Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 30, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba 4 Winnipeg free press tuesday january by John Fraser the Globe and mail Toronto peking the scene As witnessed by a chinese observer was dramatic and symbolic. It took place in a Small room near the vast banqueting chamber of the great Hall of the people during the grand Spring festival party Given by chairman Hua Kuo Feng last saturday night. There were Only a few people in the room when a ghost from the past walked in. It was Wang Kuang Mei the widow of China s late and much vilified head of state Shao Chi. She was last heard of in Public in 1966 when she was dragged before thousands of howling red guards at the workers stadium in Pek ing. On that shameful occasion she had been dressed in a mockery of Western clothing Complete with a necklace of Ping Pong balls and was visibly manhandled by the two louts who were parading her about in the Back of a jeep. One of her children had been brainwashed into denouncing her and her ordeal was to continue for 11 More years in the Chin Cheng prison near the Ming tombs. She was Only re leased last year and sometime during her Long period of incarceration her husband died a Bro Ken Man. He had a different vision of China s socialist future than that of chairman Mao tse Tung one that is actively being pursued today and for this sin he and his whole family became the principal victims of the cultural revolution. When she walked into the mall room perhaps for a Short breather from the crush of the de throughout the great Hall everyone recognized her instantly. Another older woman went up to her and said Wang Guangmei do you recognize "1 am so sorry i said Madame Wang. The woman then identified herself and the two women let out a sort of shocked gasp before falling into each others arms for More than a minute. According to the observer the two women and most of the onlookers dissolved into tears. Madame Wang finally restored order and reportedly said come on. We May be Here to help the propaganda department but there s no reason we can t enjoy the presence of Wang Guangmei at the party was the official sign that she had been rehabilitated. Her name appeared the next Day in several National newspapers and has started intense local Specula Tion about the anticipated posthumous rehabilitation of her Hus band. Madame Wang thus joins a growing number of people in China who Are getting odious labels taken off their names and official rec ords. As Many critical foreign observers have often noted China has a mania for Labelling people. The workers peasants and soldiers were the new. Revolutionary aristocracy while the real and imagined enemies of the regime were put into an Over All Black category thai often meant they were denied citizenship and whatever benefits there were in the few scraps of Law which existed. In three decades of communist Rule the labels multiplied. First there were landlords Rich peas ants counter revolutionaries and bad in time and with the passing of propaganda and correction campaigns other groups came to swell the ranks of an orwellian non person population. There were rightists capitulation its capitalist readers conf a pianists Ultra leftists revision list goes on and on. Several months ago the govern ment announced that the Label rightist was being removed from people. A few Days ago it announced that the former policy toward the old bourgeoisie and capitalist class was being brought Back so that these people could have some of their own confiscated Money and housing Back which had been taken during the Onset of the cultural revolution. The original maoist policy was to support the patriotic elements in the bourgeoisie who had helped to bring about change in China the state would buy out their Industrial holdings but they would been titled to keep their private savings and the use of their Homes no individual is allowed to have title to land in China not even a foreign the business of labels was quite Nasty. Your classification appeared in All identity papers and on All official records. It barred one from most state services it kept your children from University or a career in the bureaucracy. In Short it was institutionalized discrimination. Not Only that but the alleged sins of the fathers were usually visited on All his children and in some cases grandchildren. Unless one the Label remained to plague the entire family. Monday the Peoples daily reported a Cen trial committee decision to drop the four most notorious labels land lord Rich peasant counter revolutionary and bad element. The first two labels dealt with economic classes and the latter two Are mostly concerned with people who had ties to the old pre liberation government of Chiang Kai Shek. Ils. Embassy Stamps families leaving Iran demonstrators protesting against the visit to Washington of chinese vice Premier Teng Hsiao Ping Battle police near the White House monday. A photo police said four police officers and one other person were injured. There were 40 protesters arrested. Part in that he said. Our new relationship can particularly contribute to the peace and stability of the Asia Pacific responding Teng managed a thrust at the soviet Union by Declar ing that both the United states and China Are opposed to Hegemony the word peking uses to describe alleged soviet expansionism. This commitment restrains our selves and adds to our sense of responsibility for world peace and Sta Teng said speaking in chinese. We Are confident that the Amica ble co operation Between the chinese and american Peoples is not Only in the interest of our two countries development but will also become a Strong Factor working for the preservation of world peace and the promo Tion of human during the welcoming ceremony on the White House South Lawn Carter and Teng seemed startled when two demonstrators standing among re continued porters and cameramen on a grand stand facing the official platform about five metres away disrupted the speeches in turn by shouting murderer and traitor at the vice Premier. The Man and the woman who infiltrated the welcoming ceremony with press credentials they received from the state were quickly arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Carter who seemed momentarily unsettled by the outbursts raised his voice and continued his speech with out interruption. Teng 74, looked briefly uneasy. After the speech making under Cloudy windswept skies Carter guided his guest up a curved Marble staircase to a first floor Balcony of the White House where they waved to the crowd and Shook hands. Then they went inside to the presi Dent s Oval office to begin the first session in six scheduled hours of private talks Over two Days. Vance gave a luncheon in Teng s Honor at the state department. Among guests were defence Secre tary Harold Brown and Zbigniew Brzezinski Carter s National Security adviser. Rounding out Teng s first full Day in Washington was a second meeting with Carter a state dinner in his Honor at the White House and a gala at the Kennedy Centre opera House financed by . Busi Ness corporations and televised on . Networks and by satellite to China. Among the guests invited to the state dinner monday night was Nixon who set into motion these Quence of events that culminated in Teng s visit with his breakthrough trip to peking in february 1972. It was Nixon s first return to the White House since he resigned in disgrace in August 1974, because of the watergate political espionage scandal. Teng leaves Here thursday for visits to Atlanta ga., where he will inspect a Ford motor co. Automobile Assembly Plant Houston tex., where he will visit the Lyndon b. Johnson space Centre and Hughes tool co., and Seattle where he will tour the Boeing co. Aircraft Plant. He returns to peking feb. 5. In his arrival speech Teng warned without elaboration that the factors making for War Are visibly grow but in an interview published Mon Day in time Magazine and the Washington Star the vice Premier made a pointed reference to the soviet Union As a hotbed of War and said the . Is in strategic Tehran a the . Embassy today ordered the evacuation from Iran of All dependents of . Govern ment employees and again urged All non essential . Citizens to get out of the country following attacks on three americans. The order came As supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took to the streets As the exiled shiite mos Lem opposition Leader continued de laying his return. The embassy ordered All . Government dependents to depart Iran temporarily at the earliest feasible it said All dependents of . Citizens should leave the country temporarily along with non essential americans employed Here. The order was issued after a shoot ing attack on a . Air Force major sunday night in Tehran and the beating of . Consul David Mcgaffey and a . Employee of Bell helicopter International in the Cen trial iranian City of Isfahan on Mon Day afternoon. Iran s airports were supposed to be open today but Only one commercial plane was reported to have landed. Troops turned outgoing Passen Gers away and Khomeini continued to delay his return from exile. Mobs of Khomeini s supporters hit the streets of Tehran attacking a police officer setting fire to a brew Ery and clashing with Security forces at least twice. Peaceful demonstrations were reported in the towns of san Jan and Reza Yieh. Hearst to be freed from jail thursday continued deterrence rehabilitation punish ment retribution and Community risk either had been fulfilled or no longer applied to miss Hearst s Case. On leaving the Federal correctional institution at plea Samon calif., near san Francisco miss Hearst will have served about 23 months of her seven year term. If Carter had not commuted her sen tence. Miss Hearst would have Beer first eligible for parole next july ii. Miss Hearst has announced plans to marry Bernard Shaw her former bodyguard on feb. 14. In Hillsborough calif., miss Hearst s Mother Catherine de scribed herself As just the Hap Piest person in the world on learn ing of her daughter s impending release my god in heaven. I can t be Lieve mrs. Hearst said. She has suffered for five years. I can t behave thai it s going be the los Angeles times san Diego a 16-year-old girl using a Rifle she got for Christmas opened fire on the elementary school across from her Home monday As children walked to classes killing the principal and a custodian and wounding eight pupils and a police Man. She then barricaded herself inside the House with the .22-Calihre Rifle and several Hundred rounds of am munition and held scores of police at Bay for six hours finally surrender ing to swat team officers. She gave Little reason for shooting into the schoolyard at Cleveland elementary school in the san Carlos area. I Don t like mondays. This livens up the she was quoted As telling reporters who reached her by Tele phone. She has been identified As Brenda Spencer 16. She shut off the interview by say ing i have to go now. I shot a pig i think and i want to shoot some her friends brought to the scene during lengthy negotiations told re porters that she would have liked the scene she had created. Teachers and school officials screamed for the students to take cover and although the police arrived promptly it was several minutes before the wounded could be evacuated. Among them was Michael Suchar 56, a custodian at the school and school principal. Burton Wragg 53. He died while undergoing surgery for severe stomach wounds. Later at a Hospital Suchar was also pronounced dead. According to one account Wragg had run out of the office directly opposite the Home to help children who had been shot. He was followed by Suchar. Patrolman Robert Robb 28. One of the first on the scene was wounded in he neck and was in fair condition in Hospital Danson a second world War Veter an had said at a press briefing earlier in Ottawa he remains opposed to women in direct combat jobs. He said he did t know How he would have reacted in the War to a woman screaming beside him with her guts hanging out or with an Arm or leg blown War was a team Effort and men should not have to worry about the women fighting beside them. Muriel Arpin of the National coun cil of women was not satisfied with the role expansion. Women she said should have the same military options As men. If War is so bloody and awful really no one ought to be she said. It s after they get into the army continued that women realize How limited their opportunities Danson said the forces have yet to receive a groundswell of requests from women interested in combat roles. Canada already has women in uniform about six per cent of the forces. Only the . And Israel have a larger proportion of women in the forces and Danson said he expects the Canadian figure will Rise under the new policy. Of the 127 trades and classifications 81 Are open to women. Several Hundred women will Proba Bly be included in the new Experiment mostly those already in the forces he said. There would be no pressure on any women in the forces to switch to these near combat jobs. The Canadian human rights com Mission and the advisory Council on the status of women have been consulted on the policy and the reaction has been positive Danson added. Time is needed for planning and research training and selection he said. The tests will have to allow for male and female physical differences but the standards of strength and endurance will have to be the the forces agreed recently to allow women into the parliamentary guard serving in daily parliament Hill Cere monies during the summer after the human rights commission decided to hear a complaint by Natalie Bedard of Montreal. Ottawa won t protest Cia project Cutler said assurances were also Given by the . Government that the research had ended in 1960 and that similar Covert operations would not be sanctioned by the . The Canadian government first heard of this activity from press reports published in he said referring to a series of articles by the new York times based on Cia documents secured by american author John Marks under the . Freedom of information act. Continued we made representations to the United states government at that time and found that financial assistance from the Cia had been Given. The . Government expressed its regret and assured us that kind of thing could not happen the . Justice department and the Cia Are also establishing principles and procedures for compensation 10 victims suffering Long term damage from the experiments if the cases can be documented Cutler said. External affairs has been representing mrs. Orlikov in discussions on her grievance with the . Government since mid-1978, he added. She is the Only sex patient to seek assistance to Date he said. Report claims private firms could Cut million from garbage removal Cost promised it would t happen again this Spring when new tenders Are called. I m going to be looking closely at those tenders and there in t going to be any soft touch for these Guys grabbing off the Cream and us with sour Skowron quipped. While councillors May have entered the session with the snarl of what was described As a Witch Hunt into worker productivity in View of current wage negotiations continued and reports this month of alleged frolicking with equipment they left saddled with part of the blame for efficiency shortcomings. There s room for us to gain in Filmon said adding however the City s productivity is a mixture of the output by management workers and the Organiza figures showing the Cost of Pri vate contractors removing Snow await completion of the first Winter private firms will have been involved under a new costing method based on amounts of Snow cleared and not on hourly service. De Blackman spokesman for the City s cup. Workers said follow ing the meeting discussion had shown the earlier accusations were he said workers Are prepared to make recommended changes along with Transfer of sur plus personnel provided enough Limp is allowed ;