Terrill and Fairbank, at Kirkland House, Differ on Future U.S.-China Relations

The elevation of Hua Kuo-feng to the chairmanship of the Chinese Communist Party should lead to a gradual improvement of Chinese relations with the Soviet Union, perhaps at the expense of the United States, Ross G. Terrill, associate professor of Government, told a Kirkland House audience last night.

John K. Fairbank '29, Higginson Professor of History, disagreed with Terrill, and said he expects no changes in Chinese foreign policy with regard to the United States and Russia.

The two Harvard China experts met in a packed Kirkland House junior common room to discuss the effects of the changes in the Chinese leadership since Mao Tsetung's death last month.

Since Mao's death, Hua has assumed leadership of the Communist Party, and many believe has presided over the purge of the "gang of four," leaders of the radical faction that is opposed to Hua and his moderate supporters.

Terrill said the purge, and subsequent dimunition of leftist strength, will lead to an increased role for the army in Chinese foreign affairs.

He said the army's increased strength will put it in a position to promote its goal of a policy of detente with the Soviets.

Fairbank disagreed on this point, saying that China has a need to shore up its weak relationship with the U.S., rather than drift any closer to the Soviets.

Terrill and Fairbank agreed that the four radical leaders who were arrested will probably not be killed, although the Chinese press said last weekend that they were "liquidated" from their party posts.

Fairbank said this term is usually used only to indicate the dismissal of an official from his post.

Fairbank responded to a question from the audience by saying that he could not estimate the security of Hua's political position. Terrill said, however, that he considers Hua's position secure, because his radical rivals have been dispatched with apparently little protest popularly.

He cited what he called a grass roots belief that Chiang Ching, Mao's widow and a leader of the radicals, had entered politics only through her marriage to Mao and not because of her own merit.

He added that no one could be as secure as Mao, who was revered as the maker of the Chinese revolution, and thus could not be replaced as a popular figure.

Despite the fact of Hua's simultaneous occupation of the top posts in the party, government and the state, it is generally agreed that the consolidation of power in his hands, even if not temporary, is unlikely to result in a revivication of the cult of personality which made Mao the dominant figure of China.