The Kuomintang-Communist Crisis in China A First-hand Account of One of the Most Critical Periods in Far Eastern History By Anna Louise Strong Reprinted from "Amerasia", March 1941 THIS article io a sample of the authoritative and enlight­ ening material which Amerasia brings to its readers. SuBSCRIBE now and receive every month forty-eight pages of expert comment on Far Eastern developments by no­ ted authorities. AMERASIA 125 East 52nd Street, New York City Please enter my subscription to Amerasia for 12 months beginning with the issue for the month of... .... ·-···-········-··-·-·-··········--· Bill me for $2.50 Single copies of A.m~rasia are 25 cen!s D I and yearly subscr1pt1ons are $2.50 1n I endose $2.50 U. S., Canada, and Mexi~o. Add 50 D cents for all other countnes. Name ·-----------·----·--------·--······-·-·--·---·-····-----·-----···-·····----·· -··-·-·········-- --·----··- -·-···············--···-·-··-···- Address ·----·----··----- --- ·----··----·-·---··--------···---·----··------·····--·-·-----------·· -·-··-·····-·----- --·-·········-·····-··· • 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 Communist Party and the to the January 17th announcement of the Kuomintang. The threat of widespread civil Chungking Military 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 Japan 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 Generalissimo's attention by dynamite. cepted the disbanding of the New Fourth, They include the "cessation of attacks on but have organized their own "Revolution­ 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 Yangtze. 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 district, 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 news 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 red : ( 1 ) if Japan made a big concession, reactionary 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 civil war. The international setting port China's struggle for freedom and de­ of the present period begins with the Tripar­ mocratic progress; ( 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 she is powerless to become economic pressure 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 governors 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 North China, (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 Asia," 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 warlords In return for this, Japan would withdraw her were compelled to submit to the Chinese troops from Central and South China­ people's will for unity against Japan. Gen­ which Japan most devoutly longs to do. eral Han Fu-chu, Governor 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 East Asia. 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 gangsters 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 Shanghai No governmental machinery had been capitalists over the government. Chiang Kai­ established through which unity Inight be ex­ shek had announced that the vast peasant 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 revolutionary 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.