China to Retain State Ownership : His Reforms Won’t End Communism, Deng Says

In an effort to reassure old-guard Maoists, China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, has ruled out a breaking away from communism in his drive to turn the country into a major economic power early in the 21st Century.

“The basic things will still be state-owned, publicly owned,” he said.

His New Year’s message was published on the front pages of the country’s main newspapers Tuesday and printed under a scarlet masthead in the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.

Since 1978, Deng has dismantled Mao Tse-tung’s rural communes, pressed for foreign investment in China and restored some private enterprise.

Some traditional Maoists have fiercely opposed those economic reforms and the campaign to involve China’s economy more actively with the rest of the world.

“We cannot fail to open up, the open-door policy cannot harm us,” wrote the 80-year-old leader, who has championed certain capitalist methods to help China modernize.

“I think some old comrades fear that after they fought all their lives for socialism, for communism, suddenly capitalism is coming back. They can’t bear it, they are afraid.”

But he added: “If we don’t open and we return to a closed self-reliance, then we will never catch up with the level of the developed countries within 50 years. It is impossible.”

Deng said the average per capita income in China could reach a few thousand dollars without creating a new capitalist class.

Even after China reaches the goal of quadrupling its 1980 gross national product to $1 trillion by the end of the century, other development goals will require the “open door,” he said.

Deng painted a glowing image of the potential for education, prosperity and military power. “With 10 billion U.S. dollars we could do a lot of things,” he said.

Deng said that he is trying to give younger leaders who are “full of vigor,” such as Premier Zhao Ziyang and party chief Hu Yaobang, a freer hand, adding that he hopes to gradually stop working altogether.

Meanwhile, the Chinese press reported that China’s writers have welcomed a Communist Party promise to allow them more creative freedom.

Communist Party Secretariat member Hu Qili, addressing a Peking meeting of the Chinese Writers Assn., said writers should be free of political interference, enjoy artistic freedom and express their feelings.

While he said writers should oppose what he called “capitalist and feudal ideas,” Hu said they “must not be discriminated against politically and must not be punished organizationally.” He was repeatedly interrupted by applause.