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CONFIDENTIAL
14.
Finally the Congress made a number of appointments. The three additional Vice Premiers are all economic and financial specialists from the 1950s whose return to authority after eclipse
All or disgrace in the Cultural Revolution is now consummated. three must be considered allies of Deng Xiaoping. The four additional Vice Chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee include Peng Zhen, another casualty of the Cultural Revolution, whose responsibility for legal matters now gives him great authority, and some token representatives of China's newly-revived "democratic parties". Of new blood there was not a sign; the average age of these new appointees is almost seventy-six. It had pointedly been made known in advance of the Congress that no holders of these offices would be demoted. It may be one of the rules of the game in the present phase of declared "unity and stability" that the power balance can be shifted by addition but not by subtraction.
Implications
15.
What are the implications of this Congress for future internal policy, for foreign trade and finally for the balance of power within the leadership? In essence the reformist spirit of the Third Plenum survives. Reading the small print we can spot traces of a compromise here, a fudging of the issue there, small concessions of language to the vestigial Maoist faction which they could still seize upon if ever they felt that the time was propitious for another rally. But in general the policies of political and social stability, economic reform and material improvement are being pushed forward in an increasingly practical way. Of course the obstacles in the way of modernisation are immense, and are recognised as such. A huge population (now acknowledged to be some 960 million), a low median level of nutrition, technical training and productivity, an inert bureaucracy and a workforce which has rarely had an incentive to work hard these are only some of the factors which will act as
CONFIDENTIAL
8.
/a brake