GREGORY B

conservative elements, elements that, in fact, saw the film as aprime object for critique. In other words, it could be used as anexcuse to launch a campaign which indirectly would target theliberal faction of the Party associated with Hu Yaobang. ThePLA newspaper article criticizing the unseen film was publishedseparately as a tract and widely diffused. Conservative elementspersuaded Deng Xiaoping that the film was not only unpatrioticbut that it also represented an anti-Deng tendency. The affairdragged for most of 1981 and was unfortunate for thosemembers of the leadership who wanted to push ahead withreforms and China’s international opening up. A compromisesolution was found: Bai Hua was encouraged to sign a selfcriticismthat had been prepared for him by Liu Baiyu, the manwho had fomented the controversy from the beginning, and thiswas then published in the national press. 5LEADERSHIP RESHUFFLEThe leadership reshuffle brought legitimacy to what wasalready a de facto consolidation of power by the reform faction.Hu Yaobang was elected Chairman of the Central Committeeand thus became China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping becameChairman of the Military Commission 中 央 軍 委 ( 中 央 軍 事 委 員 會 ),thus assuring his effective pre-eminence, while Zhao Ziyang 赵紫 阳 , already Premier of the State Council 国 务 院[gouvernement central – Conseils des Affaires de l’Etat] was5For Bai Hua’s own full account of the ‘Bitter Love’ controversy see his interview with Cheng Yingxiang in ChengYingxiang, Dégel de l’intelligence en Chine 1978-1989, Paris, Gallimard, 2004.劉 白 羽 , 現 代 著 名 作 家 ,1916 年 9 月 28 日 生 , 北 京 通 州 人 。1938 年 12 月 加 入 中 國 共 產 黨 。7