News In Brief

China enters second phase of campaign to purge party Peking

China's Communist Party has announced the second phase of its campaign to weed out lingering ultra-leftist sympathizers and says all its 40 million members will face a re-selection procedure. The objective is to ensure the party is fully behind the policies of top leader Deng Xiaoping, who has abandoned many of the central themes of Maoism, including egalitarianism and rural communes.

Those involved in the first stage, which began 13 months ago, included central and local party organizations and the armed forces. The second stage will widen the scope to take in grassroots members.