QUOTATIONS FROM VICE CHAIRMAN TENG HSIAO-PING

One sign of Teng Hsiao-p 'ing 's ever growing influence within China is the special attention that the country's journals and radio broadcasts now give to reporting and analyzing his speeches and interviews. Although no match for the late Great Helmsman as a polished phrasemaker and poet, Teng does have a flair for earthy aphorism. A sampling of quotations by the Vice-Chairman:

His golden rule: Practice is the only norm for verifying truth.

On utilizing scientists: It is better to allow them to work than to have them sitting in a privy, producing nothing.

On development: It's no good to do things in a hurry. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. The more the urging, the less the progress.

On modernization: Raise the quantity and raise the quality. When automation is raised, manual labor will be reduced. The advanced countries of the world, no matter under what systems, have all taken this road. Are they laborers? They are called productive forces; that is, they are laborers.

On China's future: In our country, as counterrevolution weakens, dictatorship will have to be pared away and democracy broadened.

On revolution: It is a difficult thing. If you want to make revolution, you shouldn't be afraid of difficulties. If you are afraid of difficulties, don't make revolution.

On his education: I have never actually studied in a university. The kind of university I was in has no graduates. Its name is society. The day I meet God is when I will graduate, and who knows how many grades I will get from God?

On the superpowers (1974): The U.S. and the Soviet Union are vainly seeking world hegemony. The two superpowers are the biggest exploiters and oppressors of today. The imperialists, and the superpowers in particular, are beset with troubles and are on the decline. Countries want independence, nations want Liberation and the people want revolution--this is the irresistible trend of history.

On Viet Nam, China's former ally: There is a hooligan in the East. I am sure that we all understand about the word Cuba and about the Cuba of the East.

On his struggle with the Gang of Four: I let the Gang of Four grab my tail and give me a sound flogging. Perhaps you comrades would say that it was Chairman Mao who relieved me of my former jobs and dismissed me from office. As a matter of fact, it wasn't so. I would rather call it a decree of fate. Chiang Ch'ing used to laugh at me, saying that my head was bullet-shaped and couldn't wear official headgear securely ... As long as class struggle exists, there will be persons like the Gang of Four. Otherwise, there would be no class struggle.

On mistakes (in the mid-'60s): No one is free from shortcomings. Take, for example, people like us, our cadres doing political work and our veteran cadres who have been in the party for decades. Do we not also have shortcomings or errors of this kind or that? Chairman Mao often errs too. But we all know that his errors are fewer than ours.

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