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Two new forces at the top

The changes had been rumored for months, but the timing came as a surprise. In a high-level shakeup, the Chinese government announced last week that Foreign Minister Huang Hua and Defense Minister Geng Biao had been replaced. Huang's fall seemed especially abrupt. He had just returned from the Soviet Union, where he had headed the Chinese delegation to Leonid Brezhnev's funeral. He had also held talks in Moscow with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, and delivered a warm expression of support for an improvement in relations between Peking and Moscow.

Though Huang's removal so soon after his talks with the Soviets could be embarrassing to Moscow, most analysts did not believe the events were related. Huang, 69, was Foreign Minister for nearly six years and has been in poor health for some time. He reportedly asked a year ago to retire. In any case, such conciliatory statements and initiatives to the Soviets would customarily be cleared at the highest policymaking levels in Peking beforehand. It was not ruled out, however, that Strongman Deng Xiaoping might have viewed the departing Huang as a convenient intermediary to make the overture. With Huang out, Deng could more easily dissociate himself from any rapprochement with the Soviets should the move run into serious opposition within the Chinese leadership.

Huang's successor is Wu Xueqian, at 60 one of China's youngest top officials. A native of Shanghai, Wu speaks English, which he learned as a child at a missionary-run school. Although he moved into the foreign ministry only early this year, he is said to be well versed in foreign affairs, particularly concerning the Third World. Wu Xueqian His best credential, perhaps, is his affiliation with Communist Party Chief Hu Yaobang.

Defense Minister Geng Biao's ouster, by contrast, was considered to be politically motivated. After Mao Tse-tung's death in late 1976, Geng, 73, supported then Party Chairman Hua Guofeng, who was later purged, in arresting the so-called Gang of Four. His appointment as Defense Minister early last year was seen at the time as a compromise choice between the Maoist generals and Deng's supporters in the military. The new Defense Minister is Zhang Aiping, 72, a general who has headed the Scientific and Technological Commission for National Defense. One of Deng's most trusted men in the military establishment, he is an ardent advocate of modernizing the army.

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