Word: mao
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Mood of Moderation. To an extent, the new leadership must continue Mao's policy to maintain its own credentials. Moreover, moderation seems to be the mood of the country. Evidently, ordinary Chinese are simply tired of the nearly constant political tub thumping by the radical faction in Peking. Without Mao's active backing, the radicals in the leadership may find it difficult to pursue their preferred programs without risking a loss of support from powerful provincial leaders...
Thus for the moment, Hua Kuofeng, the firm but moderate Premier, seems in charge. He stood first in the lineup of leaders at Mao's mourning. He has also impressed foreign observers with his cool, adept handling of both the recent earthquakes and the obsequies for Mao. But will he consolidate his power, as Leonid Brezhnev did in the Soviet Union after the ouster of Khrushchev? Or will he, like Georgi Malenkov after the death of Stalin, eventually be relegated to obscurity? Many observers believe that he might endure, given the apparent strength of the moderates in China today...
Only six American journalists, among them TIME Diplomatic Editor Jerrold Schecter, witnessed the official mourning for Mao Tse-tung. Schecter, who was accompanying former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger on his trip to China, last week filed this report on the scene at the Great Hall of the People, where Mao's body lay in state...
...honor guard of workers, peasants and students stood at attention along our route from the Peking Hotel to the Great Hall. The broad T'ien An Men Square, where Mao had once reviewed well-drilled throngs, was empty of traffic except for a line of diplomatic cars. Dominating the scene were two giant black-and-gold-draped portraits of the Chairman. Chinese mourners, forming a silent wave of gray and blue, slowly climbed the broad steps leading into the Great Hall, moving from the bright afternoon sunlight beneath the twelve massive concrete columns and the army guard...
...step at a time, we too moved up toward the hall, along with some of the other foreign diplomats and guests who had come to pay their last respects to Chairman Mao. All the world was there. Ahead of us were African women in colorful batik skirts; behind, a group of Peruvians. There were grim North Koreans, many in military uniforms, Rumanians, Yugoslavs and thin-faced Albanians, as well as wiry Vietnamese and diminutive Cambodians; all had black armbands and were dressed in their formal best-in bald contrast to the Chinese, who wore their ordinary jackets and pants...