Shifting the Generals

When Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution finally shuddered toward an end five years ago, the machinery of government was paralyzed, the structure of the Communist Party shattered, and China teetered on the brink of anarchy. It was the leaders of the nation's armed forces who then filled the political vacuum.

Last week eight of China's eleven powerful regional military commands received new commanders in a surprise shake-up that severely diminished the pervasive political influence of the 2.7 million People's Liberation Army.

Although the moves were routinely reported, China watchers saw them as the biggest political event on the main land since the death two years ago of Lin Piao, the Defense Minister who was killed trying to defect to the Soviet Union. All but one of the transferred commanders had held, in addition to their military positions, the top politi cal jobs in their areas. Significantly, the three commanders left in their posts wield no such political power.

Crucial Command. The most note worthy transfer was of Li Te-sheng, 61, the army's top political commissar and a member of the nine-man Politburo standing committee and of the party's military affairs commission. He was sent from Peking to the crucial northern command in Shenyang, which covers the vital industrial regions of Manchuria and the vulnerable northeast frontier with the Soviet Union. Li is considered one of the army's rising generals, and his posting to the sensitive Soviet border testified to continuing Chinese concern over the Russian troop buildup in the area. But there was speculation that his transfer north was also designed to loos en his grip on Peking and at the same tune dismantle the network of personal loyalties built up by Chen Hsi-lien, 60, the military commander of the northern region for more than 14 years. Chen was sent to Peking as commander of the capital military region. Another powerful Politburo member, Hsu Shih-yu, 67, was uprooted from the comfortable Yangtze barony of the Nanking military region he had held for the past 16 years and sent to Canton, even though he reportedly cannot speak Cantonese.

On the surface, the generals simply exchanged jobs in a face-saving way. But China watchers speculated that the military reshuffle was part of a broader campaign--an attempt by Chairman Mao and Premier Chou En-lai to increase the authority of the party's Central Committee at the expense of military men, who still suffer from the ancient Chinese tendency to set up warlord fiefdoms in the provinces.

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