates are given work in the industrial field, urban
enterprises, state farms or people's communes to take part in socialist construction.
The common pro-liberation complaint that "graduation means unemployment" has been banished
forever.
CITIES INSTITUTE MAY DAY HEALTH CAMPAIGN
Pekin? NCNA in n ;lis 0823 GMT 30 Apr 76 OW
[Text] Peking, April 30, 1976 (HSINHUA)--Peking, Shanghai, Tientsin and Canton have
gone full steam ahead in carrying out their spring patriotic public health campaign which
has greatly improved the urban environments. This is part of the programmes adopted by
t.:ese cities to greet the forthcoming International Labour Day,
Toe curre:st health campaign is bein,_ conducted amidst t:,e [great struggle to criticize
the b:igg.est'unrepontant capitalist roader in the party Teng Hsiao-pint;, and to beat back
the right deviat:ionist wind to reverse the previous correct verdicts of the C'rltural.
itevoluLiorn.
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Ppr;
NATIONAL Ai"-AT',1,
started in late March, the campaign in Pekin; has involved well over three million people,
cadres and fighters and cormnander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, The , ;; as
",t
given its streets a thorough cleaning and cleared rubbish to a total of 90,000 cubs:-- mete:
T"ne show windows of department stores have all been shined and re-decorated, The Peking
railway station workers have swept the railway beds and platforms and
square in front of the terminal building the huge
ng a complete brushing. The station is now look-
ing tidy and neat. The workers of the city's restaurants, cinemas and theatres and parks
and other service trades, inspirited by the current criticism movement, have done a much
better job of spring cleaning than ever before. Shock work brigades have been killing
flies and digging out larvae and all breeding grounds for mosquitoes and flies have bien
cleared.
In Shanghai, half a million residents h4--: been engaged since mid-April in cleaning work
in the streets, parks, shops, factories, government organizations, schools and colleges,
and neighbourhood committees. All shops in the main thoroughfares of this biggest of
Chinese cities have been washed and their freshly decorated windows made sparkling clean,
Gardeners and horticultural workers have been at it night and day to cut the grass and
trim the trees, remove weeds and rearrange the flower beds.
While cleaning the streets and improving environmental hygiene, the people have killed
the over-winter flies and mosquitoes, cleaned up the breeding grounds for these pest:;
and set put many fly-catching devices and mosquito lures.
In Tientsin, north China's industrial city, workers, cadres, students and residents led
by leading cadres turned out at the beginning of April to make the cit?f spick and span.
Some 120,000 people have taken part in digging out 3 m illion larvae inS,o anti-ply drive.
Barefoot doctors and commune members in the surburbs combined endeavours to elimj.nat,e
pests and prevent diseases with manure gatheriri,1. They improved the environmental hy,-ienp
by checking standards on the proper handling of water sources and animal and human e creta.
Workers in the city's factories, enterprises, non-staple shops, restaurants, railway
stations, department stores, parks and cinemas have made great efforts to im.p-.o=re environ-
mental hygiene in their sparetime.
Insectibide has been sprayed in major places of Kwangchow to eliminate possible breeding=
grounds of flies and mosquitoes and prevent infectious diseases common in spring. More
than 30 observation points for the prevention of such diseases have been set up in all
hospitals, and regular health examinations are being given in kindergartens, schools
and construction sites. The city's workers, peasants, cadres and com'z;.nders and fighters
turned ou;; to improve environmental hygiene in and around the city. As a result, infectious
diseases liable to occur in spring have been brought under effective control.
Peking NCNA in English 130+ GMT 29 Apr 76 OW
[Text] Peking, April 29, 1975 (HSINHUA)--An English edition of "Mao Tsetung Poems"
a volume containing 39 poems, has just been published by the foreign languages press here..
It will be available on May 1, the International Labour Day, in Peking, Shanghai and
C.- `on and later abroad.
Chairman Mao's sublime poems reflect the tempestuous and earth-shaking class ggle
and two-line struggle in different historical periods of the Chinese people's revolution,
including the period of the socialist revolution, and thp, international communist movenen`.
over the past 50 years,
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NOW
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STATINTL
FORM
! FEB
Executive Aegistty
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTF.Lli[GI;NCIZT^i7 p
Congresswoman Shirely Pettis a 7th
ii
Day Adventist handed me the attached
sheet raising certain questions.
Please answer the questions in an unclassifi
memo to me, if possible..
Also I'd like to have your views on this
operation they are running out of Macao.
Maybe, if th- whole idea sounds negative
we should talk to her ( I will) or you
could go see her. She is a very close
friend..... lives right next door to us.
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May 1, 1976
Information on proposed China broadcast:
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has bean given
the opportunity to broadcast 22 hours per week
on an AM station out of Macao. The station is
picked up by millions in Cantonese China.
In constructing the programs, the script writers
need to know about the following points:
Are the words "God" and "Christ" completely out of
the vocabulary of the average Chinese Communist?
Are programs based on good health acceptable?
What kind of music is most acceptable?
How can family living be approached in a country
where the State is a Surrogate parent?
4,J ktz~~-
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