n132  2021  25 Nov 77
 
BC-SINONOTES 1stadd
HONG KONG: mold.
    In the current mood in Peking in what is being officially described
as the third round of the purge of the Gang of Four anyone suspected
of having sided with it, no matter how briefly, seems likely to be
called to account.
    A recent article in the party newspaper, Jenmin Jih Pao, labeled
such opportunists as ''the wind group, those who trim their sails and
tack with the wind.'' The article recalled that Mao had warned that
''when a typhoon strikes, the wavering elements who cannot withstand
it begin to vacillate.'' Jenmin Jih Pao added. ''Though the wind
group numbers only a few people, it is imperative not to
underestimate its pernicious influence.''
    Given this tough-minded view, the analysts here began to wonder when
the leaders in Peking might drop the pretense of unity they carefully
forged last year and critize Wu. Alternatively, they speculated, Mr.
Wu and a few others, perhaps including Chen Hsi-lien, commander of
the Peking military region, might be allowed to remain as figureheads.
 
    Outside of Chunghanhai, the old walled compound in Peking where the
leaders work and live - and, one might add, plot - the new drive for
conomic development and a more comfortable style of life seems to be
going on apace.
    The Ministry of Communications reported in Jenmin Jih Pao that it
had plans to build a network of freeways. At present, it lamented,
''there is not even one express highway in the whole country.''
    The wife of a South American ambassador was startled during a
shopping trip in an old section of the city to see clusters of
elderly men going through antique shops to study carved seals and
other relics. ''They couldn't afford to buy them,'' she related,
''but a year ago even looking would have been grounds for being
criticized as a decadent bourgeois.''
    Among the Chinese customers, she said, were several high-ranking
army officers - one can tell by the cut and cloth of their uniforms -
who were making purchases while their chauffeured limousines waited
outside. Rank still has its privileges, even if titles of rank have
been abolished.
 
    Some of the potentially most important changes are taking place in
education, where, it has been announced, entrance to college starting
with the February semester will increasingly be by written
examination rather than by recommendation on the basis of political
attitude. Recent provincial broadcasts have also indicated that
anyone up to age 30 who feels he or she has the requisite
intellectual ability can apply, including those resettled in the
countryside some years ago.
    Left-wing newspapers in Hong Kong report that universities have
begun to abolish the system of revolutionary committees set up by Mao
during the Cultural revolution and that professional chancellors will
be appointed to head institutions, sharing power with university
party committees.
 
    Given the variety of changes over the past year, it would be easy to
surmise that Mao's successors are simply turning the Chairman's
policies on their head, but that would be misleading. The authorities
seem more interested in redefining Mao's heritage to preserve some
inner core of his contribution while dropping what to them are errors
and excesses.
    There are also hints that some people would go further. A brief
article in Jenmin Jih Pao bore the headline ''Chin Shih Huang did not
belong to the Communist Party.'' By tradition China's first emperor,
Chin Shih Huang built the Great Wall, unified the empire and burned
Confucius's heretical books.
    
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