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REPRESSION OF INTELLECTUALS IN COMMUNIST CHINA
STATE CEPArTWSW SYSTEMATICecassfy win cowwtence ol, ,
SPECIAL REPORT
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
GROUP I
REPRESSION OF INTELLECTUALS IN COMMUNIST CHINA
An anti-intellectual, almost Orwclllan atmosphere prevails. In Communist China today. Thisroducthree-year campaign vhich reflects Mao Tse-tung's personal conviction that intellectualsroup share Soviet "revisionist" ideas, that they would work against the regime at every opportunity nnd that draconlan "reforms" are necessary,
Tho Chinese scorn as soft tho Soviet practice ofew Individual Intellectuals forattitudes. Peking assumes that allare dissidents, and is forcing all but the most essential to engage in long, punishing stints of hard physicnl labor. Intellectuals must spend most of their "free time" at political lectures and instudy of the works of Mao Tao-tung. They are repeatedly told that their sole concern is to glorify Mao Tso-tung and Coaaunisa and to providefor Mao's Militant attacks on "class enealos at home and abroad." No freedca of Intellectualis permitted, and it goes without saying that nothing of artistic merit is produced in China today.
Intellectuals consideredtechnicians, and some governmentallowed to work with less interference, but, if the propa-gands is to be believed, even these groups now spend long hours every week doing physical labor andMao's works.
Unfolding of the Campaign
The present caapalgn against the Intellectuals steas froaaade at the tenth plenum of the central committee The previous two years haderiod ofwhen the regime, its prestigeow ebb because of the disastrous effects of the Leap Forward and anti-Soviet policies, played down themes and allowedto engage in "constructive"
criticism of cultural andpolicies. Thisperiod ended in2 when Peking announced that It Intended to turn Chinaastion of Marxist purity and to wage an all-out struggle against "revisionism andabroad and againstapitalist, and bourgeois inclinations at home. Once again Peking beganthat intellectuals had to be "Red" as well ns "expert."
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is doubtful if thethen knew how fast it could proceed in remolding It spent2 and all3 carefully setting new guidelines for cultural and academic workers. They were told over and over again in party and cultural journals that the sharpening "class struggle"ew across-tlie-board "revolutionary" approach. approved literature and philosophical concepts wereheretical. Unnamed writers were denounced forto portray "real" flesh and blood characters and were told to stick to party-approved stereotypes, bourgeois villains and revolutionary heroes. music was declared Even China's "culturalclassic novels and popular traditionalwas disparaged. Peking felt these novels and operas portrayed feudal characters too favorably and were irrelevant to current issues. Social scientists such as philosophers and historians were attacked for Ignoring the class struggle and told that henceforth their chief task would be to providefor the need for harsher social controls.
The hardening attitudeintellectuals was summed up by Chou Yang, deputyof the propaganda department of the central committee, peech published onh birthday. Chou
Yang set as the "fighting task" of Intellectuals the refutation of "modern revisionism andideology in all Itson the academiche speech setictum by Mao, soon to be widely that "one always splits into two." This dictum has been used to "explain" the widening Sino-Soviet split and theto sharpen attacks on allegedly hostile "class enemies" inside China.
Following the publication of Chou Yang's speech, theto remold Intellectual and cultural activities moved out of the discussion stage. Early4 the regimeotal ban on traditional operas. They were replacedybrid form of opera that used traditional devices to portray revolutionary themes and Village story-tellers were told to replace theirof popular stories with recitations of atrocities formerly committed by landlords or examples of Selfless behavior of revolutionary heroes like the soldier-martyr Lei Feng. Novels, plays, and movies produced under the party's imprimatur in recent years were condemned for their lack of "revolutionarynd were replaced. Peking told opera buffs that if they found fault with the new operas and plays, this proved they were "reactionary."
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he partytowardecame markedly more hostile, partlyesult of the worsening Sino-Sovlct dispute. Also in Peking intensified the struggle against "revisionists" both st home and in theCommunist movement and hardened both Its domestic and foreign policies. These policies presumably resulted fromreachedspecial work conference" of the centralpresided over by Mao in Junefirst high-level party gathering announced since the tenth plenum..
In retrospect,o haveatershed for policy toward intellectuals. The regime had hithertothem rcformable, but lt now soomed to reach thethat,lass, they were Incorrigibly "revisionist" and antagonistic to Maoist Ideals. This change reflects Mao's own views. Foreigners who talked to him in 4 report that he complained bitterly of the unreliability of students and scholars, enior official in the Ministry of Culturein5 that Muo was saying that "thehave never alignedwith us."
Inhe regimeaccusing prominentof having deliberately spread "revisionist" ideas. The most notable victim was Yang Hsien-chon, low-ranking member of tho party central committee and head of tho Higher Party
School In4 the authoritative party journal Red Flag accused Yang of propagating "iheaoist doctrine that "two merge intond thus providing abasisolicy of reconciling class conflicts at home nnd international conflicts abroad. Red Flag said that Yang was attempting to perform tho same role that the philosopher Deborin had played inthe "Trotsky-Bukharln anti-party group" in the USSR. This was the label given to victims of the Stalin purge
Throughout the summer and fall4 other personalities criticlzod for advocatingincluded Peng Ting, professor of dialecticalat Peking University and vice chairman of the university's philosophy department; Chou Ku-cheng,rominent historianember of tbe presidium of the Peasant aod worker's Democratic Party; Yang Han-sheng, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and motion picturo script writer; Ou-yangotedovelist; and Shaon, vice chairman of the Union of Chinese Writers,
These were all promlnont intellectuals who had written considerable party-approved innd. Feng Ting, for example, is the author of The Communist View of6 and distributed In millions of copies. Inout these individuals, who
represented theof cultural workhe party was implicating all intellectuals.
The party has always stressed the moral value of manual labor, but "labor reform" in the past was usually assigned only to persons considered backward Inowever, the regime issued directivesall students, scholars, and government employees engaged in "mental work" to spend at least oneear doing hard, physical labor. Thesewere promptly andapplied. In practico most labor assignments appear to have been for about three months. In addition, university students after graduation were to dolaborull year before assignment.
Premier Chou En-lal In his4 report to thePeople's Congress provided further indications of party policy toward the intellectuals. Speakinggreat debate" that had been carried on in the fields of philosophy, history, culture, and art, Chouthat "initial" results had been achieved in combating erroneous theories, with the clear implication that the party was going to try for more. to Chou, the "torrent of revolution" would allow noin an intellectual'sto reform himself, and Chou prescribed going among the workers, peasants and soldiers for "long periods" as the prime means of reform.
Chou's remarksenior New China News Agency official who told the NCNA staff in Paris in5 that new disciplinaryagainst dissidenthad been approvedeeting of top leaders The NCKA official said that the regime, reluctant to shed blood, had insteadtomovement of peaceful struggle." The NCNA man saidlan for cultural action first proposed2 had not been supported byomplete new reform of cultural Presumably, Lu Ting-i, politburo member and director of the propaganda department of the central committee, was charged with responsibility for carrying out these reforms. Tn5 Lu was appointed minister of culture, replacing Shen Yen-ping (Maoerhaps China's greatest novelist, who had held the position to the NCNA official referred to above, Mao Tun was removedhe could not subdue the insubordination of intellectuals.
5 the party for the first time since the Great Leap Forward began publiclyconcern over the political attitudes of scientists and technicians. In5 Red Flag demanded that scientists, like everyone else, treat the "class struggle" as theirtask, and warned that the party would be unable to make full use of the services ofwho tried to stay aloof
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politics. In June, this theme was followed up by Chien Hsueh-sen, US-tralncd rocket specialist and probably China's foremost scientist, whofor having personallypolitics la the past. Chien warned that scientists must not consider themselves an elite group, but must humbly study Mao's ideas and engage In manual labor.
In the summer5 Red Flag published several important articles which attackedWesternNiels Bohr, Werner lleisen-berg, and Linusphilosophical failings. were exhorted to rely less on Western science and more on Mao's revolutionary tracts for guidance in their research work.
Another sign of the anti-intellectual atmosphere intatement by Tao Chu, powerful head of the party's Central-South bureau, defending the right of the Chineseregime to repress cultural activities. Noting that most people novo always condemned the "First Emperor" (Chin Shih Huang Ti) for "burning the books and burying the scholarsao stated that any regime had the right to do such things to strengthen its control, and that "we, theave the same right.
Current Policy
A series of6 have spelled
out in the harshest termsthe current partytoward intellectuals. The most definitive statement to date appeareditterly anti-intellectual manifesto publishedanuary in Red Flag. Again, as the spokesman was Chou Vang, deputy director of the propagandaof the central Chou, echoing views which Mao had privately expressed, charged that the overwhelming majority of intellectuals,even those who areof the Communist Party, hadourgeoisretain bourgeois ideas in their world outlook, and think they are strong enough to challenge the party.
Chou claimed that cultural workers had unsuccessfullyparty leadership five times Dates listed1 (The gtory of Wu4 (Dream of the RedHuecond Hundredhou described the allegedby intellectualss the strongest and most dangerous of the five, and promised that the party'swould be unprecedently harsh. Chou, of course, ignored the fact that the party hadrelaxed its strictures on intellectual expression, and that all evidencethat intellectuals were extremely careful not to exceed the bounds of expression then in effect.
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attempted to portray intellectuals as potentialbyarallel between Hungary in6 and the present situation in China. "When the counterrevolutionary elements revolted in Hungary6 and wanted to overthrow thoot tho proletariat there was the PctoTy Club, that is.lique of revisionist bourgeois literary and art people andwhich acted as the vanguard." Chou warned that could be made the tools of the bourgeoisie who through the "trick of peaceful evolution" would try to overthrow the revolution. According to Chou, the scheming of class enoeles had been effective in the Soviet Union, and "when tho cart in front overturns, this should servearning to the carts behind."
On 1 6 Peking--for the first tine since the antl-rlghtlst campaignbegan to name names in charges that leading cultural figures were deliberately working tothe regime. People'sccused Tien Han, chairman of the Chinoao Drama Workers' Union and composer of China's national anthem, and Wu Han, prominent historial and vice mayor of attacking the party through the medium of historical dramas. The "anti-party" charge, by implication, was directed at intellectuals in general. ull-pageof Tien Han's work, the
story of an Imaginary heroine of the Tanij Dynasty, People's Dalccused him of saying1 that theof the party do notwith the Interests of the people and that the partytho people.
Onebruary People's Daily carried further the of truitorousto intellectuals bycollusion between Tien Han and Chiang Kai-shek. It noted that6 articles by Tlon Han, which could bu interpreted as critical attacks on regime cultural policies, wereand circulated by Kuowln-tang propagandists in Hong Kong
Wu Han, in a long self-criticise in December, pleaded that in1 play, Hal Jul Is Dismissed From Office, trie-work for which ho is now being pilloried, he had simplytho "classu Han conceded that he had granted virtues lo his Ming Dynasty official hero and not painted the bourgeoisie all black. Since Dccomber, People's Dal ly and Red Flai; haveshedeons of Wu Han's self-criticism as an attempt to counterattack the party. According to Peking, Wu Han has "actively Joined the anti-Marxist and antlso-clallst chorus" and tho play In question was deliberatelyto propagate these views.
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date the party's wrath has fallen nuch more heavily on intellectuals in social sciences and the arts than on natural scientists and technicians, but mistrust of this latter group is growing. One segment of thisbeen treated surprisingly harshly during recent months. u Ting-i, director of the propaganda department of the central committee, explained that the new policy towardworkers resulted from the regime's conclusion that the health fieldpecialof intellectuals. Medical workers, he said, are "notoriouspholding individualism, looking dowu on tbe laboring people, resenting hardship, and being haughty, egotistic, and subjective."
The indicated solution was for medical personnel to spend more time in rural areas, both serving on roving medical teams and working in the fields side by side with the peasants. In5 the regime had begun assigning urban doctors tomedical teams that served for two to five months in the countryside. The announcedthen, however, was mainly to raise rural health standards and improve party-peasant ideological reform of medical personnel was secondary.
No further change in policy toward scientists in general was evident in Party Journals continued to harp on their ideological shortcomings, and reiterated old complaints
about scientists who place "blind faith" in Western science, do not consult thend do not assiduously apply Mao's thinking.
Manual Labor for All
Chou Vang in hisdiatribe of6 decreed drastic andmeasures to counter the alleged threat posed by They would, he said, participateuch greater extent than before In hardlabor, in effect becoming "part-timehile spending much of theirtime in politicalmeetings or in supervised study of the works of Mao.
Onebruary People's Daily announcedorkers in the fields ofand art are now engaged in agricultural and industrial labor for an indefinite period. This figure does not include movie projection teams and other basic-level cultural groups who work in the rural areasthe year. People's
further reported that steps were being taken toog-ular system whereby all urban-based writers and artists would spend one third to one half their tine each year in physical labor. According to People's Daily, intellectuals in the past went to farms and factories simply to "gatherow they are getting their hands calluscd in production teams and brigades. "Shunning neither dirty jobs nor tiresome work.
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have truly discarded their pompous airs."
A stifior policy towardscience departments ofalso ls now evident. Several reports indicate that the philosophy and historyof Peking Universitya center of politicalphilosophyof China People's University, and the language department of the Peking Normal University have just been transferredto the countryside. Foreign Minister Chenroup of researchers in Shanghai in5 that the whole educational structure of China was rotten and the teachers oust go to theand study and apply Mao's thinking. Letters indicate that with the exception of people trainedew importantall college graduates now spend their first year after graduation in manual work, partly to give them practical training but mostly for their owngood. Evon beforestudents aro oftenfor an entire semesterine to rural communes. Last fall, fortudent at Tsinghua University in Peking wrotethe entire enrollment--werea six-nonth stint in the countryside. Since the letter writer "fortunately" had aof tuberculosis, he was onerouptudentsfor health reasons.
Ininister of Health Chienroup of doctors in Cliengtu that the normal tour in the countryoctor, formerly two to five months, would6 be extended to ten months.
A public health conference held in Canton in5 announced that one third of all municipal medical and health personnel would be assigned to rural health work, some for "long periods." The conference further announced that "many" conference delegates had pledged to spend their lives in the countryside.
Doctors are privately of these programs. Agraduateantonschool complained in athat he could not understand why he andercent of his class were being assigned to commune health clinics. Another medical school graduate said that most of his fellow graduates had been sent to the rural areas and that he himself, in spite of China's pressing health needs, would have to spend one year in physical labor before beingto start medical practice.
An NCNA broadcast ofebruarylowingof the "tremendousthat Peking's students, teachers, scientists, artists, and government workers were showingariety of nasty, dirty Jobs. According to thentellectuals in Peking, including two vice mayors, haveand in the collection of night soil, canal
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snow removal, and street sweeping. Itroup of laboratory technicians who were no longer content to give only one month yearly to physicalbut have agreed periodically to remove ruat from tho pipes of the city's heating plants. Soaked with sweat and caked with mud, these researchers crawled out of underground tunnelsnot by the fresh air but because in cleaning pipes they bad also rid their minds of "odious bourgeois ideas."
A technique which theis employing to bringto bear on scientists is to demand public acknowledgement from them of the value of Mao's thought in their research, an undoubtedlyerson who knows that his audienco knows how ludicrous this sounds. National prominence was given onebruaryorum convenod In Peking by the central committee's political department for higher education at which Western-trainedof physics, mechanicalsoil chemistry, and petroleum abjectly attributed their scientific accomplishments to the study of Mao's political tracts. An associate professor in thermodynamics related how he had used Mao's On Practice and On Contradiction in study-ing and improving the ammonia synthosis tower.
A professor of theoretical physics told how he and other physicists at Poking University had achieved breakthroughs in their study of fundamentalby using Mao's thought. This professor as well had to denigrate Western research. He characterized Western study of physics as beingtate of stagnation because Westernwere adhering tophilosophical concepts. On the contrary, he and his fellow physicists, usingmaterialism, hadblazed new trails in science.
At theoted US-trained professor of soil chemistry servilely confessed that in the past he had been too engrossed in foreignwritings and had confined himself too much to his Inspired by Mao's writings, and purified by an extended stay at farm labor, he had discarded the "pompous airs of an expert and college professor." that he had learned much about soil science whilein the fields, he pledged to go back for an cvon longer stint of manual labor.
Effects of the Campaign
Peking's aim has beenthoughtof all intellectuals with Mao's harsh, fundamentalist in this, the regime has failed. Whatis known of the attitudes of intellectuals indicates that many or most are dooplyand disaffected. Most arc probably "revisionist" at heart, out of Sympathy with regimeto keep "class" hostilities alive, and would prefer to leave the rest of the world alono and
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on China's enormous developmental problems.
Increasing disaffection among intellectuals aould be especially detrimental toscientific programs. It is not yet clear how far the regime intends to go inpolitics into natural science, but indications are thatChinese scientists will be expected to use political as well as scientific criteria to determine the suitability of Western scientific theories. The damage done will depend on the extent to which scientists
are allowed to continue their serious work while merelylip service to political shibboleths. Certainly, medical services and higher education must have already suffered from regime hostility to intellectuals in these fields.
Although the intellectuals have no capacity or inclination for open resistance, Peking's current campaign against them has probably severely impaired tho effectiveness of itselite. (OiiCniiTi MO FOrtUltil-
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