Deng Quits Last Post in Step to Transfer Power

Senior leader Deng Xiaoping, taking a historic step toward a generational transfer of power, Thursday turned over the leadership of China’s armed forces to Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin.

But in a related action that virtually guarantees continued tension at the highest levels of Chinese politics, one of Jiang’s key rivals, President Yang Shangkun, was confirmed as No. 2 in the military hierarchy. Yang’s younger brother, Yang Baibing, also received important promotions in the military and party apparatus.

A four-day meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee, which approved the military changes, also endorsed a two-year economic program that mixes policies demanded by hard-liners and reformers but breaks little new ground.

“It is a confused picture which reflects the confused state of China today,” commented a Western diplomat with long experience here, who spoke on condition that he not be identified by name. “But anyway, Deng is leaving his post, and it reflects the end of a 10-year cycle. We are entering a transition phase.”

Deng, 85, consolidated power as China’s paramount leader in late 1978, two years after the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, many of whose radical egalitarian policies have been reversed by a decade of market-oriented economic reforms.

Now, by passing to Jiang the chairmanship of the party’s Central Military Commission, Deng gives up his role as commander in chief of the armed forces--his last formal post. It is widely believed, however, that his prestige and residual authority will enable him to continue to be the ultimate arbiter of Chinese politics for as long as he is in reasonably good health.

Deng has emphasized repeatedly in recent months that Jiang, who has a record of support for moderate economic reform coupled with a hard-line political stance, is his personal choice as China’s next paramount leader. Jiang’s elevation to head the military commission is a key step in boosting his power, but his position as Deng’s chosen heir remains fragile. This is partly because the former Shanghai party boss has few ties within the military, while all the other key members of the commission are military men.

Both of Deng’s previous handpicked successors--reformers Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang--fell from power when they proved unable to consolidate a strong power base in the military and lost favor with Deng and other elderly leaders for failing to crack down on student protests. Hu was replaced by Zhao as party chief in January, 1987, and Zhao was replaced by Jiang in June of this year.

President Yang, 82, a retired army general who played a key role last June in calling in troops to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing, is generally viewed as less firmly committed to market-oriented economic reforms than is Jiang, 63. A power struggle between the two could have profound implications for China’s future. Many observers, however, believe that neither is likely to be able to consolidate power after Deng dies and that some other leader will probably emerge.

Before the Central Committee plenum, talk among Chinese with access to high-level information was that Deng wanted Yang Shangkun to join him in stepping down from the military commission and that Jiang would take over as head. But Yang, according to these sources, was seeking the chairmanship for himself. Thursday’s announcement appeared to reflect a compromise that reinforces both Jiang and Yang as key contenders for power, but leaves the ultimate succession unresolved.

“For Yang, it’s a less comfortable position than to be No. 2 under Deng,” the Western diplomat commented. But at the same time, he said, Jiang is not likely to find it easy “to impose his authority on all these military guys.”

The chairmanship of the party’s military commission is traditionally the most powerful position in China. There is also a state Central Military Commission, which usually has nearly the same membership and the same leadership. The two commissions are believed to function almost as a single body.

In his letter of resignation from the party commission, which was published Thursday by the official New China News Agency, Deng said he will also resign from the state military commission. The Central Committee decision promoting Jiang and Yang suggest that they will be named eventually to the No. 1 and No. 2 posts on the state commission, but this action can be taken only by the National People’s Congress.

On Thursday evening, state-run television showed a cheerful Deng greeting other top leaders after the announcement of his retirement. Deng walked easily but showed clear signs of his advanced age, including a facial expression and occasionally hesitant manner that could mark the beginnings of senility.

During the pro-democracy demonstrations of last spring, which touched off China’s continuing political crisis, some students accused Deng of being “muddle-headed” and called for him to step down. Yang Shangkun, although only three years younger than Deng, appears to be in excellent health.

Deng submitted his resignation in a letter to the policy-setting Politburo dated Sept. 4. In it, he says he has been “looking forward to completing the succession of the older generation by the younger generation as soon as possible.”

“The fourth plenum of the 13th party Central Committee (in late June) elected a leading nucleus headed by Comrade Jiang Zemin and it is now already carrying out its work effectively,” Deng wrote.

“Our cause of reform and opening to the outside world has just started. We have arduous tasks ahead and there will be some twists and turns on our way of advance. But I firmly believe that we will be able to overcome various difficulties. . . . Since the Chinese people have shown the ability to stand up, they will surely have the ability to ever stand firmly among the nations of the world.”

Continued Austerity

The official communique of the Central Committee plenum, which was attended by 167 full members and 106 alternate members, declared that a year-old program of economic austerity should continue for at least another two years. But the meeting also emphasized that China will continue to open up more to the outside world.

The plenum endorsed attempts to bring inflation down to less than 10%, to balance the national budget, to hold average annual economic growth to no more than 6% in the next few years and to direct investment toward agriculture, raw materials supply and transportation infrastructure.

“We must at all times . . . place the constant improvement of economic efficiency on the top of the economic work,” the communique said.

It said: “It is imperative to continue to persist in the policy of opening to the outside world, boldly absorb foreign investment and import advanced technology while effectively expanding foreign trade and economic and technical exchanges. The basic policies and measures adopted for the special economic zones and coastal open regions remain unchanged and will be further perfected in practice.”

But in a warning to reformist, growth-oriented provincial leaders who have sought to exempt their regions from centrally imposed austerity measures, the communique declared that “it is imperative to firmly foster the idea of taking the whole country as a whole, subordinating the interest of a part to that of the whole, strengthen organizational discipline and resolutely oppose decentralism.”

Speculation on Zhao

There had been widespread speculation that the Central Committee would deal with the fate of Zhao, the party chief ousted in June for opposing the crackdown, who has been presumed to be under some form of house arrest.

Although Zhao was stripped of all his high party positions, including the first vice chairmanship of the party’s Central Military Commission, the post assumed Thursday by Yang Shangkun, he has been allowed to keep his party membership. Hard-line leaders including Premier Li Peng have been widely rumored to favor putting Zhao on trial.

But the communique made no mention of Zhao. It also made no mention of any plans for an intensified purge of Zhao supporters. In the aftermath of the crackdown, some close allies of Zhao have been removed from office or imprisoned, and several party documents have been published calling for more extensive action. But there has not been any sweeping purge of reformists from party and government positions.

Still, the plenum appeared to strengthen the influence of the military on political affairs. Yang Baibing, 69, a general who had been on the state military commission but not the more powerful party military commission, was promoted to the party commission. He becomes its secretary general, a post previously held by his brother, President Yang.

Yang Baibing was also named to what now becomes the four-member Secretariat of the Central Committee, which functions as the executive office of the Communist Party. For the past two years, there had been no military representative in the Secretariat.

The other key promotion in the military commission went to Liu Huaqing, 73, a former commander of the Chinese navy who was named a vice chairman, ranking after Yang Shangkun.