Precisely at 3 p.m., the huge throng, estimated at 1 million, stood with heads bowed in Peking's T'ien An Men Square. After three minutes of silence, Premier Hua Kuo-feng delivered a eulogy to the dead leader, emphasizing his theoretical contributions to Marxism. When Hua had finished speaking, the master of ceremonies, Politburo Vice Chairman Wang Hung-wen, announced the playing of The East Is Red, then curtly declared that the final mourning services for Chairman Mao Tse-tung were over.
Throughout China, the Great Helmsman was mourned much as he would probably have wished. While hundreds of thousands of Chinesebureaucrats and party...
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