Top General Becomes New Chinese President

The National People’s Congress, taking another step to solidify the position of the market-oriented reformers who dominate China’s government, on Friday elected veteran military leader Yang Shangkun as China’s president and Vice Premier Wan Li as chairman of the legislative body.

Yang, the country’s top general and an important supporter of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, and Wan, a leading reformist, replace more ideologically orthodox men.

Election of the pair to their new posts--which are prestigious but largely ceremonial--was widely expected as a part of personnel arrangements agreed upon by key Communist Party leaders in private meetings last August.

Yang, 81, wields considerable power, but it stems primarily from the respect he commands in the military, his membership in the Politburo of the Communist Party and his close personal relationship with Deng. In replacing outgoing President Li Xiannian, 79, he will have a highly visible role in meeting visiting heads of state and serving as a national spokesman.

Close Ally of Zhao

Wan, 71, who achieved prominence a decade ago by pioneering reforms that returned control of farmland to peasant families, is a close political ally of Zhao Ziyang, 69, the reformist general secretary of the party and the man Deng is grooming as his successor.

Wan replaces Peng Zhen, 86, a hard-line critic of many reforms promoted by Zhao. Peng used his position as chairman of the National People’s Congress to resist some reforms, particularly enactment of a law that would have given greater power to factory managers. Wan’s assumption of the chairmanship is expected to smooth the way for such reformist laws.

The election of Yang and Wan was widely expected in light of the personnel arrangements agreed to earlier in a series of private meetings by top party leaders. Those meetings, in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, set the stage for a transition to generally younger, reform-minded party and government leaders.

The first step in carrying out the agreements came last fall at the Communist Party’s 13th national congress. Zhao was confirmed as general secretary and significant numbers of elderly, ideologically orthodox leaders stepped down from the Central Committee and its policy-making Politburo.

The National People’s Congress, which under the constitution is the highest organ of state power but in practice follows party direction, is now carrying out its task of endorsing the personnel changes.

In the voting Friday, 2,883 delegates marked their ballots yes or no, or abstained. They were offered a choice of names only in the voting for 135 of the 155 seats on the Standing Committee. Twenty seats were filled without opposition.

China’s state-controlled press has described this procedure, which had not been used at any previous congress, as a significant step toward greater openness and democracy.

In another first, the delegates were given the option of getting up from their seats and going to private booths to mark their ballots in secret. Only a handful did so, however. Also for the first time, the procedure was observed by the foreign press.

In another development, Deng was reelected chairman of the state Central Military Commission. The chairman is the de facto commander in chief of the armed forces.

Vice President Elected

Wang Zhen, 80, a former vice premier who was a member of the Politburo from 1978 to 1985, was elected vice president of China, replacing Ulanhu, 81, an ethnic Mongolian who was made a vice chairman of the congress.

Voting on other posts, including confirmation of Acting Premier Li Peng as premier, is expected today or next week. Wan apparently will give up his position as vice premier at that time. The congress, which opened March 25, is scheduled to continue through Wednesday.

Yang, a native of Sichuan province who joined the party in 1926, studied in Moscow from 1927 to 1931. After returning to China, he held party posts in Shanghai and later joined the guerrilla forces of the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

Yang was one of the leaders of the Long March of 1934-35, in which the Communist forces successfully fled from attacking Nationalist troops in southern China and made their way to a secure base in the northwest.

He held important posts for three decades, but in 1966 became one of the first victims of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He returned to public office in 1978.