The Great Leap Outward
MCCABE, RORERT KARR
BEHIND THE CHINESE EXODUS The Great Leap Outward By Robert Karr McCabe Hong Kong Now that the flood tide of Chinese refugees has ceased to pour into this Crown Colony, it is possible to put...
...The first easing of border controls by China began in late April...
...But two-thirds of the "rice" is actually potatoes and corn, unpopular with the Cantonese but included because of shortages of rice itself...
...asked a spokesman...
...The Government defended its action by flatly stating that the Colony had no more room...
...As night came, the groupssome only a dozen, some 200-300 —moved toward the fence...
...BEHIND THE CHINESE EXODUS The Great Leap Outward By Robert Karr McCabe Hong Kong Now that the flood tide of Chinese refugees has ceased to pour into this Crown Colony, it is possible to put the dramatic events of the past few months into a more meaningful perspective...
...As the four moved happily down from the hills toward Sheung Shui, they were stopped by a British soldier...
...But few of the refugees questioned in the fields near the border indicated a desire to resettle in Taiwan...
...Many were injured on the difficult trek across the border: Cuts from barbed wire, broken arms, sprained ankles and bruises were the price paid for a brief taste of freedom...
...As the exodus reached its peak, the Nationalist government in Taipei announced it would accept all who wish to go there...
...For most, the future lies in Hong Kong—where at the moment good jobs are hard to find...
...We are afraid life is going to get harder...
...Ironically, the more seriously hurt stand a better chance of being allowed to stay...
...Communist China's leaders lost a tremendous amount of face in May...
...Many refugees were captured only a few hours after they crossed...
...The terrain was no easier, and in the closed area along the Hong Kong side of the border British troops and Colony police were waiting...
...When they heard the Hong Kong border was open, they left by the thousands...
...Brazil will accept those who can pay their fare, but the recent arrivals are destitute...
...There is time now— while the flow of refugees is once more a steady trickle—to plan for the next great outrush...
...Elsewhere, the newcomers simply leaned on the shaky chicken-wire barrier...
...Kwangtung's problems are aggravated by what Peking's New China News Agency euphemistically calls "manmade circumstances...
...Beyond Hong Kong's defense of the deportations lies a larger question: What will happen next time...
...Ip stole a wristwatch just after he entered the Colony...
...Many refused to go...
...Policemen arrived, bundled the woman into a truck for deportation but let the child go with its father...
...Peking may have hoped that opening the gates to Hong Kong would siphon off the malcontents who otherwise might make trouble, as well as dispose of a certain number of mouths to feed...
...President Kennedy's statement urging that 5,000 Chinese be admitted had a galvanic effect on the Colony...
...The philosophy of the repeaters was simple: As long as they were permitted to try once more, they seized the chance...
...Footing, especially in the dark, is treacherous, and many refugees broke bones or suffered severe bruises in falls...
...Worst of all, the refugees reported, was the shortage of food...
...But those admitted to the U.S., as the first cases reveal, are likely to be persons already on the waiting list for several years...
...Most buses and private cars were stopped and carefully inspected...
...Every day, groups would gather near the fence, waiting for darkness...
...In Kwangtung, Communist broadcasts report at least 20,000 acres of northern farmland have been inundated by floods...
...Some reached the border area by train, some walked the 60 miles from Canton...
...Australia and Canada have offered food, but no visas...
...It is unlikely that other countries of the world will offer sanctuary to the poor farmers of Kwangtung who made up the major part of the exodus...
...These are the lean times in China —the months before the new harvest...
...Workers were given three months pay, then sent off to the farms...
...The Colony's capacity is not unlimited...
...Because no one was ready to help, 62,000 escapees were sent back to China, condemned to poverty and hunger once more...
...To a Westerner's eyes, a refugee in new Hong Kong clothing is difficult to detect...
...Crowds of silent people gathered around the little group...
...Earlier in its retrenchment program, which began last year and was formalized at this spring's session of the National People's Congress, the regime had kept the factories operating at half-capacity in the hope that conditions would improve...
...So far, the rice ration remains at 27.5 pounds a month per person...
...Police had set up roadblocks on all roads leading from the border area to Kowloon...
...Three consecutive years of crop failures have made malnutrition a fact of life in China...
...The weak either fell by the wayside or did not attempt the journey at all...
...In several places there were holes torn by previous refugees...
...In April, however, it became obvious that the agricultural outlook was dim...
...In April, for example, the minuscule sixounce ration of cooking oils was eliminated...
...The jobless have been ordered to the farm front...
...But the students and factory workers, and most of all the children, could be accommodated in the United States, Canada and Australia with little trouble...
...A Kowloon metal worker found his wife, son and brother-in-law after three days...
...The immediate border area is hilly, scarred by deep ravines...
...In almost all of China's industrial centers, factories and shops have been closed down and workers discharged...
...Of course, many would jump at the chance to go to the United States...
...Work is available in Hong Kong, and while salaries are not high—in many cases they are only barely adequate—life can be sustained...
...But even before this, Hong Kong's sympathy had been stirred by the deportation of three young men in mid-month...
...The soldier asked for identity cards...
...But the Chinese note differences in skin tones, bearing and expression which mark a man as a mainlander...
...Acting almost instinctively, the Colony shipped the refugees back...
...Factories closed their doors, textile mills switched off their spindles...
...As long as Hong Kong remains a terminus, not simply a transit station, for fugitives, officials say little else is possible...
...The Kwangtung peasants, however, knew by April that the crop would be poor...
...It toppled easily, though the barbed wire above the fence took its toll...
...some hunted for other urban jobs...
...Driving them on were rumors that rations would be further slashed...
...Several refugees tried their luck as many as three or four times, and Communist guards often told them the location of the likeliest crossing points...
...Then, on May 1, a local newspaper reported 500 refugees had crossed the border illegally during the previous two days...
...Robert Karr McCabe, a freelance writer, reports regularly on political developments in the Far East...
...The mass exodus of May caught Hong Kong (and, one suspects, Peking as well) unawares...
...Many of the refugees sent back by the British made a second attempt at freedom...
...However logical the deportation of refugees may be, in moral terms it is inexcusable...
...The recent American crackdown on Colonymade textiles has done some damage to Hong Kong's economy...
...The brother, and many like him, faced still more difficulties...
...Whatever its hopes, the situation will scarcely be improved by the outflow of a mere 10,000 people...
...Once past the roadblocks and into Kowloon or Victoria, the refugee was almost certain to avoid deportation...
...But neither is the Colony bankrupt: Hong Kong ended the 1961-62 fiscal year with a budget surplus of roughly $12 million instead of the $27 million deficit which had been expected...
...Anything was better than the uncertainty and fear they left behind...
...Many who succeeded in crossing the border in May appeared fairly well fed, but the crossing itself was an instance of the survival of the fittest...
...The addition of these hungry mouths spurred villagers onward...
...Refugee accounts of life on the mainland today convey a harrowing picture of pervasive poverty, hunger and fear...
...others traveled to neighboring cities seeking work...
...Adding to the fears of the country people was the vast, Government-ordered movement of city dwellers to the farms...
...Other policemen waited at all train stations, checking identity cards of anyone who looked suspicious...
...Public confession of such bungling is highly unusual, and indicates the food situation is worsening fast...
...Informed observers in Hong Kong believe the exodus indicates a major erosion of discipline, as well as genuine fear of a popular uprising...
...Communes in Lung Cheung county, for instance, were accused of "bad management of farmland, poor utilization of manpower" and waste of precious fertilizer...
...He has a point...
...Though they had no way of knowing, the relatives tney sought might have been caught and deported, or might have moved on to another hiding place...
...IF the reasons for the exodus itself are evident, Peking's motivations for lifting the barriers are still uncertain...
...Once over the line, the problems increased...
...The most curious manifestation of this policy is the case of one Ip Chi-kut, saved from deportation by a two-year prison term...
...Under the flexible policy adopted by the Colony, those who manage to avoid immediate deportation, either by evading the police or by being hospitalized, are reasonably safe...
...Crop prospects for this year are poor...
...recent arrivals will have to wait their turn...
...If he did, he was given a meal and allowed to go his way...
...Others, more fortunate, made their way down into the small peasant villages which dot Hong Kong's New Territories...
...Another possibility is Taiwan...
...The three refugees had none, and were arrested...
...Even if contact was made, the refugee was not safe...
...They did not cease until May 23...
...If he found relatives, he was reasonably certain of food, shelter and help in finding a job...
...Though details varied, most refugees told approximately the same story: "We don't get enough to eat...
...They gained nothing, except perhaps to demonstrate to their people that the outside world was unwilling to help...
...During the first three weeks of May, until Communist China closed its land frontier as mysteriously as it had been opened, the British sent about 62,000 refugees from adjacent Kwangtung Province back to the mainland...
...Those who said they wished to return home were given free passage back to their villages...
...The refugees waited, hiding in pigsties, bushes and paddy fields...
...In Canton, when discharged workers learned of the easing-up at the Hong Kong border, they joined the Great Leap Outward...
...Perhaps 10,000 more got past the blockades and into the cities...
...They also help explain how, if not why, the mass exodus across the border was able to take place...
...The handwriting was on the wall: China's light industry derives about 80 per cent of its raw materials from agriculture...
...The mass assaults on the rickety border fence had begun...
...Until they were ordered to stop the flow, Chinese border guards asked every deportee if he wanted to try again...
...The southern part of the province, on the other hand, has suffered heavily from prolonged drought...
...As they begged the soldier to free them, the brother melted into the crowd, donned a clean white shirt and vanished...
...Each morning, worried Hong Kong Chinese moved through the areas, hopefully calling names: "Wong Tsai of Canton, Lam Yuk from Cheungmuktau...
...Colony officials defend the deportation policy by pointing to the textile restrictions: "How can we absorb 70,000 refugees if we have no jobs to offer...
...There they were sheltered and were able to send notes, most of which got through, to relatives in the cities...
...On his release, in 1964, he will not be returned, since Communist border officials do not accept deportees who have been in Hong Kong more than a week or two...
Vol. 45 • July 1962 • No. 15
