1
British Embassy
11 Guang Hua Lu Jian Guo Men Wai
Peking People's Republic of China
Telex 22191 Cable Prodrome Peking
The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Howe, QC MP Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London
SW1
Sir
Telephone 521961/2/3/4/5
Your reference
Our reference
Date
3 July 1987
THE POLITICAL SCENE IN CHINA: JULY 1987
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1. It is some time since I sent you an assessment, either by despatch or telegram, of the political scene in China. It may be opportune to do so now, as I get ready to go on home leave for two months and as preparations begin in earnest for the Thirteenth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
2. The Thirteenth Congress will be only the sixth to have been held since the proclamation of the establishment of the People's Republic of China on 1 October, 1949. It will be the first to be held since September, 1982. It will take place in October (the precise dates have yet to be announced), about nine months after the enforced resignation of Hu Yaobang as General-Secretary of the Central Committee and the launching of a campaign against "bourgeois liberalisation". What will be on the agenda? In what atmosphere will it take place? How is it likely to turn out?
Political Turbulence in China
3.
It is not as easy to answer these questions as it would have seemed to be last autumn. In spite of rumours about drafting difficulties over the Resolution on "Guiding Principles for Building a Socialist Society with an Advanced Culture and Ideology" adopted by the Sixth Plenum of the Central Committee in September 1986, the surface of political life was calm. Indeed, it almost seemed that ideological dispute had gone out of Chinese political life and that all debate was confined to non-normative issues. But we now know that there was turbulence not far below the surface. We also know what followed: two months of student demonstrations in a dozen widely- scattered cities (including Shanghai and Peking); the almost unheralded resignation of Hu as General-Secretary; the expulsion from the Party of three nationally-known academics and writers; and the opening of the first campaign on a matter of faith for nearly three years.