INSIDE RED CHINA

...it also gives him the opportunity to vent his ire against such individuals as might have exploited him in the past...

...This is perhaps the basic fact in the present political pattern as it affects the loyalty of the people...

...To be sure, such abuses did not always exist by sufferance of the KMT government...

...When one must struggle every day, from birth to the grave, simply to keep bone and muscle together, political freedom, freedom of association and expression, and the right of access to information may seem like meaningless shibboleths...

...It is true, to be sure, that the "Bamboo Curtain" screens out much information and predisposes us to disbelieve what does leak through, but the need for information and understanding is great enough to warrant putting together such conclusions as we can...

...Owning short-wave radio equipment or even listening to the "Voice of America" became matters of serious import...

...Ill Basically, the times were ripe for revolutionary change...

...Resistance to this mass production of opinion is difficult, for dlfe has no factual grounds on which to proceed except for officially approved "facts...

...The "squeeze" for graft was applied from top to bottom...

...In this way it wins further popular support for the government, quite disproportionate to the number of malcontents created...

...But that brings us to the other side of the picture, and the last two points...

...The problems and demands of the Chinese people are not unique...

...Mine are based on five major observations: One—Almost without exception the Chinese on the mainland do not like the Kuomintang Government (KMT) of Chiang Kai-shek, now in power only on Formosa, and do not want it back in power...

...Summarizing, there is abundant evidence that the new government of China has already made major contributions to the economic and social reformation of China...

...While the opportunity to have a balanced relationship with China may be temporarily lost, there are other countries to be considered...

...Public trials, even group trials, have become common, and large-scale executions are all too frequent...

...Yet some attempt must be made to provide the United States with a more balanced picture of current developments in China than it now has...

...Secondary materials from the outside world became lost in the post office halls, despite the otherwise well-deserved reputation for excellence of the postal service...

...Anyone with wealth or prestige, including foreigners, could buy favorable concessions...

...These people were not saying that they were working and studying to make a pile of money, or to retire to Easy Street...

...Moreover, China is in a state of war...

...Some particularly sensitive souls, as well as those chronically individualistic, saw this first...

...There are restrictions on travel and accurate observation...

...One important consideration lies behind the attempt to present these five points as a single case: Any realistic and effective foreign policy which may be adopted by the United States must take into account more than just the negative aspects of such a government as China...

...Five Conclusions from Inside Red China By Robert Reuman TT IS impossible to present in a A short article a comprehensive or balanced picture of social and political events in so complicated a country as China...

...The Communists, capitalizing on the deep and wide-ranging dissatisfactions and urges, have followed a shrewd policy designed to carry the masses of people, and in the later stages have shaped and patterned these forces through intensive indoctrination campaigns into the channels that best suit their own purposes...

...Sometimes they existed despite that government...

...Or try to conjure up the emotions of a ragged, underfed rickshaw puller as he staggers up a hill under the load of the corpulent gentleman in the luxurious gowns...

...Finally, one must make comparisons of the existing situation not with some mythical ideal, or even with the socio-political situation in another nation, but with the previous situation in China itself...

...These last two aspects of the Chinese situation have been played up so heavily in the American press that it should not be necessary to elaborate on them...

...The soldiers, needing food, simply grabbed what they needed from the farmers...

...To take only one example, the powerful nationalistic sentiment and latent anti-foreignism have been whipped up, directed consciously against "domestic feudalism and foreign imperialism" (the latter being chiefly American) and yet, at the same time, the anti-foreign sentiment does not include Russia and the other Communist states...

...The army too frequently gained its recruits by literally capturing boys off the street...

...There is the size of the country...

...ROBERT REUMAN recently completed a 20-months assignment for the American Friends Service Committee in Hongkong, Chungking, and Shanghai...

...To a person brought up on non-Communist ideology, the punishment seems horribly excessive in terms of the crime...

...Restriction of political freedom and international information does not weigh heavily if nothing weighs in one's belly...

...The tremendous impact of these opinion-making forces, working in unison, beggars description and staggers the jmagination of anyone who has lived under it...

...His stay in China ranged over Chiang Kai-shek's last days on the mainland, the Communist capture of power, and the consolidation of Red authority...

...This leads to my next conclusion: Four—In the fall of 1950 the Red regime launched a vigorous campaign designed to achieve the virtual suppression of all non-official information...

...instead they were joyfully asserting that now, for the first time, they could give all to their country and that the precious gift of self'and talent would not be abused, corrupted, and distorted by cynical officials in places of power...

...Measures have been taken to control famine, care for the impoverished, diminish illiteracy, emancipate women from the outdated marriage code, provide a progressive marriage and divorce law, and eradicate prostitution and its economic origins...

...In this connection it seems to me a flagrant distortion of the facts to view the People's Government of China as something forced on the Chinese by Red Russia...

...It should be no cause for surprise that people in these straits did not resist a change in government...

...A vigorous health campaign has been conducted to prevent and control the diseases that sap Chinese vitality and comfort...

...The measure of its efficacy is the measure of its intensity, shrewdness, and range...

...In addition to these channels there have been political indoctrination classes for all workers and officials...

...At first all foreign (but not including Russian) movies were eliminated "by popular demand...

...so far it has been conducted with considerable force...

...Serious interest has been shown in a national solution of relief problems...

...Two—In the tangible field of public welfare and economic reform, the new government has presented clear-cut evidence to the Chinese people of its determination to improve their standard of living...

...This also I found, sadly too often...

...There are many reasons for this...

...Officials who formerly spoke to foreigners in English now find themselves able to speak only Chinese...

...It must also weigh the constructive program and the positive appeal made to Chinese loyalties, and act in the light of such knowledge...

...But at the same time the study of Russian is being greatly encouraged...

...This is in line with the official policy of encouraging and equalizing, as well as controlling, private enterprise, rather than shifting overnight from a feudalis-tic economy to a highly developed form of socialism...

...The fundamental tenet in this process of redistribution is to provide every man with no more land than he himself can cultivate...

...The leaders work hard and live simply...

...It was my impression when I left recently, that there was an increased awareness of the loss of liberty and a growing anxiety and frustration, particularly among the intelligentsia and the Western-trained...

...KMT army policies did not increase the government's popularity...

...Posters, sometimes cleverly conceived but always monotonously repeated, cover most of the walls of the cities, bugling forth the battle cry of the week...

...Within eight months after the founding of the new government, the scourge of inflation was eliminated—a major victory in China...

...I frequently heard, particularly among the younger Chinese, strong expressions of a • desire and enthusiasm to work for the rebuilding of China...

...But people in adversity do not always make such subtle distinctions in probing for the causes of their sorrow and helplessness...

...The clear fact, however, is that since the passing of the KMT from the mainland, the Chinese people have found small ground for lament over its demise, are highly critical of the way it governed China, and definitely do not want it back in power...

...Whether the Chinese criticize or approve the People's (Communist) Government, they never mention the return of the KMT as a desirable alternative...

...Corruption and bribery have been virtually eliminated from public affairs, as nearly as I could determine...

...China is a portent and a warning...

...It is they who would most feel the loss...

...The net effect of these techniques is an incredibly powerful propaganda campaign...

...Born in China, Reuman was educated at Mid' dlebury College and the University of Pennsylvania...

...This new agrarian policy not only provides a tangible reward for the peasant...

...The failure of American journalism lies not so much in what it does give in the way of factual material as in the absence of any attempt to portray the positive aspects of the regime in'China and the qualities by which it is enabled honestly to insure the allegiance and enthusiasm of many of the Chinese people...

...Nationalistic feelings have been fed through the encouragement of native Chinese clothes, and the exclusive use of the Chinese language in all official situations...

...Tyranny of all kinds can be overthrown...

...Sacrifices have been required—primarily, certain of the less palpable freedoms...

...Many people were arrested in the quiet of night and executed, often without trial...

...That is the reason, to my mind, why no simple military answer can hope to satisfy the cry of anguish which has gone up all over the Orient...

...Taxation remains heavy but shows solid results in the construction of dikes, roads, and the improvement of railroads, communications, and industry...

...One other word of caution might be offered in interpreting the last two observations in particular...

...Three—These measures have given the Chinese a sense of integrity, confidence, power, and direction...

...After airing laments or anxieties about the New China, the refrain would usually come floating back...

...They do exist, at least in some degree...

...Something far more is demanded...

...The Secret Police was a terroristic organization, fully on a par with the brutality of the Nazi Gestapo or the Russian NKVD...

...They parallel in striking ways the dilemma of other Oriental peoples...

...It made many gallant contributions of courage, intelligence, and devotion to the promotion of the welfare of Chinese people...

...There are too many qualifications and limitations the candid observer must mention...

...In any major city, during the early part of 1951, one could hardly enter the city streets on any day without encountering at least one of these parades...

...Picture yourself striving to keep abreast of a debt that stretched years into the future, owed to a landlord who held the power of life and death over you...

...The vast majority of the Chinese people have neither the leisure nor the wealth required to become literate...

...Toward the end of the year all newspaper releases had to be cleared through Peking, and from that time on all news appeared under the Hainhua (official) dateline...

...There is the rapidity of change, which, under present conditions, may limit the validity of observations to a few months...

...Five — A campaign was well launched in 1951 to eradicate opposition elements through imprisonment and extermination...

...At least this was largely true, so far as one could determine, up until the latter part of 1950...

...That such a choice was entailed may not always have been evident, but a retrospective appraisal shows that it has become increasingly true...

...There is the mere fact of being a foreigner...

...To summarize, the KMT was not at all times thoroughly bad...

...Picture yourself a Chinese peasant, working from morning until late at night, living in a thatched or mud hut, with no amenities and no respite from sick children and ceaseless toil...

...Radio was not so easily controlled...

...The Major Battle assisted by a wife who must labor as long and as hard...

...II Longstanding social problems continued unsolved under the KMT...

...At times it seems that there is even a desire to try to avoid realistic evaluation of the forces at work in China in favor of the easier approach of swallowing whole predigested notions of oriental mystery or Communist evil...

...Having returned only recently from Communist China, I have been struck with the extent to which the currently popular attitude toward China ranges from lack of balance to complete error...

...Chiang's once idealistic and progressive . regime has been shot through in recent years with corruption...

...but it is better now than under the KMT...

...The answer does not lie in supporting non-popular governments such as the KMT, Bao Dai's, and Sygh-man Rhee's simply because they are anti - Communist...

...These improvements are visible to all people in China and have won much popularity for the new regime...

...The Communists, through careful organization and devotion to explicit policies, partially satisfied those needs and partially corrupted them...

...The causes of Communist victory in China are to be found in a complex constellation of events, including a psychological relapse after years of war, unsolved social problems of long standing, the more recent record of corruption by the KMT, a deep resentment against certain foreign intrusions that might be labeled imperialistic, a renascent nationalism, the colorful record of the dedicated Communist armies, and the hope-laden appeals of Red propagandists...

...this situation has enabled officials in all countries to bypass certain civil liberties and to punish with severity acts considered to be against the national interest...

...Or consider yourself a prostitute, sold as a little girl in a year of famine by your father into the city brothel, unable to buy your freedom...

...A . program based on the negative aspects cannot help but be radically inadequate...

...If constructive non-Communistic answers are not found to the social, political, and nationalistic demands of these people, then Communism will provide its own solutions...

...Whether one likes the land reform program or not, it has been obvious that there were shocking abuses under the old landlord system—abuses which did much to create the climate of opinion favorable to revolutionary change...

...Parades, varying from a handful to several thousand people, moved through the streets beating drums, shouting anti-imperialistic slogans, waving flags, placards, and pictures of Communist leaders...

...Higher educational institutions which have been directed by foreigners for years and taught in German, French, or English are now making the switch to Chinese directors and the use of indigenous language...

...Finally, agrarian reform and land distribution have been achieved to a considerable extent...

...IV The advantages won by the people in Red China have not been without price...

...The proceeds of heavy taxation went into the pockets of government officials as much as into public projects...