October 24, 1966
[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard
Publication.]
Teng Hsiao-ping is deaf. Whenever we are at a meeting together, he sits far away from me. For six years, since 1959, he has not made a general report of work to me. He always gets P'eng Chen to do the work of the Secretariat [of the party] for him. Do you say that he is able? Nieh Jung-chen[1] says: 'That bloke is lazy.'
My view of the situation is that it is big in the middle and small at both ends. Only Honan puts the word 'dare' ahead of all others; most people put the word 'fear' in first place; only a very few people firmly place the word 'revolt' in front of other words. Anti-party and anti-socialist people include Po I-po, Ho Ch'ang-kung, Wang Feng, and also Li Fan-wu[2].
Real 'four-kind' cadres (the rightists[3]) make up only one, two, or three per cent (The Premier, [Chou En-lai] says: 'More than that now.') Never mind how many more. We shall suppress these (p'ing-fan). Some will not be kept where they are; they should be transferred to other places.
In Honan one [party] secretary does productive work while five others receive [the revolutionaries]. In the whole country there is only Liu Chien-hsun[4] who has written a big-character poster to give support to the minority [the reactionaries]. That is a good thing.
What about Nieh Yuan-tzu[5]? (K'ang Sheng says: 'She must be protected.' Li Hsien-nien[6] says: 'All those who wrote the first big-character posters should be protected.') Good!
(On the question of the great 'get-together' (ta ch'uan-lien)[7] the Premier says: 'It should be done with proper preparation.') What preparation? Where cannot one find a bowl of rice[8].
There are different views on the [present] situation. In Tientsin half a million people went to Wan Hsiao-t'ang's funeral and they though the situation was excellent. In fact that was a demonstration against the party, an attempt to repress the living by using the dead.
Li Fu-ch'un[9] has been asked to rest for a year. Even I do not know who is in charge of the Planning Commission. [Li] Fu-ch'un respects the [party] discipline. He told some things to the Secretariat which were not reported to me. Teng Hsiao-p'ing respects me but keeps me at arm's length.
1. Nieh Jung-Chen (1899-) a man of Chiangchin, Szechwan, who studied at a middle school in Chungking before going to France as a work-study student. In 1922 he joined the communist group organized by Chou En-lai and went to work in Belgium. In the next year he returned to Paris to become a communist party member, whence to Moscow to study in in a military school. In 1927 he took part the the famous Nanch'ang Uprising on 1 August and the Canton Commune in December. He did not go to the Kiangsi soviet until 1931 and soon was appointed the political commissar of the 1st Army Corps. His co-operation with Lin Piao, commander of the Army Corps, was resumed in 1937 when he became the political commissar of the 115 the Division of the 8th Route Army, in which capacity he was chiefly responsible for the creation of the Chin-Char-Chi border region. In 1945 he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPC, and ten years later a marshal of the PLA.
2. Po I-po (1907-) joined the CPC when he was a student at the Taiyuan Teachers' Training College in 1926. Later he studied at Peking University and led the Sacrifice League in Shansi during the Anti-Japanese war. He was elected to the Central Committee, CPC, in 1945 and made the political commissar of Chin Chi-Lu-Yu border region. In 1959 he became one of the deputy Premiers in charge of industrial development.
Ho Ch'ang-kung (1898- ) studied in France and Belgium and joined the CPC in 1921. In 1929 he was under P'eng Teh-huai and in the following year the C.O. of the 8th Red Army. He supported Chang Kuo-t'ao in 1935 and served as the head of the Organisation Department of Chang's 'Centre'. In 1952 he was the deputy Minister of the 2nd Ministry of Heavy Industries and two years later, the deputy Minister of the Ministry of Geology.
Wang Feng (1906-) was born in Shensi and studied at Peking University. Since 1949 he had been working in Northwest China and held the post of the first secretary of the CPC Kansu branch.
Li Fan-wu (1909 - ), a deputy Minister of the Ministry of Forestry in 1952 and the secretary of the CPC Heilungkiang branch.
3. The wealthy, rightist, reactionary, and bad.
4. Liu Chien-hsun, at this time he was the first secretary of the CPC Honan branch, and concurrently first political commissar of the military district of Honan.
5. Neih Yuan-tzu, see note 1 on p 270 of this volume.
6. Li Hsien-nien, (1906-), born in Huengan, Hupei, and worked as a carpenter. He joined the CPC in 1927. In 1954 he was made a deputy Premier in special charge of finance. At the 8th Congress, 1956, he was. elected to the Poliburo and the Secretariat of the CPC.
7. This literally means to go out and get people together.
8. This proverb means that life is much easier than one imagines.
9. Li Fu-chun (1900-) born in Ch'angsha, Hunan, studied in France as a work-study student, where he joined the communist party. He took part in the Nanch'ang Uprising of 1927. In 1945 he was a member of the Politburo and in 1950 the Minister of the Ministry of Heavy Industries. He has been in charge of the National Planning for economic construction.
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