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18 September 1985
6,9 January 1986
Spring 1986
of the Central Committee resigned and, technically in contravention of the Party Constitution, 91 elected. Ten Politburo members were dropped and six new members elected. Three members of the Secretariat withdrew and five entered. Most of those who left the Politburo were veterans with military connections, including Ye Jianying (military representation on the Central Committee was also significantly reduced). New members were mainly younger, reform minded individuals. The other striking feature was the speech given by Chen Yun who sounded a note of dissatisfaction with the way things were going over grain production, planning and the use of the market, and ideological trends such as" putting money above all else."
Anti-Japanese Student Demonstrations in Peking. These touched upon other sensitive issues such as price rises, nepotism, lack of democracy and their own poor living conditions.
Meeting of 8,000 cadres of central organs. This was held by the Central Committee Secretariat in response to growing concern about corruption and indiscipline on the part of Party cadres. A leading group to take charge of rectification of Party style within central organs was established with Qiao Shi at its head and Wang Zhaoguo and Qiang Xiaochu as his deputies. Some leading cadres or their children were punished during the ensuing 'crackdown' (the most senior official being Hu Lijiao, Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Congress and former Central Committee member, whose son was executed for rape) but top leaders went unscathed despite numerous reports at this time that cases of corruption amongst their children were being investigated. issue of nepotism came more sharply into focus.
The
Thirtieth Anniversary of the Double Hundred Policy. Discussion of the policy of 'letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend' gave rise to an outpouring of
'liberal' views which went further than the original movement. Amongst these were calls for open discussion to be extended to political subjects and for Marxism to be treated as just one of a number of schools in contention.
Tage
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Paco 10