11
-
CONFIDENTIAL
press as one of their close associates.
He was never tried and,
according to a resident journalist here, the Chinese have now
indicated that he has been released.
21. Jiang's report attempted to highlight the process of
rehabilitation of those convicted for political crimes during
the Cultural Revolution, but the statistics were unconvincing.
By the end of 1981 only 300,000 out of 1.2 million cases had
been redressed. Nevertheless, even if many people unjustly
convicted for political crimes in the past have not had their
verdicts reversed, political offences these days occupy a far
smaller proportion of cases than before, only 0.5% in 1982.
22. As far as non-political crime is concerned, the economic
variety has burgeoned, not suprisingly in view of the degree
of initiative given to individuals over the past few years.
Crime overall however continues to drop.. There were 900,000
cases in 1981, 750,000 in 1982 and 200,000 in the first four
months of this year.
23. One of the most interesting developments at the Congress
was the establishment of a Ministry of State Security. Publicly,
it has only been announced that it is to "ensure China's security
and strengthen the struggle against espionage".
It appears
likely that it has been set up to coordinate China's disparate
intelligence organisations but as yet little is known about it.
CONFIDENTIAL
/A
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.