Chen Yi stands guard on the Bund
(JENNY LAING-PEACH)
11/01/2002
He stands beside the Huangpu River, Mother River of Shanghai, gazing upstream, implacable, immovable in his dignity, even serene in his mystery.He is a Shanghai icon, part of the Bund, indelibly etched into the image of Shanghai in the 21st century. Shanghai is his city still and he is one of her finest sons. He is Chen Yi - Comrade, Party leader with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, veteran of the Long March, Marshal of the People's Liberation Army, commander of the Third Field Force, liberator of Shanghai, Mayor of Shanghai, Foreign Minister of China and son of Shanghai. Tourists on their obligatory trail down Nanjing Lu to the Bund are disgorged from the Waitan underpass to emerge at the foot of the statue. Unable to read the Chinese inscription on the base, they make the hurried assumption that it must be Mao Zedong towering above them. Chen Yi was not the Great Helmsman but he was there at the helm of the new China, steering its course into the 21st century. He was in Paris in 1920 with Zhou Enlai and the young Deng Xiaoping who ran the Party's mimeograph machine. There were a few hundred Chinese students in France at the time on work and study programmes and all were passionate about the salvation of China. It was back in China and on the Long March - that legendary trek by 100,000 troops and civilians covering 6,000 miles in a year - that Mao was confirmed as leader of the CCP with Chen in the inner circle. He was part of a group of long-time comrades and after the liberation of China in 1949, having been commanders in the field, they knew how to preserve unity. The new China rejected a possible middle path between the two emerging Cold War camps and chose to side with the Soviet Union as a major ally. This policy, known as "leaning to one side", was followed by Chen as Foreign Minister as well as other foreign affairs programmes. As Foreign Minister, Chen presided over a series of tumultuous events. In 1966 came the tragedy and devastation of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) when Mao attacked senior bureaucrats and intellectuals. Chen was in control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and initially was able to maintain calm. Though Chen had to declare his support for the "cultural revolution" he nevertheless opposed moves to destabilize party leadership or to create chaos in society and he enraged radicals when he tried to protect the normal functions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the excesses of the Red Guards. He became a target of extremists and by August 1967 a campaign was underway to hound Chen from office. He was stripped of his authority (while remaining Foreign Minister) and was forced on a number of occasions to make self-criticism before thousands of jeering students. "What is the most apposite saying of Chairman Mao?" they screamed at him. "That Chen Yi is a good and loyal comrade," was his reply. In the silence that followed, thousands of pages rustled as the students searched for the quotation. Only after some time did they realize that Chen Yi, the tough old soldier, had made it up. In October 1968, Mao openly charged Chen as the representative of the "right" and the accusation sealed Chen's fate and ended his political life. He died in 1972 and rehabilitation began in the late 1970s. With Zhou Enlai, he is regarded as a role model for the diplomatic face of China abroad. As the 21st century begins and the great dragon of China turns to engage the world, it is fitting that in Shanghai, Chen Yi stands at the bejewelled dragon's head.
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