Societyfor

Anglo ^Chinese ^Understanding

Family: a changing concept 2Fanshen—new perspectives 4SACU press statement 5Party, Army and People 6

VOL 4 Number 8

AUGUST 1969

PRICE NINEPENCE

Russian brinkmanship— China on guardTHE BLOODY incidents on ChenpaoIsland in the Ussuri River (China'snorth-eastern frontier with the SovietUnion) in March were followed byfurther incidents in June on the north-western frontier, and on 8 July by aclash on Pacha Island in the Heilung-kiang (Amur River) only 70 miles orso upstream from Khabarovsk, whereSoviet and Chinese representatives hadsince 18 June been meeting to dealwith matters relating to navigation onthese very border rivers.

Evidence of Russian harassment andbrutality to Chinese fishermen andother local inhabitants in the film ' NewTsars' anti-China atrocities' (soon tobe seen in Britain) would of itself besufficient to account for the fact thatChina wishes to discuss the whole ques-tion of a frontier on which her alleg-,edly socialist neighbour is behaving insuch an unfraternal way. But the wholeclimate of Sino-Soviet relations inrecent months, the vituperative attackslaunched by Brezhnev at the ' worldcommunist conference', recently heldin Moscow, and above all the threaten-ing concentrations of Soviet armedmight in Siberia and along the Sino-Soviet borders add up to much morethan a matter of tension on a 'border,long and (in places) disputed as it is.

Who profits?Bad relations on the border between

any two countries are likely to reflectbad relations generally, and lead toincidents. But when clashes are re-peated and escalate in seriousness, withheavy casualties, it is necessary to ask,who profits from them ? The Sino-Soviet dispute has been going on formany years now, but it is only veryrecently that news of such serious

incidents has been published. Fiveyears ago, Chairman Mao Tse-tung isreported to have said to a group ofJapanese socialists:

' When it comes to wars on paper,in such a war no one gets killed.We have been waging such a warfor several years now, and not oneperson has died. And we are readyto continue this war for another25 years. . . . What is the crux ofthe matter? The crux lies in thefact that a certain large country istrying to control a number ofsmaller countries. When onecountry tries to control another,the latter will resist without fail.Now two large powers — ie theUnited States and the Soviet Union— are trying to become friendsand take over control of the wholeworld. How can we approve ofsuch a development?

(Sekai Shuho, Tokyo,11 August, 1964)

Five years ago, many people found itdifficult to accept the idea that therecould possibly be any collusion betweenthe Soviet Union and the US, eventhough Khrushchev mad.e it abundantlyclear that' peaceful co-existence ' (withits tacitly accepted corollary of per-manent US world domination) was hisdearest wish. But now that the Sovietinvasion of Czechoslovakia has beenaccepted with such remarkable calm-ness by the US Government, there willbe fewer to challenge Mao's argument.

Ever since the Soviet CP TwentiethCongress in 1956, the real commoninterest between the leaders of the USand the USSR has been fear and hatredof the influence in the world of aChina led by Mao Tse-tung, and allthat he stands for. History may showthat the Liu Shao-chi line was, among

other things, basically one of acquies-cence in United States domination ofthe world, with the inevitable conse-quence that socialism would be be-trayed. Now that the Uu line has beendefeated in the Cultural Revolution,the Soviet Union, with US approval,turns from attempting to subvert Chinato threaten and attack her. Hence thevilification of Mao as Genghis Khan,Hitler or Napoleon, the attempt to dif-ferentiate him from the Chinesepeople, and the lies that China ismaking huge territorial demands on theSoviet Union, when in fact, apart froman India aided and abetted by bothUS and the Soviet Union, China hasbeen able to settle at) her disputedfrontiers — with Burma, Nepal, Paki-stan, Afghanistan and 'Mongolia.

Collusion?In 1965, according to an American

scholar, Edward Friedman (Departmentof Political Science, University of Wis-consin) * Only the war in Vietnam . . .made it difficult for Moscow to con-sider a renewal of Washington's pro-posal — formally conveyed by AverellHarriman—to bomb China's nuclear in-stallations ' (Committee for ConcernedAsian Scholars Newsletter, March1969).

'Whatever the authority for thisstatement, there has been plenty ofsuch talk, and many not so veiledthreats by Soviet leaders, in recentmonths again. It is a measure of theseriousness with which the Britishestablishment views the situation thatthe London Times (which on 28 Marchcould refer editorially to ' the 13-year-old war with the Russians — almost.entirely of Chairman Mao's making',

continued overleaf

Family: a changingconcept

From an article by S, L. Endicott, 'Canadian FarEastern Newsletter'

ONE OF THE GREAT cultural chang.esin China, perhaps second only inimportance to the changes in the edu-cational system, was the destructionof the old style clan-family unit. Thisclan family system collapsed when menand women were given equality —peasant women got land, and the newmarriage laws gave the right of self-determination to both young men andwomen.

Many ' old China hands' regret thisdevelopment, and feel that it has de-stroyed part of the "Chinese essence'of China. In traditional China, one ofthe hallmarks was the close family tieand veneration of ancestors. The idealfamily was one of mutual aid. Whenyoung men married they brought theirwives into the family dwelling and con-tinued to live under the same roof astheir parents and grandparents.

The introduction of communes inthe towns and villages further ad-vanced the decline of the clan family.Many people in the W,est wereshocked by the portrayal in our news-papers of the communes as huge dor-mitories, where husbands and wiveswere separated and children torn awayfrom their parents. Subs,eqent inform-ation has shown how hasty and foolishthis first reaction was. It shows thefolly of not trying to see throughChinese eyes when attempting tounderstand their problems and aspir-ations.

Early attackLong before the communes were in-

troduced, as far back as the May 4thMovement in 1919, the family-clansystem had come under attack bymany sections of the people, especiallythe youth. Whatever beneficial pur-poses the .extended family may haveserved in history, it was one of themost rigid devices for social controlever devised by man. Emphasis on an-cestor worship placed the father in theposition of a despot. A son was notsupposed to own property or expressdifferent political or social opinionsuntil his father had died.

Relations within the family becameformal rather than voluntary, andjealousy, intrigue and unhappinessoften resulted. Marriages werearranged by parents.

In the province of Szechuan, the firstyoung man with western ideas whoannounced, back around 1900, that hewould marry a girl of his own choicewas publicly beheaded.

Women were in an inferior positon.If his wife did not produce a son forhim, the husband coutd take on a con-cubine as a second wife. It was alwaysthe woman's fault.

SurprisingIn view of these characteristics of

family life what is surprising is notthat the system has broken, but thatis was not broken earlier. The concernsand loyalties of the Chinese peoplehav,e now been re-directed from nar-row family or clan interests to thewider interests of community andnation.

There have also been some continu-ities in China's cultural tradition. Forover 2000 years the outlook of Chinahas been summed up as Confucianism.This word has many meanings and in-terpretations, just as th.e word Christi-anity has, but in a philosophic sense,if Confucianism were reduced to oneword, that word would be humanism.

Confucius taught that the properconcern for a human being was fellowhuman beings. This did not deny othermatters such as spiritual things, butthey should be kept at a distance.When Confucius was asked ' Whatabout death?' He replied, 'How canwe know about death, when we stilldo not understand life ? ' The main-stream of Chinese thought has neverbe,en religious in the sense of beingconcerned with the supernatural or asupreme being.

To speed the modernisation of theirancient civilisation, the Chinese com-munists, in adopting and adapting thealien, Western philosophy of Marxism-Leninism, have continued the non-theistic, non-religious tradition ofChinese thought. In this sense thecultural changes in China represent acontinuity of Chinese tradition andmay in part account for the wideacceptance and appeal of Marxism-Leninism to the Chinese.

For many North Americans whohave supported Christian missions inChina, this result of the Chinese revo-

lution is a source of disappointmentand in some cases bitterness, especiallysince the Cultural Revolution has ap-parently brought about the closing ofof Christian churches in China.

The methods of the Cultural Revolu-tion have been a disturbing questionfor many people. The emotionalismaround the person of Mao Tse-tungand the prominence given to histhoughts apparently to the exclusionof all others, is difficult for many ofus to understand or to accept.

This is one of the things on whichit may be best to reserve judgment.It may be that sometime in the futurethe Chinese themselves may recognisethis as an excess.

It is apparent that from time to timethe movement got out of hand and theChinese leaders had some difficulty intrying to guide the people along a con-structive course. It might be of interestat this point, to quote from part ofthe directives which Mao Tse-tungwrote for the conduct of the CulturalRevolution. The following extract

(Concluded from last issue)

Russianbrinkmanshipfrom page 7

and accuse him of ' setting going ten-sion ' in Russia) now ( 1 1 July) viewswith alarm Gromyko's attack on China,and, after emphasising the reasonable-ness of the Chinese case, concludesthat ' the danger of further and greaterc!a:.i-;s must be a cause for grave con-cern.'

Gromyko'rs attack followed that ofBrezhnev at the Moscow conference, atwhich he also hinted at the need for anew ' collective security ' arrangementin South-east Asia. Perhaps the bestcomment on this is that of HarrisonSalisbury, in the New York Times:

'Shades of John Foster Dulles! Adecade after his death the conceptof the Asian ' containment', towhich he devoted so much of thetime and energy 6f his last years,has suddenly been revived — inMoscow.'

John Foster Dulles was also renownedfor brinkmanship, and here too theSoviet leaders seem to be following inhis footsteps. The Chinese people areprepared both morally and materiallyto defend themselves against anyattack. Here in Britain we shouldbe aware that the Russian leaders areplaying with fire, but it is not onlythey who may get burned.

Derek Bryan

'Dear Meg'Concluded from last issue

For next year their plan is to grow200 mu of rice, levelling the land forit this winter. Plans for the futureinclude fruit growing. They've alreadyplanted 5,000 wild fruit trees ontowhich they will graft pears, whichgrow very well in this area. They'vealso planted between 30 to 40,000mulberry trees and will, in time, raisesilkworms. Besides this they constant-ly plant more willow trees, as one oftheir side-lines is basket-making forsale to the state.

For the village kids there is a prim-ary school for the first three years—after that they have to go to anothervillage for the last two years. Most ofthem don't go to high school. Two orthree have just graduated from seniormiddle school. There is one healthworker who works as a regular bri-gade member—that is, he goes to thefield with the others and attends tothe sick (if any} at noon or in theevening. He has had 15 months train-ing. On our last morning he came togive one of the kids in our house ashot against whooping-cough.

We older folk (there was an Aust-ralian of 66 and an Austrian of 60)spent most of our time on the thresh-

Letter fromPeking

ing ground shucking corn—1 meanmaize. The women with small childrenand the very old women worked thereso they can run home quickly if neces-sary. In work breaks the team leaderwould read quotations from ChairmanMao (.everyone had a 'little red book')or one or two items from the news-paper—usually one of them a foreignnews report. Or we'd sing some songs.Two or three times there was a meet-ing to expose some bad element whohad been uncovered during the cul-tural revolution. For instance there isone man who had seemed to be a veryactive commune member, but whoturned out to have been trained as asecret agent by the KMT since he was11 years old and had committed allkinds of crimes. Then there is anotherman who was in the puppet armyunder the Japanese and who hascheated and stolen from the collectivesince liberation. Then one night therewas a meeting to recall the bitternessof the old society and contrast it withthe happiness of the new. That sameday we were served with very blacklooking buns made from sweet potatowhich was the kind of thing the pea-sants used to eat in the old days.Towards the end of our stay there was

Family.- changing conceptfrom previous page

comes from the Resolution of theCentral Committee of the ChineseCommunist Party of 12 August, 1966on the tasks ahead, which says in part:

'. . . It is normal for the masses tohold different views. Contention be-tween different views is unavoidable,necessary and beneficial. In thecourse of normal and full debate,the masses will affirm what is right,correct what is wrong and graduallyreach unanimity.

The method to be used in debatesis to present the facts, reason thingsout, and persuade through reasoning.Any method of forcing a minorityholding different views to submit isimpermissible. The minority shouldbe protected, because sometimes thetruth is with the minority. Even ifthe minority is wrong, they shouldstill be allowed to argue their caseand reserve their views.'Athough this directive frequently

may not have been honoured in the

course of the struggles which sweptacross China in the past two years, itsvery existence as an authoritative state-ment of aim, brings a certain quality ofreasonableness about the possiblefuture path in China.

Whatever one's view about theChinese way of trying to achieve theirgoals, we gain nothing by closing ourminds and denying the validity of anapproach which differs from our own.Optimism for the future of China isencouraged by the report of ColinMcCullough, correspondent of theToronto Globe and Mail in Peking.

After reviewing Mao's ' great strate-gic plan for China' on 1 January ofthis year, McCullough suggests that1969 will produce 'an extraordinaryyear for a country which celebrates on1 October its twentieth anniversary ofcommunism under the extraordinaryleadership of Mao Tse-tung '. Mc-Cullough went even further and saidthat from what h.e senses in China, this' promises to be one of the most re-markable years in history '.

an evening get-together with membersof two other villages. The youngpeople 'put on most lively and vigoroussongs and dances and some of theforeign visitors contributed threesongs in Chinese. I think the formerserfs of Tibet and the Mongolianherdsmen would be amazed and de-lighted to see how th.e children ofpoor peasants have learned and like todance their dances.

There is no shop in the village butevery other day a travelling one comesfor two or three hours. For our bene-fit. I think, it even brought tinnedmeat, beer and jars of jam! We onlybought some apples, a few sweets,and, two of us, caps to keep the dustout of our hair. I noticed the peasantsmostly buying cooking oil and soyasauce, but one had a big piece ofcloth, another a pretty head scarf anda small boy was the proud possessorof a picture.

New housesIn another village we visited the

peasants showed us their new housingwith much pride. The houses weresimilar in style to the one we lived inbut along the wall opposite the kangwas a long, built-in series of chests,painted a brilliant red. Very 'brightand cheerful. The lower halves of thewindows had big panes of glass. Oneof the stoves was a new-type one, burn-ing coal-balls. Apparently coal dust'isvery cheap and in plentiful supply. Inthis village last year the peasants got1.43 yuan for every dayf|s work. Thisyear, in spite of th.e drought beingbad, they expect to get 1.50 yuan perday's work.

You'd be amazed at the amount ofrice grown round here now. On ourway to and from our village we sawfields upon fields of it, and it lookeda magnificent crop. The secret is irri-gation and fertilisers and this is onlypossible on any scale with the com-mune form of collectivisation.

There's lot's more I could writeabout but I just thought because youlived in and knew this 'part of thecountry you might find these facts ofparticular interest. I only wish youcould see it all for yourself and talkto the peasants.

It is the aim of SACU NEWSto encourage free discussion.The views expressed are notnecessarily those of the Councilof Management,

In Review FANSHEN-A NEW PERSPECTIVECHINA'S CONTINUING REVOLU-

TION, William Hinton. China PolicyStudy Group, 1969. 36 pp. Is 6d.

A KEY BOOK on 'New China is Wil-liam Hinton's well-known ' Fanshen.'On the surface, this is a detailed casehistory of the Revolution, and in par-ticular of the mishandling of the LandReform of 1958. It is set in the smallvillage of Long Bow in North China,where Hinton lived and worked as awork-team observer for six months in1958. At depth, 'Fanshen' is a studyof how to correct a corrupt bureauc-racy and how to mobilize the people towork for the collective good. In short,the Party rectification campaign inLong Bow village in 1948 was a small-scale model of the nationwide CulturalRevolution of 1966-69.

New facts aboutthe past

The book was written before theCultural Revolution. However, the Cul-tural Revolution has revealed manynew facts about the past, especiallyabout high-level policy struggles in theChinese Communist Party itself. In hisnew pamphlet, ' China's ContinuingRevolution,' 'Hinton re-interprets theevents of ' Fanshen ' and of the post-war period in general in the light ofthese newly revealed inner-Partypolicy struggles. ' Fanshen ' was writtenfrom the local village point of view,and Hinton'-s task now is to put thestory into a national perspective. Hisanalysis provides many new insights,regardless of whether or not one hasread ' Fanshen '.

The first policy struggle concernedthe post-World War II military pro-gramme. After the Japanese surrender,the vital question was: 'should theLiberation Forces fight the Kuomin-tang Army or should they try to nego-tiate a coalition government! TheCentral Committee itself was dividedon this issue. The rightist forces, pre-sumably headed by Liu 'Shao-chi, ad-vocated military capitulation and acoalition government. 'Mao's grouppressed for military victory so as notto let the enemy build up strength.

The second policy 'struggle con-cerned the Land Reform, and in par-ticular the so-called ' poor-and-hiredpeasant line'. This line was a Utopianleft policy that advocated putting allpower in the hands of the poorpeasants and hired labourers. It causedwidespread alienation among the influ-ential middle peasants as well as

shattering many village level Com-munist units. ' Fanshen ' dramaticallydescribes the disastrous effects of thisline in Long Bow Village, as well asits remarkable cure through publicmeeting for self and mutual criticismof the village cadres.

The Cultural Revolution, Hintonexplains, has revealed the true originof this left line to be in the ' bourgeoisheadquarters' inside the Central Com-mittee, as manned by Liu and hisgroup. Their motivation for such a linewas to build up all peasants economic-ally so that each man could stand onhis own feet as an independent, andhence non-collective, farmer. Thusth.ere was a right core to his left line.That is, the Poor-and-Hired Peasantline was ' left in form but right inessence '.

The third policy split concerned therate of agricultural collectivisation.Liu's group favoured a long period ofindependent 'farming, until industrywas developed to produce tractors,pumps, fertilisers and other tools oflarge scale agriculture. 'Hinton tellsus that at this time Liu proposed arightist programme of ' four freedoms *— the freedom to buy and sell land,the freedom to hire labour, the free-dom to loan money at interest andthe freedom to establish private busi-ness for profit. Mao's group however,favoured early collectivisation andopposed such ' freedoms' on thegrounds that they would lead rightback to the old patterns of landownership and class structure.

The rightist lineThese splits apparently existed at all

levels in the Party, and Hinton showshow they were reflected at the locallevel tn ' Fanshen'. In all these dis-putes as well as in a number of morerecent disputes he sees the ever-present rightist line of Liu Shao-chi.

'Hinton's analysis is completely con-sistent with Lin Piao's Report to theNinth Congress of the CCP of 1 April.Furthermore, he accepts without reser-vation the present categorical condem-nation of Liu Shao-chi. This is a rever-sal of his opinion in ' Fanshen ', wherehe favourably quotes Liu on manyoccasions. He concludes the new pam-phlet by saying that if he were re-writing ' Fanshen ' he obviously wouldnot use ' the words of a person whohas been thoroughly exposed as anenemy of the workers and peasants of

China and of the socialist revolutionin China and the world '.

Reading Hinton and Lin Piao, theconsistency of Liu's position seemsremarkably clear. How then, we mayask, did Liu and his group stay inoffice so long? How is it that forseveral decades there could be two' headquarters ' inside the CommunistParty? And why wasn't this split morevisible? Hinton's answer of course isthat 'Mao and Liu represent two verydifferent but very real class interests.He finds it no surprise that proletarianand bourgeois should compete forleadership.

Liu as a symbolHowever, there is, I am sure, more

to the answer than that. After all, itis the leadership of the Central Com-mittee of the Communist Party we arediscussing, not the leadership of acoalition government. Perhaps a fur-ther answer is that the bourgeoisorientation of Liu's policies has onlybecome clear recently, or more speci-fically that his policies have been madesuper-clear recently by giving them avery simplistic analysis. The Partyleadership has now chosen to take astrong and unequivocal stand on Liu.They have condemned him and expel-led him from the Party. In essencethey have made him a symbol of abad line and his expulsion is a symbolicexorcism of the bourgeois devil.

Nevertheless, if the past strugglesand decisions were in fact so clear cut,it really does strain one's imaginationto picture Liu and Mao even speakingto one another, let alone servingon the same Central Committee. Hin-ton refers to Liu's incredible "fourfreedoms' which essentially give capi-talists full reign; I find it hard tounderstand how a member of the CCcould have advocated such a line.

A careful study of what really wenton in the CC 'since World War IIwould probably reveal a much morecomplicated picture than we receivefrom the official sources. Nevertheless,while the picture may be greatly over-simplified, the basic trend of Liu'spolicies is clearly to the right, towardan authoritarian party that placesgreater emphasis on achieving social-ism through technology than politics.It is Mao's political genius that he sawthe long-term bankruptcy of Liu's basictrend.

There is much more that could besaid about these issues. Perhaps thisautumn the SACU Study Group candevote a series of evenings to 'Fan-shen', the 'Selected Works' of Maoand ' China's Continuing Revolution '.

E E Berg

'CHINESE HEROIN':SACU STATEMENT

The following statement bythe Society was issued to thePress on 21 July.RECENT publicity concerning theserious effects on individuals in Britainof a particular type of heroin has been

noteworthy for its use of the term' Chinese heroin ', although the drugin question is said to be made in, andsmuggled into this country from,Hongkong. The authorities in Hong-kong (while disclaiming knowledge ofany such smuggling) have stated cate-

gorically that there is no evidence ofChina exporting narcotics

The fact is that China has freed her-self from a foreign-introduced scourgeand is today certainly one of the mostdrug-free countries in the world. Thepresent revival of an old smear (likethe us.e of the term ' Mao flu ' earlierthis year) is to be condemned for whatit is — an attempt to arouse prejudiceand enmity against China in the mindsof the British people, against which theSociety for Anglo-Chinese Understand-ing strongly protests.

2Oth Anniversary PlansAS MOST SACU members will haverealised, 1 October, 1969 is the 20thanniversary of the founding of thePeople's Republic of China. To com-memorate this important anniversary.SACU will be mounting several specialfunctions, of which the following arealready in active preparation:1 A special celebration evening, to beheld Saturday, 4 October in the Con-way Hall, 'London, at which it is hopedthat we shall obtain the services ofmusical and dramatic entertainers.2 A series of lectures summarisingChina's achievements over the past20 years, to be given by well-knownspeakers. Although the speakers havenot 'been finalised yet, and this because

some of them cannot specify wherethey will be in the autumn (perhapsChina!), the lectures will be a valu-able addition to the celebrations.3 An exhibition — large, if the neces-sary articles are received from Chinain good time, and small if they are not— will be arranged to coincide roughlywith the twentieth anniversary celebra-tions. This exhibition will probablybegin in late October or early Novem-.ber, and will feature displays ofChinese consumer goods and productsas well as photographs illustrating themore monumental achievements of theCPR over the past twenty years.4 A series of handouts to be sent tothe press to encourage them to write,

talk and think about the twentiethanniversary. This task is in the handsof a small group of SACU members,which will be sending the material topapers from about the middle of Sep-tember. Each handout will deal with aspecific topic — agriculture, industry,art, and so on — and will be concise,non-didactic, and completely factual.

There is still a shortage of helperswilling to co-operate in the completionof these projects, especially the exhibi-tion and the celebration evening, whichwill both need the application of manyalert and thoughtful minds if they areto be successful, we shall be gladto hear from you.

LONDON EXPORT CORPORATION LTD5 CHANDOS STREET, LONDON, W1

OFFER SERVICEwith the backing of their wide experience as Import and Export Merchants

trading with Socialist countries

Items handled include:

Animal Hairs and Wools

Wooltops and Wastes

Man-made Fibres

Silks

Oils and Oilseeds

Egg Products

Tea, Coffee and Cocoa

Machinery and Instruments

Metals and Minerals

Chemicals

Building Materials

Feathers

Hog Casings

Miscellaneous Light Industrial Products

Telephone: 01-580 9071 Telex No: LONDON 28475 Cables: LONDEXCOR LONDON W 1

5

Party, Army' and People

THE PLACE of the People's Liber-ation Army in the Cultural Revolu-tion has been discussed at lengthby the western press, clearly witht/ie aim of ascribing to it a coerciverole. The following article by SACUmember Tim Seal, is an attempt toput the PLA into its correct contextwith relation to the Cultural Revo-lution.

One of the vanguards of the Cul-tural Revolution was the People'sLiberation Army, and this has giventhe ' China Watchers' a field day.They inspect the new central com-mittee presidium and feverishly workout percentages of ' military men ' to' civilians' and by a series of non-sequiturs draw any number of fancifulconclusions. There is not space hereto go into the issue of ' red and ex-pert* but a brief examination of thehistory of the PLA does show that onecannot automatically equate 'mi l i tary1

with ' expert' and ' civilian ' with' red '.

The army has always been rath.erneglected in Marxist theory. Engels,who was very interested in militaryscience, thought that the days ofstreet fighting were over and thatbourgeois armies, as long as theydid not disintegrate, could alwayscrush insurrection. For Lenin the revo-lution was made by the Party andmasses; the army only came on theagenda after the seizure of statepower. Even Trotsky, who created theRed Army, had little to offer; his armywas led by Tsarist officers and RedCommissars, each sovereign in hisrespective sphere — an institutionalisa-tion of the red-expert contradiction.

But for Mao the revolution was tobe won by the masses and two organ-isations — the party and the army.The first Civil War period had shownthat ' without a people's army thepeople have nothing', that the Partywithout the army only leads to de-feat—as in 1927.

Mao saw that a people's army was

SACU NEWS It published by theSociety for Anglo-Chinese Under-standing Ltd, 24 Warren Street,London, Wl, and printed byGoodwin Press Ltd, (TU), USFonthill Road, London, N4.

both n.ecessary and possible because ofthe particular pattern of State powerin China — the imperialists, the war-lords, the Kuomintang, and the ruralgentry. Necessary because the reac-tionaries would not collapse and offerpower to the Party. To take Shanghai,Peking or Canton in insurrection wasnot to take Petrograd. Possible be-cause there were power vacuumswhere the Red Army could be formed.

What is Mao's conception of thearmy? 'The Chinese Red Army is anarmed body for carrying out the poli-tical tasks of the revolution.'

In post-liberation China the twoorganisations of army and Party aresomewhat analogous to the monasticorders and diocesan clergy of theCatholic church. The parish priestperforms a leadership function amongstthe laity, much the same as the cadre,but since he is in the world he tendsto be corrupted by the worldliness heis fighting against.

The monastery is cut off from theworld and preserves the ideal to whichthe laity is to aspire. In time of stresswhen the parish priests are to bepurged (the Reformation, for example)the monastic orders are thrown intothe battle.

Now if the Party were to be purgedby the masses (ie the Cultural Revolu-tion } there was a need for anotherorganisation to hold the ring, to pre-serve state power and, Where neces-sary, to provide leadership (Supportthe Left). That organisation was thePLA.

USA.' much to learnAMERICA had much to I.earn from theChinese revolution, Professor FranzSchurmann told an audience at HolbornCentral Library on 3 July, at a meetingorganised by SACU. Professor Schur-mann is a member of the Centre forChinese Studies at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, where he is Pro-fessor of Sociology and History.

The speaker said that affluence haddone nothing to solve the contradic-tions in American society. The first ofthese was America's colossal arms ex-penditure, on which her economydepended. Besides threatening worldpeace, this prevented her from tacklingthe problem of the cities which, de-serted by the more prosperous whites,were quickly degenerating into blackgh.ettoes. Secondly, despite the overallaffluence there were still large areasof poverty. Other contradictions con-cerned racism, the decline in participa-tion and community spirit, andeducation.

Professor Schurmann said the issuesbeing discussed in China and theUnited States were basically the same;for example, community control ofschools versus 'state control. The same'arguments were being advanced, suchas that in state controlled schools theteachers tend to give preferentialattention to the best students.

Outlining the way in which Chinahad dealt with contradictions existingin America, the speaker referred to herpolicy of guns and butter; the raisingof backward areas; attempts to ' do

something about' cities like Shanghai(the 3958 experiment of creating urbancommunes had been an example); andthe effects of the Cultural Revolutionon participation, community relationsand education.

Professor Joan Robinson of Cam-bridge, who spoke after ProfessorSchurmann, said the Chinese were morerealistic than we because they did notbelieve the solution of any problemto be final. They also had the advant-age of not having preconceived ideasabout the w.ay problems should besolved.

Now that the Cultural Revolutionhad been successfully carried out andthe Party was being reconstituted, on,eof the contradictions facing the Chinesepeople was how to reconcile democracywith political organisation. The CulturalRevolution had been a ' reassertion ofdemocracy over Party' — the twoopposing poles between which abalance must be kept. Liu Shao-chi'srole in building up the Party had beena valuable one, and he was being heldup as a bad example only because itwas necessary to find a simple way ofeducating people in the danger ofallowing too much organisation.

Professor Robinson said the contra-diction of democracy versus organisa-tion was not so great in the ruralareas which were largely outside thecontrol of the central authority. In thecase of industry, the problem wouldbe to strike a balance between spon-

continued on facing page

^

Our readers write

Society for Anglo-Chinese Understand-ing Ltd (Founded 15 May 1965')

Office: 24 Warren Street, London W.ITelephone 01-3870074

Chairman: Dr Joseph NeedhamDeputy-Chairman:

Professor Joan Robinion

Vice-Chairman; Mrs Mary Adams

Secretary: Mrs Betty Paterson

Council of Management: Mary Adams,Premen Addy, Kate Allan, IsaacAscher, Roland Berger, Sydney Bid-w.ell, William Brugger, Derek Bryan,Hung-Ying Bryan, Patrick Daly,Douglas Greene, Richard Hensman,Frida Knight, Jim Little, Sam Mauger,Joseph Needham, Betty Paterson,Colin Penn, Ernest Roberts, JoanRobinson, Eve Sheringham.

Believing that friendship must bebased on understanding, SACU aimsto foster friendly relations betweenBritain and China by making informa-tion about China and Chinese viewsavailable as widely as possible inBritain.

Every member of the Society receivesSACU NEWS each month, has the useof the Anglo-Chinese Educational In-stitute library at central offices, cancall upon the Society for informationand is able to participate in allactivities of the Society. On manyoccasions SACU members get ticketsfor Society events at reduced rates.

Books receivedTHE INCLUSION of a book under thisheading does not preclude review at alater stage.

IDEOLOGY AND ORGANISATION INCOMMUNIST CHINA: by FranzSchurmann. New enlarged edition.University of California Press, 1968.47s.

SUN YAT-SEN and the Origins of theChinese Revolution: Harold Z.Schiffrin. University of CaliforniaPress, 1968.90s.

MAO: edited by Jerome Ch'en. GreatLives Observed Series. Prentice Hall,International Inc. (London) 20s.

That Shanghai signI WAS SORRY to see repeated in theJune SACU News (page 5) 'No dogsor Chinese admitted ' as a quotationfrom the Shanghai Bund notice. Peoplein time will begin to believe thatthese words really were used. Themeaning was the same (except foramahs) but the actual wording waskinder. I have a picture taken inMay, 1926, and the notice is as follows(a few words which are not clear Ihave indicated):

PUBLIC AND RESERVE GARDENSREGULATIONS

1. The Gardens are reserved for theEuropean Community.

2. The Gardens are open to the

Summer holidaysTHE Central Office of the Society andthe Anglo-Chinese Educational Insti-tute's Library at 24 Warren St Wlwill be closed for summer holidaysfrom Monday, 4 August to Monday1 September inclusive. The next copyof SACU News will b,e posted to allmembers about 20 September.

Party, Armyand Peoplecontinued from previous page

taneity and the discipline which theneeds of the economy demanded.

Another contradiction would be ineducation, where the teaching of sub-jects like languages and pure mathe-matics could not easily be reconciledwith the principle of workers' control.In science, too, the question must befaced whether Mao's approach of learn-ing through experiment and the appli-cation of scientific method in daily lifewould be adequate in the field of pure,as opposed to applied science.

China's economyby Nicholas Brunner

with preface byJoan Robinson

No 1 MODERN CHINA SERIES

2s plus 6d postage

Anglo-Chinese Educational Institute24 Warren St, London WIP 5DG

public from 6 a.m. and are closedhalf an hour after midnight.

3. No persons are .admitted unlessrespectably dressed.

4. Dogs and bicycles are notadmitted.

5. Perambulators must be confinedto the paths.

6. Ball games( ?) picking flowers,climbing trees, damaging shrubsand trees, strictly prohibited.

7. No person is allowed within theband-stand enclosure ( ? ) •

8. Amahs in charge of children arenot permitted to occupy the seatsand chairs during the band per-formances.

9. Children unaccompanied byforeigners are not allowed inReserve Gardens.

10. The 'police have authority toenforce these regulations.

By order. M. O. Liddell ( ? )

Secretary.

Council Room, Shanghai.September 13, 1917.

The notice was first put up in 1917,the photograph was taken in May1926. I wonder if anyone knows justwhen it was taken down.

William Sewelf

MEMBERSHIP FORMTo SACU, 24 Warren Street,

London Wl P 5DG

BLOCK LETTERS PLEASE

Name

(I am a full-time student at

)

Address

Annual subscription: £1 10 0;Pensioners 7s 6d; full-tim,e stu-dents I2s 6d.

SACU News subscription ratesto non-members: 15s per annum;overseas 25s p.er annum.

Air France to ShanghaiAir France weekly service to Shanghai, flown byBoeing Jet Intercontinental, gives businessmen,exporters, diplomats and official travellers fastdirect access to the heart of industrial areas. Theflight leaves Orly, Paris at 11 a.m. on Mondays andthe Boeing reaches Shanghai on Tuesdays at3.30 p.m. The return flight departs Shanghai onTuesdays at 6,20 p.m. and arrives at Orly at11.30 a.m. Wednesday. London-Shanghai jet eco-nomy return fare is £461.3.0. (1st class return£789.4,0.Air France is the first West European airline to begranted a route to Shanghai, and the new servicebrings to seven the total number of flights a weekby the company to the Far East. Countries served byAir France include Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand,Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Phillipines,

Japan—and now the People's Republic of China.Destination in many of these countries may be usedas stop-over points on your journey to' Shanghai.Full details can be obtained from your Travel Agentor nearest Air France office.

AIR FRANCE, 158 NEW BOND STREET. W.I. GRO OO3OBurning CEN KSI/4. Mtrchtiii! Of* 7131 /J-Glujiw 141.;!! Itil/b/S • Dublin 771(73