Everybody asks me about my relations with Chairman and what I think of him as a leader. I feel my relation with him at one level is very formal as between a commander and a soldier. But as a communist, we share an intimacy of comradeship. We have cherished in good times and wept together in times of agony.

But I must confess at some point, may be intentionally or stubbornly, I challenged my commander. I have lost, I accept my mistake, and defeat. I also want to confess that we, the leaders could not live up to our promise, not to let circumstances create rift among us. There is a fundamental rift and people have exploited our internal differences to weaken us. I never wanted to be at the summit, rather become a foundation that strengthens the party and the movement. I believe I have not been able to provide that strong foundation for which history will question: am I a Lin Piao who betrayed the movement?

Comrade Chairman and I were born into different cultural milieus. So although we share a healthy comradeship, tensions emanate out of our cultural backgrounds. As a Marxist I agree to a transitional leadership but my culture puts me at odds with it: driving anarchist tendencies. But today, in this historic meeting, I express my conviction to learn from my weakness and rise above those tendencies to play a supportive role in the party leadership.