Chinese journal steps up attack on Hua policies

The May issue of the official Chinese magazine Encyclopedic Knowledge has launched the strongest attack yet on the economic policies of party Chairman Hua Guofeng, who has been under fire for some time. It compared his policies to those of the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution and unsuccessful economic experiments of the late 1950s.

The article did not mention Chairman Hua or Mao by name. But the inference was clear as it referred to the period 1977-78 as one of "three great setbacks," the others being the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and the "Great Leap Forward," launched in 1958.