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GVs: demonstrators with flags and some pictures of chairman Mao in march and demonstration. (10 shots)
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Initials RH/AB/PNG/0045


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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: There was a carnival-like atmosphere in the Chinese capital, Peking, on Thursday(21 October) as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce Mao Tse Tung's widow and her so called "anti-party clique."
SYNOPSIS: The fierce campaign against China's four radical leaders - Chaing Ching, widow of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, Yao Wen-yuan, the Communist Party's chief propagandis Wang Hung-wen, a party vice-chairman and Chang Chun-chicao, army political commissar - burst onto Peking's streets early in the morning and continued all day. Cheering crowds paraded past the Forbidden City. For the first time since the power struggle started public slogans denouncing the four appeared.

As the parade wound through the city and chanting, banner-waving columns called for the downfall of the four. The so called "gang of four" is reported to be under arrest for plotting a coup d'etat. Everywhere they were depicted, in crude caricatures, as poisonous weeds and snakes. Among the marcher who took part in the demonstration were government ministers and army generals. Cheerleaders prompted each group chanting support for Hua Kuo-feng, who has succeeded Mao as Chairman of the Communist Party.

At times the city square resembled a fairground. Stirring revolutionary ballads blared from loudspeakers, barely audible amid the thunder of firecrackers, drums and cymbals. Rockets exploded overhead and the crowds rushed to mob government ministers such as Deputy Chief of Staff, Yang Chung-wu. Although the demonstration was clearly well organised the mood was unusually jovial. Reuters quoted experience observers in Peking as saying the parade indicated clear signs of public support for the purge of the four radicals, all of whom helped bring about the tumultuous cultural revolution a decade ago.