Brothers in Arms (140 page)

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Authors: Odd Arne Westad

Tags: #Political Science, #International Relations, #General, #test

BOOK: Brothers in Arms
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was given the task to prepare a report for the meeting on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the CCP. He is now released from all his other duties and works on the report is "condemned to hard labor," "we have enslaved him" added Zhou Enlai in jest.
For my part I congratulated Zhou Enlai on the approaching fortieth anniversary of the CCP.
Zhou Enlal thanked me and said that it had been decided not to celebrate that event very widely. A ceremonial anniversary meeting would be held and a report would be published. He added, as if explaining why such a decision had been made, that there was quite a strained internal situation in the country. There is a very serious drought. The situation will be worse than last year. The number of provinces suffering from the drought continues to grow. The summer harvest will be gathered in soon. It is already clear that this year's harvest of grain crops will be 10 million tons less in comparison with the last year. Last year's summer harvest was 30 million tons, this year's yield will be only little more than 20 million tons.
I asked about the planned harvest of grain crops.
Zhou Enlai said that only the summer harvest was meant. And the plan for this year has been set at last year's level. A summer harvest makes up a big share one-fifth of an annual yield. A crop of 160 million tons was gathered in last year. Judging by this summer's harvest, the same number will hardly be achieved this year.
He continued that the spring sowing had not yet been finished in some regions of the country. It concerned especially the central provinces the northern part of Anhui province and Henan and Jiangsu provinces where rice planting hadn't been finished because of drought. In Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, [and] Liaoning provinces, and in inner Mongolia the summer harvest of wheat had been gathered in, but because of a strong drought it was impossible to start sowing. The situation was better in places where water was supplied mechanically, but in places where it was done manually, the situation was difficult. Besides there was no water in many wells.
According to the forecasts of the weather bureau, heavy showers are expected in northern provinces in July and August. Currently, it is raining too much in the region to the south from Yangzi.
I asked whether there was a possibility to find a way out of the situation. Zhou Enlai told me that it was planned to increase the area with drought-resistant crops (batat, etc.) and to carry out other measures.
He mentioned that a number of sister nations had their own problems in connection with natural calamities. We, the socialist countries, have to work hard in order to strengthen the agricultural base. I agreed with this point of view.
I said further that I had a commission from the CC CPSU to pass over to Mao Zedong the stenographic record of N. S. Khrushchev's talks with [President John F.] Kennedy in Vienna. Having given a gist of these talks, I passed the material to Zhou Enlai.
Zhou Enlai thanked me and mentioned that "the Western sources give various inter-

 

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pretations of the meeting in Vienna. Of course, we cannot take all of these sources seriously." Zhou Enlai didn't express other opinions concerning that question.
During our further discussion, I said to Zhou Enlai that I was going to Moscow in the beginning of July and would like to discuss some questions, if he had time. Zhou Enlai gladly agreed with this.
I said I had got a good impression of the big work on fulfillment of the decisions of the Nineteenth CC CCP [Central Committee Chinese Communist Party] Plenum, which was being done in provinces and in the local units. I asked him to tell me, if possible, what large-scale measures were planned for the nearest future, in particular in connection with the perspectives of the discussion on the national economy planning for the coming years, and also about the assessment of the fulfillment of the decisions of the Nineteenth CC CCP Plenum concerning internal questions. I asked whether any other steps in the direction of putting in order the People's Communes were considered, except for those that had already been taken.
Zhou Enlai said that the CC CCP had recently conducted a "working meeting" (apparently, an enlarged session of the Politbureau with participation of the CC CCP members and province leaders), which considered internal questions.
After three years of the Great Leap and two years of natural calamities we are thinking to conduct a certain regulation of the overall national economic plan, sticking to the course of "regulation, consolidation, increase, and replenishment." The aim of this course is "to liquidate certain disproportions which came into existence as a result of the Great Leap." This means bringing a proper correlation between agriculture, heavy and light industries, and removing disproportions which have been created. The question is about regulating the interrelations between town and country.
Zhou Enlai said that the reasons for the emergence of the disproportions had to be stated. Natural calamities have to be pointed out among the objective reasons. Because of them a drop in production of agricultural products and industrial crops happened. This adversely affected providing the industry with raw materials and the urban population with objects of consumption. On the other hand, subjective reasons have to be noted. The three red banners the basic line, the Great Leap, and People's Communes are new phenomena, which were born on Chinese soil and are based on Chinese practice. These new phenomena helped to achieve new success but also created a new situation. Zhou Enlai continued that they hadn't had enough experience and had been culpable of a certain roughness, of shortcomings, and errors in the work.
Zhou Enlai mentioned that such things (shortcomings, errors, etc.) took place not only in the countries where the dictatorship of the proletariat had won, but were also typical of bourgeois and feudal societies. He said further: "We in China use the experience of the Soviet Union and other sister nations, but we also have a zigzag development, because everything new that appears on the Chinese soil inevitably gives rise to roughness, errors. That is why this regulation is necessary. Things that we do differ, of course, rad-

 

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ically from what the exploiter classes do. They do everything in the interests of minority, but we [do it] in the interests of majority. That is why we, supported by the great mass of the population, will be better able to overcome the shortcomings."
Zhou Enlai said that it also had to be pointed out that cadre had rested content with the success of the three-year period and as a result their work suffered from omissions and shortcomings. After the shortcomings in the work began to be revealed and corrected last year, cadre were able to comprehend and realize them. So, each phenomenon has two sides in its development. The victory is won, but if no one pays attention any longer, it can contain the seeds of errors and shortcomings. If errors are committed and work suffers from shortcomings pay attention to them and then they will be eliminated. K. Marx and V. I. Lenin talked about this. "In case of a victory, don't be intoxicated by it, in case of defeat don't give up."
Zhou Enlai mentioned that it wasn't possible to master this rule completely. Theory needs to be tested by practice. One has to experience much oneself and to store own knowledge. This thesis applies both to a class as a whole and to individual workers. He added that to all appearances, the report on the fortieth anniversary of the CCP would dwell on it. . . .
He said he would like to stress that they considered training of cadre and party-organizational activities to be the main point in their work. Using a Chinese formula, this idea can be expressed according to the "three-words principle": "(1) leadership, (2) training, [and] (3) education."
Each political aim can be achieved only through the cadre on different levels. The cadre must realize all the depth of these aims, only then they will be able to transmit everything correctly to the people. You have been accumulating experience during forty-four years. We have been doing it only twelve years.
I mentioned in jest that together that was fifty-six years.
Zhou Enlai answered kindly that China was repeating the experience of the Soviet Union in many ways, so it was not correct to sum up merely arithmetically.
Zhou Enlai proceeded with his thought and said that the democratic revolution had taken twenty-eight years. During this period, much educational work had been conducted with cadre. Only twelve years have passed since the victory of the revolution. That is why not enough work has been done in the sphere of cadre training.
As regards general trends, we can learn from our sister nations. But as far as specific measures are concerned, we can learn only from our own experience. And this experience has two sides: the right one and the mistaken one, the successful and the unsuccessful. It is necessary to be able to generalize experience in good time.
For my part I mentioned that it was impossible to be a leader without this ability. I added that it wasn't enough to have a course, it was necessary to provide for it organizationally.
Zhou Enlai agreed with me and, continuing this thought, said that it wasn't enough to

 

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have the CC leadership and the CC course. This course had to be carried out through cadre to masses, to be tested by them, and only then to be convened into a concrete practice. He concluded that to put it briefly, they were accomplishing such deeds as their ancestors didn't achieve.
I expressed agreement with his point of view and said that I would like to point out one feature. From my numerous conversations and observations during my travels in the country, I had got the impression that the knowledge of concrete matters, [a] kind of professionalism was the most critical problem for the local cadre. As a rule, these persons had gone through a great school of struggle, they were politically devoted, but obviously had a poor knowledge of the specific work they were asked to do. I gave some concrete examples from my own observations during my travels in the country and expressed my point of view that maybe it would have been advisable to give these questions major importance to the state and party as a whole, to open special schools for such cadre and this way to give them opportunity to professionally master a concrete duty. I referred to the experience of our country in this field at different stages of the building of socialism.
Zhou Enlai answered that he considered that remark as a very correct one. He continued that during the last twelve years the socialist revolution and socialist construction were going on simultaneously, interweaving with each other. That is why in many spheres the personnel had not been paying enough attention to studies. But that also pointed to the fact that we hadn't educated them enough. Zhou Enlai spoke critically about himself at this point. He said that he had been a prime minister for twelve years, but in discussions he could speak more on political problems than on specific questions. He added that he was sincere in saying that.
For my pan I mentioned that Comrade Zhou Enlai was too modest.
He repeated that he had been talking about it sincerely. Further Zhou Enlai said that the main trends, the main sides of economic construction were not quite clear to him. To master them, to understand them that was the task. He went on and said that they frequently didn't foresee, but got to know the general trends in the process of work. Obviously, he said, the Communist Party had to go through that process.
During the meeting with Zhou Enlai, I, on a commission from the Center, informed him about the forthcoming signing of the Soviet-Korean treaty. Zhou Enlai said that they in China heartily approved the signing of that treaty and in advance congratulated Soviet and Korean comrades on their success.
On a commission from the Center, I asked about the Chinese comrades' opinion concerning a possible date of L. I. Brezhnev's visit to the PRC in accordance with the invitation extended by Liu Shaochi in Moscow. I did so in a careful way and used an appropriate moment (when the conversation turned to the exchange of a number of governmental delegations and to the visits to the PRC of many foreign guests). Zhou Enlai said that the embassy would be informed about this issue during the coming days.
In the course of our conversation, Zhou Enlai said that in accordance with the invita-

 

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