Inside Report (1)

The reform-minded Chinese leadership appears to have won a victory of sorts in a backstage argument with more conservative Army leaders over the arts. Control of the campaign against literary works that don't toe the party line has been taken over by the party leadership -- Chairman Hu Yaobang and Vice-Chairman Deng Xiaoping. A new blast against a controversial film, "Bitter Love," is being prepared by the literary magazine Wenyibao -- not, as previously , by the Liberation Army daily. The critique is said to have gone through three drafts already, each new version less harsh than the previous one.

Intellectual circles await the final version with bated breath to see how much free expression is left them.m