TNAG-1625-FCO40-2239-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1987 — Page 7

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ne 1983

Summer 1983

11-12 October 1983

and subsequently

Sank without trace.

October 1983 January 1984

Sixth National People's Congress. Li Xiannian elected State President; Li Peng and Tian Jiyun appointed additional Vice-Premiers; Ye Jianying stood down as Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee and replaced by Peng Zhen.

Anti-crime campaign. During this campaign, thousands of criminals were publicly paraded and executed for a variety of crimes ranging from murder to hooliganism. It was rumoured to have begun at the personal initiative of Deng Xiaoping. There were also rumours that localities were given a quota of executions to be met by 1 October, National Day. The Criminal Law and Law on Criminal Procedures were amended to broaden the range of capital offences and speed up judicial procedures.

Second Plenum of the Twelfth Central Committee. The Party Rectification campaign was launched, "with the 'three kinds of people' (basically

leftists, opponents of current policies and the corrupt) as its principal targets. The two main ideological problems identified were leftism and bourgeois liberalism. The campaign would take place in two stages - the first, beginning in the winter of 1983 and involving organisations at the central and provincial levels and the upper echelons of the People's Liberation Army (PLA); the second, beginning in the winter of 1984 and taking in Party organisations at lower levels. A guidance Committee was set up with Hu Yaobang as Chairman and Bo Yibo and Hu Qili amongst the Vice-Chairmen.

•

The Campaign against Spiritual Pollution. Deng Xiaoping's speech at the Second Plenum (not published until 1987) included a section on the subject of 'spiritual pollution' By

'spiritual pollution' was meant decadent western practices (corruption, pornography) and

'bourgeois' ideas (non-socialist ideas such as the possibility that alienation can exist in socialist society and advocation of humanism) which had grown in influence since the 'open door policy' had been pursued and which had been allowed to grow by lax ideological leadership. Leftist and conservative elements tried to use Deng's remarks to criticise the open door and reform policies themselves.

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