China Hints Party Purge Could Expand

Authorities proclaimed today that all of China backed the ouster of top Communist Party moderates and suggested that the purge of party members who sympathized with the pro-democracy movement could expand.

The tightly controlled media stepped up a propaganda blitz encouraging support for the ruling Communists’ decision to relieve party head Zhao Ziyang of all his party posts for “supporting the turmoils and splitting the party.”

The leadership shake-up, announced Saturday, replaced the 69-year-old Zhao with Shanghai party secretary Jiang Zemin, 62, a proponent of economic reforms who supports the current hard line that dissent must be dealt with harshly.

There were suggestions today that the purge will be extended to lower levels of the party and government.

The party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in a report appearing in Chinese dailies today, said party members “who deviated from the correct political stand and violated the party’s disciplines during the turmoils and the counterrevolutionary rebellion should be strictly punished . . . including expelling them from the party.”

It added, “Those party organizations, which had made resistance against the decisions made by the party’s Central Committee or had been controlled or manipulated by bad people during the turmoils and counterrevolutionary rebellion, should be firmly overhauled and strictly dealt with.”

Chinese sources said students, teachers and others who joined the pro-democracy demonstrations were still being picked up by police, although some were being released after questioning.