Chang Kuo-hua, commander of Chinese Communist forces in Tibet, was reporting to the second plenary session of the "Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region":
"In order to suppress thoroughly the rebellion and to liberate the Tibetan people, the People's Liberation Army put down the rebellion in Lhasa and immediately attacked the rebels in the Loka area. A great victory was scored in putting down the rebellion in the Loka area in less than two months after the campaign was launched in April this year. The bases of the rebels were destroyed and their main armed forces smashed...
"Now, with the great support of the masses of people, ecclesiastic and secular, the PLA is calling on the rebels to surrender, in accordance with the policy of leniency of the Party and state, while also launching annihilative attacks against those small numbers of rebels who refuse to wake up and persist in seeking to escape."
These chilling words, spoken on June 28 but released by the Communist New China News Agency on July 2, betrayed however that the Tibetan uprising was still not over, despite the "annihilative attacks" of the numerically superior and much better equipped forces under Chang's command. Even Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, No.2 Communist stooge in Tibet, had to admit on July 3 that: "The main task to be carried out in Tibet today is to thoroughly wipe out rebel elements still at large."
With blood still dripping from their hands, the Chinese Communists launched, together with the suppression campaign against remnant resistance, the "democratic reform" which they themselves promised at one time would not be enforced in Tibet before 1963.
The No. 1 Communist stooge, Panchen Erdeni, echoed Peiping's directive and declared in the full session of the Preparatory Committee that "the situation shows very clearly that reform must be launched in Tibet." The Panchen Lama is himself a Living Buddha, and second only to the Dalai Lama in his religious position. However, under the invisible whip over his head, he was forced to denounce his own religion:
"In the course of reforming, temples and monasteries will inevitably be involved, since the temples and monasteries and some of the high-ranking lamas in them also possess manorial estates and are serf-owners. It would be impossible to launch the reform in society while the feudal exploitation of temples and monasteries remained unchanged. It would not be beneficial to religion if the serfs of the aristocratic feudal government are emancipated while the serfs of the lamaseries remain in bondage. Genuine and philanthropic religion must not retain any stigma of serfdom. Therefore, many feudal systems of oppression and exploitation existing in the lamaseries would also be reformed."
In a speech apparently prepared for him by the Communists, he hinted that lamas may be forced to dig ditches or repair roads. "In the past the constitution was not adhered to in the monasteries and temples where there existed laws running counter to the constitution of the state. The constitution should be observed in the lamaseries. The lamas are entitled to ... take part in productive labor and other work, and to contribute their service to the state and the people."
The warning was plain enough for every lama to understand: "In the course of launching the reform, it is wrong and also dangerous for certain persons, particularly certain persons of the religious circles, to resist the democratic reform under the pretext of protecting religion."
To start off the "reform," all properties of the "upper strata reactionary clique" were confiscated. Since most of the high-ranking lamas sided with the Dalai Lama in the uprising, the Communists now had the excuse to confiscate the wealth of religious treasures accumulated through the centuries. As a matter of fact, the first carload of loot already appeared in the antique market in Hongkong.
Drought and Locusts
In the wake of the disastrous flood in Kwangtung and six other provinces in June, the Chinese Communists admitted of further natural calamities in different parts of the mainland. There were locusts in central China and drought in the Northeast.
Judging from the late date of the announcements and the length of duration of the anti-locust and anti-drought campaigns described in the official communiqués, the extent of damage to agricultural crops must be tremendous, although Peiping tried to make them sound as light as possible. Sample New China News Agency dispatch from Chengchow: "Locusts found during the last ten days of April in some areas of Honan, Shantung, Kiangsu, Anhwei and Hopei have in the main been wiped out."
What it did not say was that it took the Communists two months to fight the locusts. And it continued: "The Ministry of Agriculture called a five-province anti-locust conference at Hsinhsiang, Honan, on Tune 16-21 for the purpose of examining and summing up the great results of this campaign for wiping out summer locusts, and organizing the prevention and extermination of autumn locusts. These five provinces were old locust areas in the history of our country. This year, summer locusts were found in 179 hsien with an area of 18,000,000 mou, 11,000,000 mou less compared with the same period of last year."
A warning note was sounded toward the end of the dispatch: "The conference was one designed to pursue the attack on autumn locusts. The conference urged all areas to continue to apply the experience in wiping out summer locusts. In another 20 days autumn locusts will occur. Autumn locusts develop fast and the time favorable to prevention and extermination is very short. The conference asked all areas to reorganize their forces, complete all preparations and resolutely wipe out autumn locusts."
The time for the autumn locusts had come, though nothing was reported in the Chinese Communist press. There would probably be, in another two months' time, another NCNA dispatch announcing the "great victory" in fighting the autumn locusts over an area even larger than 18,000,000 mou.
The same technique of suppressing news of disasters while they happened and then exaggerating "victories" in fighting the calamities was used over again in the extensive drought that covered the entire Northeast, known also as Manchuria.
From Harbin, the NCNA disclosed on July 8 that "the 9,000,000 peasants in Heilungkiang province in Northeast China have waged a successful, hard fought battle against drought for more than three months." It admitted that in this vast province, "rainfall has been scanty since last autumn and little snow fell last winter." Lumps of ice had to be moved from rivers and lakes to the fields in the winter, it said. However, no figure on the damage was given, except the whitewash that on the "part of the land where some crops died, replanting has been done."
From Mukden, the People's Daily reported on June 20: "Fighting stubbornly and 'never giving up until the Drought Demon is vanquished,' a 1,000,000-strong army of drought fighters in Liaoning has been sowing despite the drought and watering the fields to prevent seedlings from withering for more than a month, and has scored an important victory."
It claimed that 770,000 persons in Port Arthur, Dairen and Chinchow alone have taken part in the anti-drought struggle. The conditions were serious because since "May this year, there has been only 3 to 5 millimeter of rainfall in Liaoning province, and the drought has been spreading from the south in a northward direction. In areas where the drought is comparatively serious, the young plants of some early crops have already turned yellow and the late crops sprout slowly." At least 15,000,000 mou of farmland were affected, according to the dispatch.
In the same breath, the official Communist organ told its readers that: "In Kirin province, people in the drought areas have done their best to resist the drought and transplant the rice seedlings.
"Beginning from the winter last year, it has rained not even once in sufficient amount. As the wind is particularly strong this year, most of the rivers, reservoirs and ponds have dried up and practically all the paddy fields are in urgent need of water. At present, the area of paddy field sown and transplanted is only one-fourth that of last year."
Great Leap Backward
Even without these natural calamities, Peiping was admitting great difficulties in agricultural production and had virtually retracted from all new systems introduced in the much publicized "great leap forward" in 1958.
Last year, all newspapers on the Chinese mainland were singing praise of a "superior tilling system," the system of cultivating less land, acquiring a high yield, and bringing a bigger crop. Now the People's Daily, the official party organ that sets the tune, declared in an editorial: "There is no hope of carry in&" it into full effect over the length and breadth or in the greater part of the country within the next ten years. The best that can be done is to carry it out gradually as circumstances permit. It will not be possible to institute this system in the greater part of the country within the next three years. What we should do is to plant more land and gather more crops."
Last year, when the "people's commune" was being established, the accent was on manpower and manpower alone. Peasants were made to work deep into the night during the deep plowing campaign, the manure collecting campaign and what not. But now the People's Daily admitted frankly: "Mere reliance on manpower, animals and household manure will not get us anywhere near the accomplishment of that feat. There will have to be tractors and other farm machines, ample chemical fertilizer, highly efficacious insecticides and efficient facilities for the prevention of pests. Since we do not have all those things at the present stage, our agricultural production tends to be unstable, and an abundant year may be followed by an unsatisfactory or even lean year."
Last year, the slogan was that the "people's commune" should walk on "two legs," one being agriculture and the other industry. All kinds of crude, largely manual factories sprang up. Now the People's Daily advised:
"Factories not working directly for agricultural production may be held off, and those, though directly serving agriculture and yet not indispensable at the present stage, may be suspended. The idea is to divert as much manpower as feasible to the agricultural front."
Last year, provinces and hsien compete with each other in setting high production goal, which made the basis for Peiping's statistical juggling and astronomical boasts. Now, all official publications, including the People's Daily, admonished the cadres: "Leave a margin." Said the Red Flag magazine: "Whether the question of contracted production is satisfactorily solved depends on whether the contracted targets are practical or not. The targets of the contract should not be originated from the minds of a few people sitting in an office. When fixing these targets, we should never take our wish as the basis and substitute ideal for reality; nor should we think the higher the better, and fix the target at 1,000 and 1,500 cat ties, or even still more, for each mou of land that can actually produce at most 500 catties. To realize such a target would be impossible ....
"Whether the contracted target can be fulfilled or not depends entirely on the two hands of the commune members, on the magnitude of their zeal and enthusiasm. Experience has proved that, as long as they are not agreed upon and accepted by the masses, plans and targets are often left unfilled in spite of stubborn enforcement."
Changing Classrooms
Today's student on the Chinese mainland who aspires to a higher education must pass three tests. First he must be "politically reliable." Next he must be a potential farm hand or factory worker, for this is how he will be engaged during half of his "classroom" hours. Finally, he must expect after graduation to engage in "socialist construction," which is but another term for manual labor.
The People's Daily, in an editorial entitled "Make Sure of the Quality of the New Students to be Enrolled by Institutions of Higher Education," pointed out that Communist party committees at different levels last year "strengthened their leadership in student enrollment work, energetically implemented the class line, and on the condition that political quality is assured, laid down the principle of enrolling the best candidates." This year, the paper declared, political consideration still occupies the first place:
"Socialist education serves the proletariat politically, with the goal of fostering workers with Socialist consciousness and culture, and specialized personnel to take up construction projects of all kinds for the country. With political quality used as a yardstick in the enrollment of new students, the state is in effect selecting cadres for the future according to the political standards of the working class. Consequently, the principle of making sure of the political quality in the first place is unshakable."
College students now spend half of their time in manual labor, or even longer. The Wen Hui Pao of Shanghai, in an article introducing the Tungchi University, said: "Combining teaching with scientific research, the teachers and students spent 10 months last year in productive work.... They built over 200 kilometers of roads, designed more than 300 medium and small size bridges, completed 600,000 cubic meters of earth work, and refined over 400 tons of steel and 80 tons of coke."
But nothing could top the curriculum of the "China People's University" of Peiping. According to the Kuang Ming Daily News: "In order to implement the guideline of the party in education, the university has established a number of factories within the university. At present, the joint machine-building plant is run on a larger scale. The factory premises and some equipment of this plant were built by the teachers and students themselves. It is now engaged in the making of drilling machines for the state. The department of statistics in this university has set up the Red Flag Paper Mill. All the equipment in this mill was home-made. This mill has, however, successfully experimented with the trial manufacture of high-quality wrapping paper, and is presently engaged in the production of same.
"Aside from this, the department of law has also set up a ball bearing plant. The department of trade economics has under its control two practical stores. Because of the good service rendered in these stores, they are well patronized. The department of journalism is running a printing press. Formerly, only the engineering colleges owned workshops, now the arts colleges can also run factories. This represents the great victory of the party's guideline in education."
Upon graduation, no one has the right to choose employment. A joint circular was recently issued by the "Ministry of Education," the central committee of the Young Communist League, and the "State Council Personnel Bureau," instructing their subordinate agencies to "intensify ideological education" for the 60,000 college graduates this summer. Said the circular: "College graduates are distributed this year on the basis of the 1959 national economic construction plan and in a spirit of taking the whole country as a coordinated chess game. Graduates should therefore take a correct view of the needs of the state and happily obey state distribution. They should obey distribution. They should obey distribution not only in schools but also after they have been assigned to jobs. In this way can they meet the state's need for special talents and dedicate themselves to the socialist construction of the motherland."
As usual, Young Communist League members started the campaign of letter-writing to demonstrate their obedience to the state. A graduate of Szechwan University stated: "I am ready to struggle all my life in the desert area until I conquer the sand." Twenty seven graduates of the Su Pei Agricultural Institute vowed: "We are neither afraid of vast barren deserts nor unfamiliar lands and their inhabitants.... We have no lingering attachment for our homes, native places and folks, nor for quiet and comfortable living." And 33 graduates of the Hua Nan Institute of Engineering allegedly declared: "We will proceed to whatever places to which the party points. We pledge ourselves to refrain from talking about whatever terms or haggling about remunerations. We will forget ourselves in our self-conscious preoccupation with labor."