Cable No. 3777, Ambassador Nakae to the Foreign Minister, 'The Prime Minister’s Visit to China (General Secretary Hu’s Statements at the Reception)'

Number: [blacked out]

Primary: Asia China

Sent: China, November 09, 1986, [time blacked out]

Received: MOFA, November 09, 1986, [time blacked out]

To: The Foreign Minister      

From: Ambassador Nakae

Prime Minister’s Visit to China (General Secretary Hu’s Statements at the Reception)

No. 3777 Secret Top Urgent [blacked out]

Re: Outgoing Telegram 3757

Having attended the reception hosted by General Secretary Hu on the night of the 8th,  here follows a summary of the interesting points in what Secretary General Hu said to the Prime Minister (Toyama (interpreter) and I were also seated at Table No. 1).

1. Political Structural Reform

(1) The Party Central Committee is now drafting, with a deadline of July next year, a resolution in regard to this issue. Hu Qili (seated at our table) is also participating in this drafting work. Regarding the substance of the resolution, Comrade Deng Xiaoping recently introduced to foreign friends the three basic requirements that are likely to be its main points. The summary is as follows:

(a) The first point is strengthening the vitality of the leadership. That is to say, the vitality of the present leadership is insufficient. I believe that this has something to do with the average age of the present leadership. I think that it will be necessary from now to further increase the tempo of the succession of new cadres to posts held by old ones.

(b) The second point is advancing organization simplification. That is to say, it is necessary to overcome bureaucratism and to greatly heighten work efficiency. The evil of bureaucratism, which we are now facing, together with the cultural level of the cadres, has much to do with bloated organizations. For example, there are over 40 sections even for a department of the State Council. Also remarkable is the evil of a single official document requiring approvals in 40 to 50 places. In short, the situation has arisen in which things are not progressing well due to excess personnel and bloated organizations.

(c) The third point is, to an appropriate extent, working to separate the Party from the government and the political from the corporate. That is to say, there has taken shape over the past several decades the situation in which the Party has taken on too much work. It will be necessary henceforth to establish and develop the functions of each organization, including the government, the Party, the National People’s Congress, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In particular, we have not fully developed so far the functions of the National People’s Congress, which was a big problem in the past. That is the case. (This was said in response to the Prime Minister saying: I think that the role of your country’s National People’s Congress is important but that the volume of information for the National People’s Congress to date has been rather small and, as a result, it has only been able to play an indirect role.) The evil of the National People’s Congress in the past having too many persons with concurrent posts was pointed out. We are now considering a reform proposal that, henceforth, we make them full-time positions.

(2) (In response to the above explanation, the Prime Minister asked whether such issues as ideology and constitutional reform would or would not be included in the aforementioned resolution. Secretary General Hu replied:) Regarding the issue of ideology, there has already been reference to it in the “resolution on spiritual civilization.” Regarding constitutional reform, whether the aforementioned is necessary or not has still now not been sufficiently considered. However, in the future, for example, when the reunification of Taiwan has been realized, if the people of Taiwan have opinions on the present constitution, I imagine that it may be necessary to carry out revision, including the aforementioned.

(3) Speaking of the above (1) (a), the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is scheduled to take place next year. I spoke at the earlier meeting of how, at that time, there could be a rejuvenation of personnel beyond what you expect, Prime Minister. Concretely, I would like to select at least four young cadres for the Party's central leadership. (Pointing to Hu Qili and Wang Zhaoguo, who were also attending the reception). Those two are among the at least 7 or 8 young cadres. Of course, it goes without saying, in regard to this personnel issue, that a process of discussion and the agreement of everyone will be necessary.

2. Building Spiritual Civilization

(The Prime Minister said that he had heard that there has been in China recently an emphasis on the building of spiritual civilization and asked General Secretary Hu on the details of it.)  Regarding the details of that, they were introduced in a 10,000-character “Resolution on Building Spiritual Civilization,” which was recently announced. It is mainly the four points below:

(1) The first point is what ideal should be demanded of China in the next 10 years. That is to say, it is making clear, in regard to the building of a modern socialism with Chinese characteristics, the unanimous goals of the nation’s people and of all ethnic groups in China.

(2) The second point is the establishing of professional morality. That is to say, it is the establishing of the etiquette and such that should exist according to each profession. For example, the inferiority of the service sector in China in comparison to foreign countries is a point that has been pointed out by friends in every country, including Japan. In order to catch up to the level of the foreign countries, we would like to spend about 10 years and work for the improvement of the service sector.

(3) The third point is working to democratize the legal system. That is to say, in the future it will be even more necessary to handle things in depending on the constitution and the law. In particular, when it comes to people, there has been such big problems until now as the majority of criminals having not been those from the democratic parties and groups, but members of the Communist Party.

(4) The fourth point is competently carrying out education in all the fields. That is to say, it is necessary to put effort into improving knowledge of culture and technical skills.

Relayed to Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. (End)