FROM PEKING TO LHASA-A 16-DAY JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050068-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 68
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

/ 7C1Z' 2".P16T ' Approved For Release 2007/06/21 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050068-5
Q,.Y .,,,CE 14 NOVEMBER 1977
A PERSONAL NOTEBOOK
From Peking to Lhasa
A 16-Day Journey Through China
Chase Untermeyer, a member of the Texas State
legislature, as well as a journalist, accompanied
Ambassador George Bush on a 16-day trip to
China that included a visit to Tibet. Following are
notes Untermeyer took during their journey.
Smashing the "Gang of Four." On our second day in
China, George Bush and members of his group are hosted at
a banquet by Hao Te-ching, a retired Chinese Ambassador
who heads the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs.
His prepared text for the toasting sets a theme that we shall
hear repeatedly during our journey: Great changes have
occurred in China since Bush left his post as head of the U.S.
Mission-Peking, in December, 1975, to become chief of the
Central Intelligence Agency.
Hao cited the deaths of China's three major revolutionary
leaders: Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung, Premier Chou En-lai
and Marshal Chu Teh. He talked of the efforts of Mao's
widow, Chiang Ching, and her associates-now known as the
"Gang of Four"-to seize power after Mao's death.
According to Hao, Mao was aware of what the "antiparty"
group was up to, and hand-picked his successor, Hua Kuo-
feng, to "smash the Gang of Four." Hao predicted that on
our trip we would "see that people up and down the country,
under Chairman Hua, are in high spirits, eager to turn China
into a powerful socialist country by the end of the century."
China's strong man. On the third day of our visit, we are
received by Teng Hsiao-ping, Vice Premier of the State
Council and Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the
Chinese Communist Party. Despite his ranking as only No. 3
in the present lineup of power, Teng is believed by Chinese
and foreigners alike to be the strong man of today's China.
Teng, a tiny man in his early 70s who has survived two
purges, fairly pops with self-confidence. He
has a way of pivoting at the waist while seated
to toss off a statement with an air of absolute
authority.
We journalists are allowed to remain only
for the opening pleasantries. Then we are
swept out of the room while Teng talks with
Bush. What filtered out provided insight into
the way Chinese leaders view the world.
China and Russia. The Chinese are greatly
concerned about the Soviet strategic threat to
their country. Teng and his colleagues speak
passionately of Moscow's military build-up and
the treaties that it has broken. Russia is regard-
ed as the greatest danger to world peace.
The Chinese complain that the U.S. only
"appeases" Russia when it sells her grain, or
when it backs off from confrontations in Ango-
la or Zaire, where Moscow has supported
groups unfriendly to Washington and Peking.
U.S. and China. What is meant by "normal-
ization" of U.S. relations with China puzzled
me throughout our journey. Clearly, to the
211111111111113 rASOfN
In Peking's Tien An Men Square, Americans saw hundreds of thousands rehearse
for the National Day pageant. In background is the Great Hall of the People.
Statue symbolizing the unity of all parts of Chinese society
stands in front of memorial to the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
Chinese, it means full diplomatic ties between Washington
and Peking. But from the American point of view, our
relations are already quite harmonious and "normal"-more
so than with many countries with whom we have full
diplomatic relations.
We have trade with China-nearly half a billion dollars'
worth last year. We have cultural and scientific exchanges.
Americans can travel to all corners of China and be treated
with warmth and hospitality.
What real difference does it make that Leonard Wood-
cock, our current chief envoy in Peking, is officially classified
as "Chief, U.S. Liaison Office," rather than as the Ambassa-
dor? Is the change in his official title worth what the Chinese
demand: the abandonment of the Republic of China on
CONTINUE,
Approved For Release 2007/06/21 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050068-5
 Approved For Release 2007/06/21: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050068-5
Taiwan to an uncertain fateand possibly
invasion by mainland China?
Crowded hospitals. In preparation for our
visit to the isgh altitudes of Tibet, we are
taken to the Capital Hospital in Peking for
chest X rays, electrocardiograms and blood-
pressure tests.
My tests were finished early, and I seized
the opportunity to wander off from the bright-
ly lit and lacquered foreigners' section of the
old hospital to look at the area that is used by
ordinary Chinese. It is darker, lit by low-
wattage bulbs, and the corridors are crowded,
wet and littered. People stand in line to regis-
ter for appointments or to get a prescription.
Weird rock formations of Kweilin, in South China, have been favorite "subjects of
Chinese artists for centuries. U.S. visitors find artists portray real scenes.
Some are sleeping on benches. No one from the hospital staff
asks what I am doing there. But my always nervous escort
from the Foreign Ministry's information department locates
me. I pretend that I got lost looking for the men's room. .
Dress rehearsal. Our pnvate dinner at a superb Peking-
duck restaurant is interrupted by the shouts of an organized
group of young people who are waving red banners.
Fortunately, they are not moving against us-visible anti-
Americanism has all but vanished in China-but instead are
on a dress rehearsal for the National Day festivities of
October 1. Thereafter, we see hundreds of thousands of
people streaming into the vast Tien An Men Square, where
the Great Hall of the People is located. -
Most of the people are under 20, and many are dressed in
the colorful costumes of minority nationalities. In a display
similar to what Albert Speer might have stage-managed for
Hitler at the Nazi rallies. in Nuremberg, all the huge build-
ings around the square are rimmed with electric lights, and
powerful spotlights stationed around the city cast their
beams to one point above our heads. (Is this to suggest the
celestial presence of the late Mao. Tse-tung?) Then the
spotlights move right and left in a rhythmical fashion,
creating a cat's-cradle effect in the sky, while martial music
blares from loud-speakers built into street lamps..
Without doubt,- the participants had been ordered into
Peking in the way that only a thoroughly controlled society
can accomplish. But, for the youngsters, this is clearly more
fun than an early lights-out back on the commune.
The Mao myth. We have been granted a special privilege:
a visit to the brand-new Memorial Hall for the late Chairman
Mao, built in Tien An Men beside the Great Hall of the
People and across from the old Forbidden City.
Thousands of Chinese wait quietly while we foreigners are
moved to the head of the line. In the entrance chamber, a
.visitor sees a large alabaster statue of Mao as he isugually
portrayed-husky, decisive, benign, wise. At the foot'bf the
statue are funeral wreaths, given by top members of t,.e
Politburo.. In back is a magnificent needlepoint tapestry - .an
allegorical panorama of China.
From here, we enter the chamber where Mao's body lies
encased in a crystal crypt. The sight is a shock. Far from
being the remains of the larger-than-life subject of the statue,
this is the preserved body of an old, emaciated man.
C The designers must have known what they were doing. A
visitor sees that the "Great Helmsman" was a mortal, like-all
men, and the. mythical Mao of the entrance hall is now
definitely dead. The Mao myth may live on, the subliminal-
message seems to say, but the actual conduct of China's
affairs must pass to new leaders-such as Hua Kuo-feng.
China has not been "de-Maofied" as some diplomats and
journalists have been speculating. But clearly what is now in
% rogress is the Chinese equivalent of transition, at least in
p
the mass public-relations sense. More and more you see
paired portraits of Mao and Hua, with Mao still given first
rank by being positioned on the left.
A popular painting shows what probably is an apocryphal
scene of the two Chinese leaders sitting in Mao's study. Mao
has placed a hand tenderly on Hua's, and the caption quotes
Mao as saying, "With you in charge, I can rest."
More money to spend. I stroll along Wang Fu Ching,
Peking's main shopping street, making a point of entering
every shop for two blocks. The idea is to check the availabil-
ity of consumer'goods and their prices.
The shelves are well stocked. But some of the prices may
have been out of the reach of a typical factory worker who -
earns. $20 to $25 a month. [More than half the nation's
factory workers were recently given a pay raisetheir first
1n.10 years.]
A woman's buttoned sweater costs about $8.50, a man's
cotton shirt from $3.5G to $5. A standard Chinese-made
watch costs $55, the band another Si or.-$2. But a Japanese
watch that shows the date as well as the time is priced
upward of $285. A plain alarm clock costs from $5 to $7.50.
The ubiquitous "Mao jacket" ranges f r o m $10.50 in cotton to
$30 in fancier cloth. A pair of matching trousers will cost
from $7.50 to $20. And the unisex rubber-soled black slip-
pers, so popular everywhere in China, sell for only $2.
years, can be purchased at a reasonable outlay. But luxury
- -
items are expensive..
A lack of safety- Szechwan, China's most-populous Prov-
ince and its richest rice-growing area, presents a welcome
contrast to sterile and dusty Peking. The rice fields at harvest
time are patterns of green and yellow, interlaced with trees
and water buffalo. People are dressed more casually and
colorfully.than in the national capital. Since Americans are
seldom seen here, we become the center of attention.
After a splendid meal that justifies the fame of Szechwan-
ese cooking, we are taken to see the Chenogtu Measuring
Instruments & Precision Cutting Tools Plant. The broadly
smiling "chairman of the revolutionary committee"-mean-
ing the boss--escorts us through the poorly lit workshops,
where the, workers operate dangerous grinding and drilling
machines without the protection of safety goggles.
China has many forms of rigid control, but lacks its version
of America's Occupational Safety and Health Administration
CONTINUED
Approved For Release 2007/06/21: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050068-5
 Approved For Release 2007/06/21: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050068-5
(OSHA). Later, at the gigantic Chungking Iron & Steel
Corporation, we spot similar hazards.
A "classless" society? An overnight train ride shows the
gradations in this "classless" society. We ride in a private
carriage with European-style compartments, table lamps and
potted plants. It is not open to ordinary passengers.
Cobra for dinner. Chinese artists for centuries have
painted scenes from Kweilin, in South China, of hunched-
over, warped-looking mountains topped by pagodas, with
blue-green rocks and trees. Westerners who view these
paintings have thought how imaginative the Chinese were to
come up with such crazy notions of geology. But Kweilin is
where the artist portrays real life.
American tour groups might be discouraged from coming
here if they are given food similar to that served to us by the
Kweilin Municipal Revolutionary Committee. It is heavy on
snake: The "dragon soup" contains strips of cobra, and mao-
tai drinks are made yellow by the bile of the reptile.
And on the "Roof of the World"
Nevertheless, the Chinese also are pre-
serving the relics of Tibetan Buddhism.
During visits to the breathtakingly beauti-
ful Potala and the summer palace, Norbu
Linga, we saw exquisite Tibetan paint-
ings, wood carvings and statuary.
But even that which genuinely is part of
the- past is ;-made ? to serve the . political
present. One exhibit of manuscripts pur
-ported to show that the different genera-
tions of Dalai Lamas and other high
TFOM _.Tibetan officials had to seek the approval
Potala, former winter palace of Dala
Lamas, in Tibet of the central Government of, China" ever
"Everything has changed. Tibet is now part of China."
The speaker. Lowell Thomas, one of several Ameri-
cans who were', allowed to visit: this remote" land. in
October. Thomas was- last here ?in ? 1949, the "year the
Chinese Communists forced the Nationalists to flee to
the island of Taiwan.
Tibet's former theocratic ruler, the fourteenth Dalai
Lama,. now lives in exile in: India The- new, rulers of
Tibet, which is larger than Texas and California com-
bind, are the-ethnic Chinese who makeup only 7 per
cent of the total population of 1.74 million.
Old and new. The Chinese run Tibet in a manner
that is reminiscent of British rule in India before World
War II. At the base of the imposing Potala, the ' seven
teenth-century winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, is the
..new city" of Lhasa. A grid pattern of tree-lined streets
makes it look like other. cities in- China.. This area is the
Chinese-cantonment, where most-people are, relatively-"
fair-skinned and have moon-shaped faces. The Tibetans,
who have thinner, stronger facial features, and coloring
roughly like that of American Indians, live in the ancient
mud-and-stone old town of Lhasa or in the countryside.
You see signs; of Chinese control- everywhere. The
Chinese language has precedence on street signs and
wall slogans; the Tibetan characters are always `second.
Tien Pao, the highest ranking Tibetan in the "autono-
mous :3 government,.was.unable to"give-the proportion of.,
Chinese to Tibetans on the revolutionary committee,
A show staged-'in Lhasa by , the , "Song and. Dance"Ensemble of the Tibetan Autonomous Region". featured
a ; ballet - inwhich ~'Tibetan girls-`joyously insisted off'
washing' the- uniform of 'a People's,," Liberation Army'
soldier =Next`.came `a`dance in "Jubilant Celebration of a
'
5
d
r
Bumper.' Harvest, with4 two.'-boys in -the foregroun
gazing adoringly at twin portraits of the` late". Chairman
'Mao Tse-tung and his chosen successor Hua; Kuo-feng~; -
- In 'a- duet;; entitled.. "Praising the :New Towrr," an old
Tibetan rrsan and`his granddaughter sang ecstatically-','
approval,` our guide said, Tibetan decrees were invalid,
which "shows that the relationship between the Mother-
land and Tibet is historically proven.";
The Chinese leadership iii Lhasa is sensitive to reports
that Peking is deliberately settling more ethnic Chinese
in Tibet to shore up its control of the region-not unlike
what Israel is doing with Jewish settlements on the
conquered West Bank of the Jordan River " .
Tien Pao denied that any such settlements existed,
explaining that some of 'the ` 120,000 Chinese now in
Tibet are descendants of Chinese troops who came here -
in the nineteenth century and stayed on. Other ethnic-
Chinese workers in Tibet; he explained,' are technical
'
personnel who are on permanent assignment unless ?.
their health gives out-or are here for periods of service
of two to three years.
But Tien confirmed a- report that, last - year, ` 1,000
Chinese,newcomers settled in Tibet-=educated youtihs
who responded to Chairman Mao's call to go "down to
-the countryside" and "temper; themselves" by ;working
in communes.
One example of Chinese control: In' the old town of,-' Lhasa, friendly Tibetans followed our group in large and
happy numbers-a veritable parade. Finally, our uni-
formed Chinese escorts barked at the Tibetans to permit
the Americans to. wander ahead by themselves. There
:was nothing we-could. do but look sympathetic-and wave
cheerfully at the blocked mass of smiling townspeople.
The past recalled. To Lowell Thomas, the saddest
difference between the. Tibet he remembers and the
, Tibet- oftoday is the loss of,"pageantry." He .explained:
Tibetan