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Home , Anna Louise Strong, Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Party, Democracy in China, Kuomintang, North China

The -Communist Crisis in

A First-hand Account of One of the Most Critical Periods in Far Eastern History

By

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The Kuomintang-Commrinist Crisis in China

By Anna Louise Strong

T is no service to China either to mini­ An official "spokesman" for this committee mize or exaggerate the present tension immediately issued an interview in response I between the and the to the January 17th announcement of the Kuomintang. The threat of widespread civil Chungking Council disbanding the war is serious but the situation is not yet New Fourth. He charged that the attack on fatal. It has reached the stage in which the the New Fourth was only one step in the actions of "friendly nations" may either ruin plot of the "pro-Japanese elements who oc­ or save the situation-in which, for example, cupy high positions in the government and the actions of those in charge of American the Kuomintang" to bring about a peace foreign loans may prove decisive. But they pact with and to have China join the must first know-what Chungking censorship Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis. Nowhere in his conceals-that there is a situation to be statement does the spokesman denounce saved. Chiang Kai-shek himself. He attacks by The January armed clash in South An­ name Ho Ying-chin, Chungking's Minister hwei in which some 2,000 of the Communist­ of War, who has been for some time charged led New Fourth Army were killed and be­ with being the present center of the pro­ tween 3,000 and 4,000 wounded, after which Japanese forces which formerly grouped the army itself was officially disbanded and around the now puppet-ruler of Nanking, its general, Yeh Ting, held for court-martial, Wang Ching-wei. was only the latest of many armed clashes On the basis of these extremely serious between Communist and Kuomintang troops charges, the Communist Military Committee which have gone on for more than a year. issued what practically amounts to an ulti­ Nor is even this particular incident settled, matum in twelve points. The demands are of as Chungking officially claimed. On the con­ such a drastic nature that they must be con­ trary, it has led to far more threatening de­ sidered as an attempt to break through to velopments. The Communists have not ac­ the 's attention by dynamite. cepted the disbanding of the New Fourth, They include the "cessation of attacks on but have organized their own "­ Communist armies,'' the revoking of the or­ ary Military . Committee" which appointed der disbanding the New Fourth, the freeing new commanders for the 90,000 men which of its general, Yeh Ting, an open apology still function under the name of the New by the government for the "South Anhwei Fourth north of the . outrage" and compensation paid to its vic- 3 CRISIS IN CHINA tims, the abolition of a blockade line now talk peace. It was then that Japan finally, and maintained in the northwest again t the without much enthusiasm, recognized the Yenan , the "punishment" of Ho Nanking regime of Wang Ching-wei. Ying-chin and several subordinates, and the No pro-Japanese or pro-peace groups arrest and court-martial of the "pro-Japa­ would dare express themselves openly in nese elements" in Chungking. Both the Chungking. Behind the scenes, however, there charges and demands were made immediate­ are capitulators who express themselves either ly following Chungking's January 17th pro­ by defeatism or by stirring up internal fric­ nouncement, but the of them was sup­ tion, or by actual plotting with the enemy. pressed by Chungking censorship, and As a· high Chungking official, who was not a reached America a month late. Communist, said to me: "Wang Ching-wei is gone but his secret supporters remain and International Setting are at the root of the trouble." The power of The present situation must be seen against these capi ~ ulators would be greatly increased the background of Japanese plus German if any of the following developments occur­ intrigue working upon all the backward and : ( 1 ) if Japan made a big concession, elements in China, and exploiting such as withdrawal from the Yangtze valley; the never completely settled cleavage of the ( 2) if Britain and America ceased to sup­ earlier . The international setting port China's struggle for freedom and de­ of the present period begins with the Tripar­ mocratic ; ( 3) if hoarding, specula­ tite Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan, tion and profiteering continue to demoralize and with the arrival of many new German internal economic conditions in Free China; advisers in Tokyo. These events served to or ( 4) if there were an increase in civil strife. stimulate Japan's desire to settle the "China In a military sense, the Sino-Japanese war incident" as rapidly as possible in order to has been for some time at the stage of stale­ move south against the French, British and mate, in which Japan's chief weapons have Dutch possessions, which is powerless to become economic and political in­ do with a united and hostile China in her trigue. In using political intrigue Japan rear. merely continues to wield a weapon which Early last autumn, Japan began to spread she used successfully in China for the entire peace rumors in China. More or less definite generation preceding the present war. Co­ peace proposals reached Chungking through operation with Japan only recently seemed to Chinese bankers in Hongkong and even northern provincial and even to through semi-official spokesmen over the many Nanking politicians a respectable path Tokyo radio. It was intimated that China to riches and power. need only: ( 1) recognize Manchoukuo, The first serious check to Japan's policy of (2) recognize Japan's special interests in "divide and conquer" came when the ten , (3) leave China's ports in years of civil strife between Chiang Kai-shek Japanese hands, and ( 4) cooperate with the and the Communists was called off in favor of "New Order in East ," which meant al­ resistance against the common national foe. most anything up to a complete economic, This was a program around which all China political and military alliance with Japan. rallied; even backward, provincial In return for this, Japan would withdraw her were compelled to submit to the Chinese troops from Central and ­ people's will for unity against Japan. Gen­ which Japan most devoutly longs to do. eral Han Fu-chu, of Shantung, was Chiang Kai-shek, however, strengthened by executed for the kind of dealing with the the British and American loans, refused to enemy which was political wisdom a year 4 CRISIS IN CHINA earlier. But it would be utopian to assume at Yenan was never 1 ally recognized. It that all the former traffickers with Japan was never clearly deterinined whether the were at once converted. There is still a Communist Party was legal or illegal. It strong tendency among China's reactionary depended on the will of the local generals, militarists to regard Japan as the natural most of whom suppressed Communists. The military organizer of . Moreover, ~upposed amnesty of 1937 was only partly Japan's fifth column work has been greatly carried out; two Americans traveling in 1940 strengthened by her pact with Germany, for in South Kiangsi found 60 forgotten Com­ Germany, having given considerable help to munist prisoners in a single prison, held since the Chungking government in the early 1934. (They are still there.) In Hankow it­ stages of the war, still has many friends in self there were assassinations of Communists high places in China. and raids on their newspaper by alleged to have ties with the secret police of The Hankow Period the Kuomintang. When these matters The high point of Chinese national unity reached the attention of the Generalissimo, was reached during the "Hankow period," however, he usually demanded that the ag­ from the fall of Nanking in 1937 to the fall gressors live up to the new unity that had of Hankow in late 1938. Nanking's fall had been proclaimed. broken the exclusive hold of the No governmental machinery had been capitalists over the government. Chiang Kai­ established through which unity Inight be ex­ shek had announced that the vast pressed and questions settled. The "National populations of the interior were China's new Congress" consisted of Kuomintang mem­ base. Hankow was an ideal capital, more bers elected four years previously during easily accessible to all parts of the interior the period of civil war; and some of its than either Peiping, Nanking or Chungking. members were and still are in Japanese pup­ Hankow had peasant traditions pet governments. A constitution making the of nearly a century, dating back to the days Kuomintang the only legal party had been of the Taipings. It had a larger industrial drawn up, but due to the Japanese invasion working class than any Chinese city except the Congress had not met to adopt it. Begin­ Shanghai. From the Inilitary standpoint, the ning in Hankow, the democratic forces de­ heroic but bloody defense of Shanghai had manded a new National Congress based on shown China's weakness in traditional me­ popular elections, but the government Ininis­ thods of war, but the sudden emergence of ters who had been appointed by the previ­ the Communist-led guerrillas in North China ous Congress and who would be inevitably was giving new hope to . All of unseated by any new Congress, claimed that these factors helped to create a new sense of elections could not be held during the war. national unity around Hankow as a center, a The deadlock in which the old Congress unity in which the Communists played an could not be summoned and a new one could important part. not be elected was partly broken by a new The unity attained in the Hankow period, body, "The People's Political Council," however, was never reduced to organized formed during the Hankow period in form. Despite much talk of and response to popular demand. It has 220 much energetic popular initiative, the Kuo­ members representing practically all the dif­ mi.ntang Party never recognized as legal any ferent political groups in China, but its popular organizations except those which powers are advisory only and its membership they themselves initiated and controlled. The is handpicked by the Kuoinintang which Cmnmunist Border District with its capital decides even who shall represent the Com- 5 CRISIS IN CHIN A munist Party. The members of the People's General Ho Ying-chin Political Council whom I met in Chung­ Ministers who had seemed slated for im­ king seemed to be able and devoted intel­ mediate dismi~sal during the Hankow period lectuals greatly disturbed by the growing dis­ not only remained but increased their power. unity in China, but powerless to prevent it. The most notorious case was that of Gen­ They complained that they had formed a eral Ho Ying-chin, Minister of War, by committee almost a year ago to investigate whom all commands to the armies are issued. the Kuomintang-Communist friction but the For the past decade he has been famous for Chungking government paid no attention. to two things: his wars with the Communists their report. and his agreements with Japan. The 1935 Chiang Kai-shek's power obviously does Ho-Umetsu agreement, for instance, gave not rest upon such ineffective forms of gov­ Japan such dominance of North China that ernment. It rests upon his armies and his it became the cause of student demonstra­ moral prestige as the symbol of China's tions against "Japan and Ho Ying-chin." unity. He has no constitutional power to re­ Its ter~could never be published in China organize the government. He is neither the proper lest they cause the fall of the Nan­ president of a democracy nor a fascist dicta­ king government. General Ho was known to ; his status is more like that of the ear!y be opposed to the present war with Japan. kings who emerged from through Today he signs all the orders that carry it the allegiance of many rival lords. If he on. All orders to Communist armies and all greatly desired, he might get rid of any in­ complaints from Communist armies to the dividual minister in the government or any Generalissimo pass through his hands. individual general in the army, but only by When I expressed in Chungking my political combinations and pressures which amazement that a man with this past should might sap his power in another direction. be kept by the Generalissimo in such an im­ He has no conception of what is meant by portant post, I was told: "Oh, but the Gen­ "rule of the people"; he once said, "If the eralissimo could hardly do without him and people rule, then how can I rule?" More­ it is not even certain that he could depose over, to make changes in a democratic direc­ him. General Ho has much closer relations tion became harder rather than easier with with all the lower generals than has the Gen­ the lapse of time. For by the time the gov­ eralissimo himself." One need not elaborate ernment moved to Chungking, it was so on the chances for intrigue which this widely accepted as the "Central Government creates. Ho Ying-chin has used the new of China" in a sense which no government Chinese unity, which he did his best to pre­ had ever been before, that even those bank­ vent, as the slogan under which he transfer­ ers of the coast who were ready to make red troops and officers, breaking all rivals terms with Japan felt the authority of and building his own military machine. He Chungking and returned to it. They resumed has thus placed himself in a position to be their wonted sway which the fall of Nanking Japan's most valuable ally in the military had temporarily broken. Even the talk of domination of East Asia. democracy, which had been so vivid during New Fourth and Eighth Route Armies the days in Hankow, died. When I visited Chungking in December, 1940, no public Far away from Chungking in the north meetings were allowed without a representa­ and east of China, separated from "Free tive of the police, empowered to interrupt the China" by Japanese concentrations and speech at any moment. Chinese armed forces alike, the Communist- 6 CRISIS IN CHINA led armies rapidly increased. They were as­ food. Since Chungking refused support for signed only territory which the Japanese had such numbers, they tried to form local gov­ already conquered, the Eighth Route in ernments whose taxing-power could regular­ North China and the New Fourth on the ize the food levies on the countryside. In this Lower Yangtze. They were allotted pay for they were opposed by local magistrates ap­ 45,000 soldiers in the Eighth Route and a pointed by distant Chungking, who had no much smaller number in the New Fourth. interest in giving them food. "When we got They were, however, allowed to organize customs revenue from Chefoo," said a young peasant guerrillas and on this basis they woman with the Eighth , "the grew rapidly, until by the end of 1940 they Shantung governor expected us to give it to claimed from 500,000 to 600,000 armed but him. He lost Chefoo to the Japanese and we unpaid men. They campaigned all over Japa­ got it; we needed the food for ourselves." nese-occupied China, from to the This was the origin of one local clash .... All Yangtze, from the Mongolian deserts to the such clashes took place far behind Japanese sea. They penetrated Manchuria to within a lines, and news of them reached Chungking hundred miles of Mukden, and established through channels provided by Ho Ying-chin. contact with 100,000 poorly organized Man­ Under such conditions local clashes grew churian Volunteers. They reached the Shan­ more frequent and widespread, with increas­ tung coast and held the port of Chefoo long ing participation by the authorities in enough to collect customs revenue and run Chungking. The first serious armed clash oc­ in several shiploads of war supplies from curred late in 1939 in North Shensi. The Shanghai and Tientsin. They disrupted Special Border District, with its capital at Japanese rail communications on all sides of Yenan, had declared allegiance to the Peiping and put up proclamations inside the Chungking Government, but the Central city walls. Extending southward the Eighth Government had given no legal status nor Route eventually made contact with the fixed boundaries to the district. General New Fourth Army, which in its turn was ex­ Tsung-nan, Governor of Shensi, decided panding along the entire Yangtze Valley that the district was his and sent armies from the area north of Shanghai to districts to occupy it; generals in Kansu collabo­ almost as far inland as Hankow. rated. After Yenan had lost four of the This "unruly expansion" was the chief twenty-three hsien which it claimed, part of thing held against the Communist armies by Ho Lung's men-Eighth Route forces opera­ Chungking officials with whom I talked in ting JUSt across the Yell ow River-came back December 1940. Both Fo and Pai to Yenan as home defense. Yenan lost no Chung-hsi told me that if the Communists more hsien but three concentric lines of would remain in the areas assigned them, block-houses began to be built in narrowing organize only the authorized number of circles against the Border District-the tactics troops and obey the local magistrates ap­ which squeezed the Communists out of South pointed by Chungking, there would be no China in the earlier civil war. By the end of trouble. But the Communists were faced with 1940 two thousand such block houses had ever-increasing bands of hungry, armed been built. who demanded to be taken into The next important clash occurred in the their armies, and who otherwise would de­ adjacent of Shansi between the Old generate into local bandits or Japanese pup­ and New Armies of Yen Hsi-shan. Yen's pet troops. Their attempts to give these original army broke very badly in 1937 under peasants leadership and organization against the first Japanese onslaught which they had Japan were handicapped by lack of funds and never been equipped to withstand. Yen re- 7 CRISIS IN CHINA organized them, adding local peasant boys. casionally could this unofficial blockade be Much of this enrollment was taking place penetrated by men with high prestige. during my visit to Shansi in 1938. Thous­ Clashes between Communist-led armies ands of Shansi boys were applying to join and other Central Government forces became the Eighth Route because of its superior epidemic in the summer of 1940. They took prestige, but they were being told: "We place in Hopei, Shantung, North Kiangsu, have no money for soldiers; join Yen Hsi­ East Anhwei, South Anhwei and at the shan." Yen's was therefore strong­ northern edge of Chekiang. Details are im­ ly pro-Eighth Route and followed its tactics possible to verify, since each side charges in organizing the local peasants. Conflicting the other with attacking, and though the accounts exist of the clash that finally de­ Communists asked for an investigation com­ veloped between the two different armies of mission, none was sent. Meanwhile the high General Yen. Chungking claims that it was staffs in the Kuomintang-led armies made inspired by the Eighth Route; Communists speeches to their subordinates urging that state that, on the contrary, it broke out in they must be prepared to fight the Commu­ spite of them, and that, after it occurred, nists. Pamphlets were published denouncing they "mediated" and induced the New the Communists as the most dangerous ele­ Army to withdraw to Northwest Shansi. In ment in the nation; in Hongkong I was told any event, the New Army now operates in that 200,000 such pamphlets had been sent close conjunction with the Eighth Route in out to . Deadly phrases that territory, where to some extent it re­ were whispered: "Japanese are only lice on places the forces that returned to Yenan. the body of China but is a Throughout 1940 an armed blockade se­ disease of the heart." The repression spread parated all Eighth Route and New Fourth beyond the Communists to all territory from "Free China." An estimated organizations; the famous "Life" bookshops one-fifth of Chungking's total forces were of the National Salvation Movement were diverted to "watching" the Communists. closed in ten cities. Many organizers of the Students trying to go to Yenan for education Industrial Cooperatives were arrested, were detained in Sian; if they persisted in kidnaped and even assassinated as ",'' their dangerous desire they were thrown a term which might merely cover the into concentration camps. For fourteen jealousy of a local official who failed to get months the Eighth Route claimed to have his squeeze from the cooperatives. received no munitions or medical supplies Ho Ying-chin Cooperates with the Japanese from the Central Government; if any were sent, they failed to get through. Truckloads There seems reason to think, in at least of medical supplies sent by Madame Sun three cases, that local generals, acting under Yat-sen's organization, the China Defense Ho Ying-chin's orders to check the Commu­ League, were indefinitely detained. Even a nists, were simultaneously cooperating with foreign doctor who tried to reach Wutaishan the Japanese. General Shih Yu-shan, who to replace Dr. was unable clashed with the Eighth Route in South to pass and finally accepted medical service Hopei, was a man of a picturesquely ad­ among Central Government troops. One oc­ venturous past. He began his career as a casion at least is recorded when armed men commander under Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang taking the payroll for the New Fourth Army and was left at loose ends when Feng was were seized by other Chinese troops of the defeated by Chiang Kai-shek. When the Central Government; neither the payroll nor present war with Japan began, Shih des­ the soldiers were ever released. Only oc- paired of getting funds from Chiang Kai- 8 CRISIS IN CHINA

shek so he went over openly to Japan. After of the 57th Army in South Shantung. Chu receiving money and munitions for his needy Teh sent a telegram to the Generalissimo in troops, he declared loyalty to Chungking and July, giving an exhaustive list of Miao's al­ gained much face for thus outwitting the leged dealings with the Japanese, as revealed Japanese. He expected to be made Governor to Chu Teh by Miao's subordinates. These of Hopei and was disgruntled when denied included the exchange of signals, exchange the post. He was, however, assigned the ter­ of emissaries, joint banquets-in fact, a fully ritory of South Hopei and is alleged to have worked out system of combined attack had orders from Ho Ying-chin to check the against the Eighth Route. No answer came Eighth Route's expansion by cutting the from Chiang Kai-shek but Ho Ying-chin connections between their Shansi and Cen­ telegraphed back: "Don't slander your fel­ tral Hopei forces. low-generals." Telegrams from division com­ Charges that General Shih was conspiring manders under General Miao next went to with the Japanese were sent to Chiang Kai­ Chungking revealing more conferences with shek on July 2 in an official telegram by Chu the Japanese and appealing over the head Teh, commander-in-chief of the Eighth of their commander to the Generalissimo. On Route. He stated that on June 22, General October 9th, the entire staff of the 57th Army Shih sent instructions to all his subordinates signed a joint telegram to Chiang Kai-shek giving a code of signals, consisting of white declaring their general a traitor and de­ sheets placed on the ground, by which Japa­ manding his execution. None of these tele­ nese planes could distinguish his troops from grams was answered, but word was spread in those of the Eighth Route. This informa­ Chungking that "the Eighth Route is stir­ tion, plus other details of Shih's collaboration ring up trouble in other Chinese armies." with the Japanese, had been given to Chu Finally Miao's staff arrested him and sent Teh by Shih's subordinates who did not wish him under guard to the commander-in-chief to side with Japan. No answer was received of the war zone who forwarded him to from Chungking to this accusation, but later Chungking, where he is now busily circula­ in July Shih's forces, in coordination with ting his version of the affair. Meanwhile his Japanese puppet troops and with the aid of troops, like those of General Shih's, have Japanese planes, attacked the Eighth Route augmented the forces of the Eighth Route­ near and Poshan. Shih was shot by an indication of what may happen if civil one of his own brigade commanders and most war begins. of his troops came over to the Eighth Route. Then there was the case of Admiral Shen For several months no details of this conflict Hung-lieh, Governor of Shantung. On I reached Chungking, and details arc still con­ August 5 Chu Teh wired the Generalissimo flicting. But by the end of November it he­ the details of how Shen's troops in coordina­ came known that General Shih was dead. tion with the Japanese had attacked the t Then General Wei -, commander of 115th Division of Piao. On September 14 the war zone in which the incident occurred, Chu Teh again wired the Generalissimo announced that he had executed Shih for other details. On September 24 the Kuomin­ treason,-thus removing the onus of mutiny tang Provincial Committee of Shantung from his subordinates. The Central News wired the Kuomintang Executive in Chung­ Agency in Chungking, however, announced king reporting Shen's liaison with the Japa­ that Shih had been executed "for expanding nese. All these accusations and were his territory in defiance of orders." disregarded. Similar charges of treason were made "We interpret these incidents," said a re­ il against General Miao -liu, commander presentative of the Eighth Route to me, "as 9

I CRISIS IN CHINA meaning that General Ho Ying-chin is ready wrecked trains, waylaid Japanese army to cooperate even with Japanese against the trucks, stopped trade with the Japanese-held Communists." cities. In the autumn of 1938 they raided the To my query whether Chiang Kai-shek Japanese-occupied airdrome within sight of had the same attitude as Ho Ying-chin, he Shanghai and hoisted the Chinese flag above replied: "We do not even know whether the its buildings. In the first year, the detach­ Generalissimo gets all of our telegrams. We ments south of the river fought more than believe that Chiang does not at present want 600 engagements, most of them small affairs to make an agreement with Japan. He wishes but all of them wearing down the Japanese. to suppress the Communists more and more "We have been able to detain 50,000 Japa­ but not quite to the point of civil war and nese in this area," claimed General Yeh Ting. not quite to the point of interfering with "No matter how often they change their the war against Japan. It is a very narrow troops, they never dare lessen the number road. Until now he has been able to take it. which they maintain here." The people in But he cannot take it long." Chekiang called the army "the soldiers of God" and "world army No. 1." They had a Military History of the New Fourth Army saying, "as in lettuce you eat the heart, so The Generalissimo, however, has chosen if you join the army join the Fourth." Other to have a show-down and as a first step ac­ Central Government armies held positions cepted personal responsibility for disbanding flanking this territory, but only the New the New Fourth Army in the Yangtze Valley. Fourth operated all around and in between This army consisted officially of four "units," the enemy-held towns. functioning as independent groups in dif­ With the general worsening of relations ferent areas on both sides of the Lower between Communist and Kuoinintang forces, Yangtze, assigned to them originally by a whole series of armed clashes took place Chiang Kai-shek. After the fall of Hankow between the New Fourth and surrounding the New Fourth was augmented by 20,000 Chinese armies, beginning in February 1940. dispersed soldiers from Central Honan who Endless details of these clashes are available, formed a fifth unit, and by large numbers of but in the absence of checking, nobody knows peasants on the borders of Hupeh, Honan how accurate the details are. It seems at least and Anhwei who formed a sixth detachment. clear that the New Fourth payroll was seized Later a battalion known as the Shangnan on one occasion, and its normal river-cross­ Volunteers, organized south of the Yangtze, ing, by which communication with Chung­ grew so large that the commander of the king and with troops on both banks was war zone objected to it, and it crossed the maintained, was permanently blocked. The Yangtze to avoid trouble and took its sta­ New Fourth claims to have intercepted tion north of Shanghai and north of the secret instructions from Chungking to local river. commanders to suppress all New Fourth Thus the New Fourth operated on both forces by the end of the year. On the other sides of the Yangtze almost from Shanghai hand, the New Fourth was plainly increasing to Hankow, in small detachments separated its influence in the nearby armies, many of by some of the heaviest Japanese concentra­ whose troops came over to its ranks during tions in China. For three years its units were the armed clashes. in constant contact with the Japanese, at­ Despite these frictions between Chinese tacking the Nanking-Shanghai railway, the forces, the New Fourth continued to fight -Nanking railway, and the highways the J apanese. Major Evans F. Carlson, who between Nanking and Hangchow. They visited the area occupied by the New 10 CRISIS IN CHINA

Fourth in Southern Anhwei last October, re­ till , and there is excellent reason ports in the China Defense League news let­ for believing that it was originally issued by ter one of their victories near Kianghsien. "I Ho Ying-chin without Chiang's knowledge, arrived in this area," he said, "shortly after a and later confirmed in the interests of army particularly aggressive Japanese drive had discipline. The New Fourth regarded the been turned back by the New Fourth Army. order almost as an instruction to commit The Japanese came in two columns, one suicide. They pointed out that only one-tenth from near Wuhu.... They were allowed to of their army was on government pay-roll, make a deep penetration and then the mobile and the rest consisted of local peasants who units of the New Fourth fell upon their flanks could not easily leave their homes. No winter and rear, forcing them to withdraw with a uniforms had been furnished, no supplies for loss which was estimated, both by the New the long journey, and no munitions had been Fourth and Central Government officials, at received for eight months. Yet they were re­ an aggregate of 7,000 casualties." Major quired to cross several heavy Japanese con­ Carlson was also struck by the emphasis on centration and pass by many of the Central the "united front"; even the small children Government armies which were already talked to him earnestly about the "need for clashing with them in armed battle and all people to work together for National Sal­ which gave no pledge of permitting them to vation." He adds, "There were many signs of pass. They were promised munitions and the close cooperation between the army and pay after they should reach the River the people." but they had fairly good reason for assuming Relations between the New Fourth and that they were not expected to arrive. the commander of the War Zone, General The Communists' most serious objection Ku Chu-tung, were not so excellent. He main­ to the order, however, wa~ that they con­ tained a blockade against the New Fourth sidered it not a routine military command which it was perilous to try to pass. A brilliant but a political and rnilitarv splitting of China young intellectual, Wu Ta-kwan, took a party into two parts, in preparation for peace with of Chinese journalists to the New Fourth Japan in Central and South Chi.m. None of region. General Ku asked them not to visit those with whom I talked claimed that this the New Fourth, but they replied that since was the Generalissimo's intention. Chiang they were "comforting" all the armies in this Kai-shek himself in an interview with me in­ region, they would comfort the New Fourth dignantly denied any intention of making too. On their return they were summoned be­ peace with Japan or of leaving any part of fore General Ku, and their young leader China outside his rule. But it was clear that went alone. He was never seen afterwards. the concentration of all the Communists in Telegrams sent by Mme. Sun Yat-sen to North China-which had never been under ascertain his fate were met by General Ku's allegiance to Chiang anyway-would give bland statement that "he had never heard Japan a heaven-sent excuse for concentrating of the man." her attacks in that region. If she should then choose to make a demonstrative with­ The Order to Move and Disband drawal from the Yangtze Valley, the peace The New Fourth was ordered to leave the tendencies in Chungking would be immeasur­ Yangtze Valley and move north of the Yellow ably strengthened. River to be amalgamated with the Eighth "We do not refuse to obey the military Route. This was given as a "proposal" in order," said the Communists, "but we want July and as an "order" on October 19. The it made part of a wider political settlement Generalissimo himself did not sign the order which will allow democratic safeguards in 11 CRISIS IN CHINA

all of Free China. We can trust the Chinese united front. It seems that Commander Yeh people to preserve their unity against Japan. Ting finally received in late December part But if all Communists are put in North China of the money needed for moving his army and prohibited ebewhere, and no people's north as ordered. Taking this as evidence of movements are allowed, we cannot trust the good faith, he sent his forces over the river, Chungking bureaucrats. The result will be the last to leave being a rear-guard of 4,000 either civil war or the splitting of China into armed men protecting some 6,000 unarmed two parts, with neither of which alternatives persons, consisting of families of officers, poli­ can we agree." tical workers, and the hospital with nurses, Throughout December, during my visit in doctors and wounded. Chungking, the capital was buzzing with the This force of 10,000, more than half un­ "threat of civil strife." Scores of Chinese armed, was surrounded by 80,000 Chung­ leaders were urging "patience" and "unity." king troops in a narrow mountain pass near were gloating: "We have them Maolin, and were attacked by troops under surrounded and can crush them." Meanwhile General Shankuan Yun-hsian on January some twenty-seven divisions of Central Gov­ 6th. They ran out of food on the fourth day, ernment troops, uncontaminated by previous and fought without eating until their am­ contact with the "Reds" were moving east­ munition gave out on the eighth day. They ward to surround the New Fourth Army with telegraphed to Chungking begging that the the obvious intent of forcing it out of the attack on them be stopped, and were told Yangtze Valley or eliminating it from the that General Ku Chu-tung, the war zone scene. Minor clashes with local forces con­ commander, had already been told to stop it. tinued through most of December. During the sixth day of their fighting, ques­ tions were raised in the National Military The Ambushing of New Fourth Troops Commission in Chungking, to which Ho First news of the final clash was an­ Ying-chin replied that "everything is pro­ nounced from Chungking on January 17 by ceeding satisfactorily," that the New Fourth the Military Council which stated that Yeh is obediently moving northward, and that a Ting had been imprisoned and was awaiting "slight difficulty" had arisen which he had court-martial, following suppression of a directed General Ku to solve. On the seventh "revolt" by his troops. Yeh Ting was ac­ day of the fighting, Mme. Sun Yat-sen and cused of having plotted "to control the others telegraphed an appeal from ­ China coast from Chekiang and Kiangsu in kong. The fighting ended on the eighth day the south to Shantung in the north"-all when munitions gave out. Of the 10,000 regions, incidentally, held by Japan. General people, more than 2,000 were killed and 4,000 Ku Chu-tung, commander of the 3rd War wounded or captured; the dead included Area, was credited with having "successfully numerous political workers, technicians, suppressed the rebels." A few days later, nurses and children. The remnants of the reported from Hongkong that it New Fourth were arrested, and their gen­ had been the New Fourth Army's rear-guard eral, Yeh Ting, held for court-martial. The of some 10,000 men which had been sur­ second in command, Hsiang Ying, was rounded, and that they had fought for eight wounded and subsequently killed. (General days, losing 4,000 casualties before they were Yeh Ting was then taken to the headquar­ suppressed. ters of General Ku Chu-tung in Shangyao, Only a month later did full uncensored Kiangsi Province, which is noted as the loca­ details arrive from China, signed by Chinese tion of Ku's torture chamber where many of standing who had steadily supported the patriotic youths have met their death. Since 12 CRISIS IN CHINA there are no foreign correspondents in Shang­ Chungking. The next steps were the destruc­ yao, General · Yeh's transfer there suggests tion of the New Fourth forces south of the that his fate is to be settled without risk of Yangtze and the official disbanding of the unfavorable publicity.) entire New Fourth Army. These steps were On January 17, four days after the con­ taken in January. According to the Commu­ clusion of this battle, the Chungking Mili­ nist spokesman, the future development of tary Council-it is not known whether the this plot will involve the following: actions Generalissimo was included-issued the order by large Chungking armies "tightly coopera­ disbanding the New Fourth. Ten days after ting with the Japanese armies" in the regions this, on January 27, the Generalissimo him­ between the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers to self assumed responsibility for the official separate the New Fourth from the Eighth disbanding but stated that it would not af­ Route in order to liquidate them separately. fect other Chinese troops, i.. the Eighth Following this, pretexts would be sought for Route. Thereafter, Chungking censorship the official disbanding of the Eighth Route shut down and Chinese representatives in Army and the arrest of its commander, Chu this country spread the word that the Com­ Teh. Next would come arrests of Commu­ munists had accepted the disbanding and nists all over China, including Chou En-lai, there would be no more trouble. official representative of the Eighth Route Army in Chungking, who is already under Communist Revolutionary Military Committee surveillance. The Communist daily newspa­ Issues Official Order per would be closed and large-scale war Belated material from China, how­ would be launched to seize Yenan. ever, makes plain the tremendous tensions of Japan, it is alleged, would next withdraw the past month. On January 20, three days her troops from the Yangtze Valley, and after the official order of January 17, the throw them into a ruthless war against the "Revolutionary Military Committee" of the New Fourth and Eighth Route Armies in -which has not North China. Fifth column elements in been heard of since the earlier civil war­ Chungking would then celebrate the recovery issued an "Official Order" reorganizing the of the lost territories as due to the valor New Fourth under the command of Chen­ of Chungking troops, and would demand a Yi, formerly the commander of the New "glorious, victorious peace." If it proved im­ Fourth's First Unit. A few days later-in any possible to call off the war officially, because event before January 26, the date on which of the 's objections to the my information was mailed from China-the Japanese terms, an undeclared truce would "spokesman of the Revolutionary Military reign in all parts of China except the North Committee" issued his detailed charges, out­ where the plotters would obstruct the Com­ lining the fifteen steps of the alleged plot by munist armies by means ranging from block­ "pro-Japanese elements" in Chungking to ade to armed attack. All anti-Japanese take China into the Axis. Such accusations elements would, of course, be persecuted as have been made for the past year, but never alleged Communists-a tactic familiar from in so definite a form. Especially interesting the days when the government was at Nan­ is the fact that some of the steps in the al­ king. Thus Chinese public opinion would be leged plot took place while the letter con­ taught to believe that victory had been won taining the charges was on the ocean. everywhere except in those northern regions The first step was the barrage of propa­ where "the Communists either cannot or will ganda against the Communist armies which not drive out Japan." was going on during my December visit in This would make possible the signing of 13 CRISIS IN CHINA the actual peace pact which would leave nese elements," i.e. attacks which may be Japan or Japanese puppets in control of launched by Ho Ying-chin. If attempts are North China-insofar as they could clear made to disband these New Fourth forces, out the Communists-and of China's ports. the Communists' Military Committee official­ China would then join the Axis. (If this ly states that the Eighth Route will come to transition seems a bit abrupt to American its assistance. This will give the Commu­ readers, it must be remembered that the nists an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 season­ Germans have always been popular in China, ed fighters, a much smaller and worse-armed since they lost their rights of extra-territori­ force than Chungking possesses. But Chung­ ality, and that Germany gave significant help king contains elements that will not hold to the Chinese in the early stages of this together in a war against the Communists, war. Granted the illusion of a "glorious especially if the Communists can convince peace of victory," it might not be impossible the local population and soldiers that they to direct considerable nationalist feeling into are being wantonly attacked. . the channel of "clearing the rest of the im­ If this struggle really begins, it will not be perialists out of East Asia and the South the mere disarming of a few Communists. Seas.") It may well change the map of China and Regardless of whether these charges will East Asia, and the balance of the present prove correct in every detail, large-scale civil world war. Chungking exists today as the war looms behind the fact that they were Central only because made. Some 800,000 Chungking troops, one­ it is the symbol of unity toward which nine­ half the government forces, are now in posi­ tenths of the Chinese people passionately tions for attacking the Communists. About aspire. This gives it the prestige which con­ 80,000 are said to have been engaged in the trols recalcitrant provincial warlords who disarming of the New Fourth rear-guard might otherwise carve restless kingdoms of south of the Yangtze in the battle which their own or bargain profitably with Japan. raged January 6th to 13th. Another 200,000 Governors of at least two of the sea coast to 300,000 have moved into North Anhwei are reputed to favor Wang Ching­ and K.iangsu where they separate the Eighth wei, but are held to Chungking by the press­ Route from the New Fourth; and are already ure of the Chinese people. in the far reported to be engaged in attempts to defeat South shows repeated tendencies to go off them. In the northwestern provinces, an on its own. estimated half million encircle the Yenan If Chungking ceases to be the symbol of district and blockade the Eighth Route Army Chinese unity, warlords all over the country in Shansi. may pull loose. One pattern which might easily emerge The Future of the New Fourth Army would be the old split of China into "Three Meanwhile, the reorganized New Fourth Kingdoms" which has occurred more than Army, with 90,000 men north of the Yangtze once before. There would be Nanking, al­ under its new acting commander, , ready recognized by Japan and from which is still the pivot on which the future turns. Germany and Italy would no longer have a It has been ordered by the Communists' reason for refusing recognition; Chungking, Military Committee to continue the fight a mountain approached through the against Japan in the name of Chinese na­ back door of Burma, and recognized by tionalism, on the basis of Sun Yat-sen's Three America and Britain unless Ho Ying-chin People's Principles "while always guarding combined it with Nanking; and a north or against the sudden attack of the pro-Japa- northwest republic, either "united front" or 14 CRISIS IN CHINA

Communist, which would ask for and per­ out to Japan under the cover of a so-called haps eventually secure recognition from the "punitive campaign." U.S.S.R. It seems likely, however, both from These significant and powerful political the Communist representatives' sta.tements figures have been ruthlessly side-tracked by to me last December and from the details of Chungking reactionaries throughout this pre­ such events as now get past the Chungking sent war. Their appeal-and also the appeal censorship, that the Communists will for the from many other sections of China-in­ present try to avoid this three-cornered dicates the widespread ferment going on in geographical split and will rather seek to all behind the censor­ arouse popular movements and pressures ship veil. Armed clashes, reported but as yet throughout China in order to effect a new unverified, in four northern provinces, in­ governmental grouping in Chungking. dicate that the military suppressions pre­ Important political figures have already dicted by the Communists' Military Commit­ separated themselves from the actions of tee are still going on. In reading news one Chungking. Mme. Sun Yat-sen led a group should look for indications whether the Com­ of Kuomintang members in a joint message munist forces seem to be withdrawing to on Jan. 12th to the Generalissimo and the form a new northern area, or whether the of the Kuomintang, ap­ agitation still goes on across all of China, pealing for the resumption of the national looking towards a new and more democratic united front. On the same day, Marshal central government. If large scale civil war Feng Yu-hsiang, addressing a committee of is launched against Yenan, we may look to the National Military Commission in Chung­ see Communist forces break through the cor­ king, cited and France as glaring don of government troops which have con­ examples of nations destroyed by internal dis­ tinually blockaded them from any contact sension, and made a plea for national solid­ with the U.S.S.R., and which-barring the arity. The aged General Yen Hsi-shan spoke excuse of civil war-they would not dare even more strongly in an interview tele­ try to force. Then they might really secure graphed Jan. 11th to Hongkong: "There are the arms which, during the whole war thus undesirable elements in the Kuomintang who far, they have been denied. directly threaten our war of resistance and It will never be too late to save China. indirectly give the Japanese assistance. Not She will survive. Her people will organize only am I dissatisfied with them, but the en­ under some banner to cast forth Japan, even tire nation dislikes them. . . . They arouse though it may not be under Chungking. But the progressive elements to disobedience to it may soon be too late to prevent a powerful the Central Government." On about January Japanese attack on the Southeast Asian 18, General Sheng Shih-tsai, Governor of front, which would inevitably involve yet an­ Sinkiang Province, sent a telegram to Chung­ other area in the Second World War. Only king in which he stated that after the mili­ swift action to preserve Chungking as the tary record of the Eighth Route and New center of Chinese unity can do that. The Fourth armies against Japan, there is no quickest way to cut the Gordian knot might ground or excuse for any "punitive cam­ be an immediate conference among the paign" against these armies. He declared American, British and Soviet Embassies in that if civil war develops in China now, this Chungking, a pooling of information and can Ol}ly help the Japanese invaders in their charges from both sides of the strife, and plan of conquering China; and that the joint pressure to stop a . people and armies of Sinkiang stand solidly Acting together, these three countries might behind a policy of unity, resistance, and prevent a temporary crisis from becoming a struggle against all those preparing to sell national and international disaster. 15 Contributors amerasia EvANS FoRDYCE CARLSON, a form­ er Major in the U. S. Marine A REVIEW OF AMERICA AND THE FAR Corps stationed in China for sev­ eral years, has recently returned by Clipper from Chungking, after March, 1941 covering 4000 miles in southern VoL. V, No. 1. and . His two latest books are "Twin Stars Over Chi­ na" and "The Chinese Army." Capital Notes ANNA LouisE STRONG, author, K. M. journalist and lecturer, has trav­ eled widely in America, Europe, the U.S.S.R., and the Far East, Economic and has written extensively about Evans Fordyce Carlson the most important historical events of our times. Returning to The Kuomintang-Communist Crisis in China this country from a recent trip to the , she traveled by Anna Louise Strong way of China, where she arrived just as news of internal political Autobiography of General Yeh Ting crisis there was reaching the outer world. The article in this issue is « Asiaticus" written from first-hand informa­ tion and impressions. The most Export Controls and Far Eastern Policy recent of Miss Strong's numerous books is "My Native Land." William C. Johnstone "AsiATicus" is the pen-name of a well-known writer living in China. How Strong Is Soviet ? He is the author of "The Fascist Andrew J. Steiger Axis vs. the United Front in Chi­ na," which appeared in the Febru­ ary issue of Amerasia. News of the Month WILLIAM C. JoHNSTONE is Pro­ Index and Review of Vol. IV. . fessor of Political Science and Dean at the George Washington University, Washington, D. C., and author of "The EDITORIAL BOARD and Japan's New Order," 1941. Frederick V. Field, Chairman ANDREW J. STEIGER is a journalist Philip J . Jaffe, Managing Editor who worked in the Soviet Union T. A. Bisson William W. for a number of years and whose Kenneth W. Colegrove Kate Mitchell travels included trips to the So­ Owen Lattimore David H. Popper viet Arctic and the Soviet Far William T. Stone East. His articles have appeared in Am~rasia , Publi sh ~d Monthly_ by Amerasia, Inc. at 125 various magazines, including Asia. 52nd Stre~t. N~w York, N. Y. Pric ~ 25 c~nts a copy.. By scription: in th~ United Stat~s. Canada, and Mextco CAPITAL NoTES: K. M. (Kate y~arly . For~ign add SO c~nts for postag~ . Mitchell). Ent~r~d as s~cond-class matt~r March 24, Offic~ at N~w York, N. Y., under th~ Act