Experts Doubt Chinese Trial's Significance For Legal System

University experts agreed recently that the trial of the Gang of Four--former Chinese leader Mao Zedong's widow and three members of the Politburo during his rule--should impugn Mao's image in the minds of the Chinese people. But at the same time, they doubted that the trial represents the adoption of Western legal procedures in the People's Republic.

Roy M. Hofheinz, professor of Government, said last week that the trial was "the Chinese equivalent of the Watergate proceedings." The Chinese ruling elite is attempting to "solidify their own position and authority for the next ten years," he added.

Hofheinz said the purpose of the trial is "to tarnish the image of Mao," adding that Chinese leaders are "trying to do so in a way that is consonant with some set of legalistic values."

"The trial is a facade of an ideological sort," Hofheinz said, adding that China is attempting "to develop the impression of a country ruled by law in a country ruled by men."

Yesterday, the official Xinhua news agency reported that Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, admitted in court that she led a group in preparing false evidence against then Chinese President Liu Shao-chi and ordered the arrest of his wife on charges she was an American spy.

The report said that Qing repeatedly denied that a special group had been under her control, but after evidence and statements were read in the court Qing said: "I was in direct charge of the special group for handling the case."

"What we see in China is political common sense, not the triumph of the rule of law," Ross Terrill, research assistant at the East Asian Research Center, said, adding, "The real issue is a dispute about Mao's legacy."

Terrill said, "Political crimes are not a test of the legal system. The outcome will be to raise the issue of Mao in a more serious fashion to the man on the street."

John K. Fairbank '29, Higginson Professor of History Emeritus, said that the trial was prompted by two aims of the current regime. "One is what it claims-- topunishcrimes," he said, adding, "another is politics--to cast a bad reflection on Mao."

Fairbank, an internationally recognized expert on East Asia, said the trial is "not necessarily achieving the aim of showing legalistic profile," because the accused have been imprisoned for several years.

"The trial is the culmination of a long campaign of attack on these people," Benjamin I. Schwartz '38, Williams Professor of History and Political Science, said. "They are symbols of the late Mao policies."

Schwartz said that it is accepted Chinese doctrine that "Mao in his later years is blamed for many mistakes, mitigated by his age." He added that Chinese officials may go one step further and accuse Mao of moral crimes.

"If it is nothing but a show trial, as it has been thus far, then it does not show progress towards legal procedures in the Western sense," Schwartz said.

Jinglun Zhao, a Nieman Fellow from China, said the trial "implies the negation of the Cultural Revolution," adding, "It certainly will implicate the Chairman."

Zhao said the next Party Congress will also evaluate Mao. "The evaluation will probably be 70 per cent good and 30 per cent bad. "They will be cutting him down to size.