Aged veterans still dominate CCP

In this fifth article of a series on China's future without Deng, our Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin analyzes the influential role of elderly Chinese communist leaders and the fact that one of them, Peng Zhen, was ranked fifth in the party when Deng's death was announced.

HONG KONG (JP): The "immortals" in the Chinese Commmunist Party (CCP) continue to prove that, unlike the old soldier, until they die they never fade away.

Elderly cadres of the CCP still have a critical role to play in any succession struggle within the party. The enduring and lifelong influence of the older generation of leaders of the CCP was pointedly illustrated at the memorial service for China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

Many foreign obituaries for Deng hailed him as the last leader of the generation which made China's 1949 communist revolution but this conclusion was visually contradicted by the television coverage of the memorial service. After President Jiang Zemin's 55-minute eulogy, many elderly leaders were among the few who filed past and formally shook hands with Deng's family. While some veterans were assisted by nurses, this does not mean that they are without continuing significant influence on the political scene.

The most pointed illustration of this fact came from one revolutionary veteran who was not present but who was ranked fifth in the CCP hierarchy after President Jiang, Prime Minister Li Peng, and parliamentary chiefs Qiao Shi and Li Ruihuan. He is 95-year-old Peng Zhen, who, as mayor of Beijing was the first major leader to be purged during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.

When Deng Xiaoping was CCP secretary-general from 1955 to 1965, Peng Zhen served with him as first secretary for the CCP central committee.

Peng's fifth place ranking in the funeral committee party hierarchy was a reminder of an old China-watching axiom -- that the order in which the old leaders die could have an important impact on politics in the post-Deng era. The three key factional leaders singled out in this regard were Deng, Peng, and the once highly influential advocate of more orthodox socialist economics Chen Yun. Chen was the first of the three veteran factional leaders to die, in April 1995.

This calculation related to the undoubted fact that the oldest CCP generation, having been reduced in influence in the early 1980s as Deng completed his third comeback and sought to push economic reform, themselves made a comeback in the late 1980s as they resisted the reformist thrust of Deng's proteges -- former CCP secretaries-general Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.

Whether Peng and Chen opposed Deng primarily because they disliked the reformist departures from communist orthodoxy, or because they wanted to enhance their factional support at Deng's expense, it is impossible to say -- we simply do not know enough about the secretive inner workings of the CCP. But clearly they and other elderly leaders made gains especially during and after the nationwide demonstrations culminating in the Beijing Massacre in June 1989.

The elderly leaders were instrumental in getting Deng both to purge Zhao Ziyang as party secretary and to chose Jiang Zemin in Zhao's place.

Peng Zhen's relationship with Deng was both complex and of long standing. They had worked together to implement Mao's policies in the 1950s and had both begun to have reservations about those policies after the widespread famine which accompanied Mao's Great Leap Forward. Critically, Deng failed to defend Peng when Mao targeted Peng at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, prior to Deng himself being purged in 1967.

Deng sought to make amends for this failure by seeing to it that Peng was speedily brought back to Beijing in 1978 from 12 years internal exile and quickly rehabilitated, even before Deng consolidated his grip on power after his third and last comeback. During the 1980s Peng, who had a longtime involvement in the crucial arena of public security affairs, held influential posts notably as chairman of the National People's Congress. Some have surmised that Peng felt aggrieved that Deng, rather than himself, had become paramount leader but there appears to be no clear evidence for this suggestion.

Now Peng has outlived both Deng and Chen, and the fact that he was ranked fifth in the protocol order for the 459-member funeral committee testified to his continuing influence. Peng's factional clout will certainly continue to support his foremost protege in the CCP elite, Qiao Shi.

Like Peng, Qiao Shi has also been in charge of public security affairs and has succeeded to Peng's old job as National People's Congress chairman. Conceivably it may have been Qiao who was able to insist on Peng's high ranking in the order of precedence. The fifth position in the hierarchy was the same as that which was held by Peng when he was purged in 1966.

Conceivably, too, the ranking may have been an appropriate honor for a seriously ill leader. According to reports in the Hong Kong press Peng Zhen was rushed to a hospital in Beijing 48 hours after Deng died, and is seriously ill. But if Peng is well enough to know that he has outlived his two former comrades and rivals, that knowledge may serve as an elixir for further longevity. Doubts that this will be so arise, as rumors circulate that Peng is dying, while officials play down the seriousness of his illness, just as they did with Deng, until almost his last moment.

Even if Peng does not survive, there are several other CCP veterans capable of influencing any succession struggle. Chief among these is former president Yang Shangkun, 90, who was ousted from his posts by Deng in 1992/1993 precisely because he was believed to be making premature moves geared to a post-Deng era. Yang's half brother Yang Baibing, who was also demoted at that time for the same reason, remains a member of the politburo, and was ranked 14th in the funeral committee list.

Indicating their continuing role in CCP rule, all the leading veterans, apart from Peng, were placed in the funeral committee hierarchy just after the members of the CCP politburo. Yang was ranked 24th, former National People's Congress chairman Wan Li was 25th, former Standing Committee member Song Ping was 26th, former vice premier Bo Yibo was 27th and Song Renqiong was 28th. Their names are worth noting as more will be heard from them despite, and because of, their age.