HE ZHENLIANG and CHINA's OLYMPIC DREAM That the "Gang of Four" Had Caused Chinese Sports in These Years
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HE ZHENLIANG AND CHINA'S OLYMPIC DREAM that the "gang of four" had caused Chinese sports in these years. In 1977, the campaign to eliminate the pernicious influence of the "gang of four" was expanded all over the country. As for external sports activities, this was a rather quiet year. On the one hand, as a governmental institution suffering gravely during the "cultural revolution," the Sports Commission's main focus was on carrying out the efforts to eliminate the "extreme Leftist thought" ofthe "gang of four." As for the outside world, in the year following the Winter and Summer Olympic Games, international activities were gener ally fewer than usual. The most important event that year was the visit of Lord Killanin and his party in September, 1977. Lord Killanin's party included the Japanese member, Misaji Kiyokawa, and the IOC Technical Director Harry Banks. At the time, Wang Meng had already returned to take up the post as minister in charge of the State Sports Commission again, and Lu Jindong was in charge of foreign affairs. Lu met with Lord Killanin, and Zhenliang was temporarily left the ad hoc office to receive Lord Killanin and party. The guideline toward Killanin's visit was: "treat him with due respect, communicate with him as much as possible, be neither haughty nor obsequious, convince him with reason, strive for his un derstanding of our position on the 'one China' principle and our sports achievements. As for solving the problem of China's representation, if he brings it up, we can exchange opinions, but not in hurry to seek quick success." During the visit, Lord Killanin expressed his wish to see the return of the People's Republic of China back to the Olympic movement. When we ob served that the situation must be changed in which Taiwan's so-called Olym pic Committee had usurped China's place, he repeatedly expressed, "Since the problem has taken shape over the course of many years, it can be solved only by evolution and not revolution. It requires a great deal of work over several years' time." He also tentatively proposed a plan to solve it. He proposed hav ing the Taiwan sports organization change its name, feeling that under the 142.