Taiwan Today

Rains came, quite properly, in the early part of June. Cloudy mornings and afternoon downpours—occasionally day­long drizzles—were monotonously tiring for city dwellers, but just what the farmer ordered. A late spring drought was over, and while it was not of serious proportions, the agricultural segment of Taiwan's population was understandably happy. The rice crop promised to be one of the best in history. Other crops—many of which earn large sums of foreign exchange—also were expected to do well.

Weather may be no respecter of politics but it would hard to convince the Taiwan farmer of that. Although he occasionally must face the destruction of typhoon and flood, the free Chinese farmer of this island is well aware that he has been spared the extremes of too much or too little rain that have been visited upon his mainland brethren for the last several years. Timely rainfall, but not too much, has enabled him to feed the 12 million people of the island, despite a population growth rate of more than 3 per cent an­nually, and to improve the standard of, living for the 50 per cent of the people who live on farms.

The fact that the weather has favored the free Chinese and frowned on those who suffer under Communism is beyond man's control. Not so the other aspects of agriculture that have made the mainland a hell for its rural people and Taiwan a place of comparative abundance and a promise of better to come. To grow larger and better crops requires more than rain: the incentive to work hard, suffi­cient fertilizer at the right time, pesticides, capital for these essential supplies and for necessary tools and equipment, irrigation systems that will relieve farms from some of the vagaries of the weather, and so on.

In mid-June, the Republic of China ded­icated a project that expresses the govern­ment's faith in and responsibility toward the people and especially toward those who till the land. It is the Shihmen dam and reservoir, which cost about US$80 million and took eight years in the building. Shihmen will in­crease rice production by about 75,000 metric tons a year, provide domestic water for more than a third of a million people, generate a substantial amount of electricity, control floods, contribute to wildlife development and recreation—and, above all, prove that gov­ernment is on the same side as the gods who have blessed Taiwan with favorable weather.

Shihmen was financed by the govern­ment and the U.S. aid program, working hand in hand. It has shown the way for other pro­jects that will enable the island to keep up with mushrooming population growth. And it enriches the experience of administrators who one day may have the opportunity to show that comparable advances can be made on the mainland of China, once the hold of the Communists has been broken.

Agriculturally, the month had an accompanying note of sadness. Gone from China is one of the principal architects of farm prosperity on Taiwan—Dr. Chiang Monlin, chairman of the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, who passed away at 78. A graduate of the Uni­versity of California and with a doctorate from Columbia, Dr. Chiang also was chairman of the Shihmen Development Commission. He lived to know that the dam and reservoir had been dedicated, although he was too ill to attend the ceremony.

A long-time educator and university president on the mainland, Dr. Chiang will be remembered for years to come as the man who joined JCRR at the outset and helped to make it one of the world's outstanding accomplish­ments in international understanding and partnership. JCRR is unique in both agriculture and international politics. Its commis­sioners are appointed by the chiefs of state of China and the United States, and its financing is also a joint undertaking.

For a decade and a half, JCRR has been the moving force behind Taiwan's agricultural modernization and increased production. Without spending huge sums of money, it has persuaded farmers to help themselves through the application of scientific methods: proper fertilization, timely irrigation without waste, pest and disease control, intercropping, and other applications and techniques too numer­ous to mention. The joint result of JCRR and government efforts has been an approxi­mate doubling of agricultural production and a sharp increase in the rural standard of living since the late 1940s.

Dr. Chiang has built his own monument in the prosperous farm lands and thriving agricultural villages of free China. He will be sorely missed but his work will go on and his example will be always before those who follow in his footsteps.

Movies were bustin' out all over Taipei in June. The 11th Asian Film Festival came to the Republic of China's capital city—with producers, movie stars, directors, and other cinema dignitaries from eight of the nine members and localities of the sponsoring federation of motion picture producers in Asia. It was the biggest show in Taiwan history.

For the two evening programs in the China Stadium, more than 30,000 ardent fans turned out to cheer their favorites. Actresses crossed the stage, dressed in their native costumes, and then bowed their thanks for both applause and support at the boxoffice. Songs, dances, comedy routines, and other entertainment followed.

Yet the Festival was much more than a cinema spectacular and assertion that "Asian movies are better than ever." It provided an opportunity for those who finance and make the movies to get together, exchange ideas, and find the ways and means to provide better entertainment and give greater service to the free way of life that makes worthwhile films possible. The incentive of awards has im­proved movies in past years and was certain to do so again.

This year's winners were impressive. All of the 49 contenders were screened before an international jury, and also were presented publicly on the silver screen during the course of the Festival. This is the way the judges saw them:

Best dramatic film—"Oyster Girl" of China.

Best non-dramatic film—"Nirvana" of Korea.

Best actress—Ivy Ling Po of Hongkong for her performance in "Lady General Hua Mu-lan," a Shaw Brothers film setting forth a classical Chinese story.

Best actor—Yungkyoon Shin of Korea for "Red Scarf."

Best directing—Korea's "Red Scarf."

Best screen play—Japan's "Yearning."

Best editing—Korea's "Red Scarf."

Best color photography—Japan's "House of Shame."

Best black and white photography­ Japan's "Yearning."

Best music—Hongkong's "The Shepherd Girl."

Best sound recording—Japan's "Twenty-one-year-old Father."

Best art direction—China's "Lover's Stone."

Best supporting actress—Lin Chui in Hongkong's "A Story of Three Loves."

Best supporting actor—Wang Ying in "A Story of Three Loves."

Awards for documentaries and feature films also went to Malaysia, China, Korea, Hongkong, and Japan. Guest entries honored included those from the Philippines, Viet­nam, the United States, and Australia.

The 10 jurors watched 55 hours of films during a period of nine days to select the win­ning movies and performances. Five discus­sion meetings totaling 14 hours led to the specific selections. Final decision was not reached until two hours before the award ceremony. Asian films are only beginning to turn up on the international market. A few Japanese art productions have made a big splash, yet even Japan has not been able to distribute its cinematographic product widely and consistently. Producers are coming to understand, however, that until the hold of the Communists is broken on the mainland, the road to large distribution must be via non-Asian exhibition.

Mainland China's more than 600 million people constitute the largest single audience in the world. No doubt it some day will be one of the most enthusiastic. After a steady diet of Communist propaganda fare, the peo­ple of the mainland stay away from movies today, even when admission is free. The free Chinese audience is limited to about 28 mil­lion people—the 12 million of Taiwan and the 16 million who live overseas. Japan's output has an audience of 95 million at home, and as politics and social mores permit, this can be enlarged to include Korea and some segments of the Chinese audience. Korea has 25 million people and Vietnam 15 million; both suffer from loss of the Communist-oc­cupied northern halves of their countries. Of other markets, the Philippines and Thailand have about 30 million potential moviegoers each and Malaysia around 10 million.

For the time being, producers expect to give more attention to dubbing in various languages. New techniques are making this easier and less costly. If the result is a bigger boxoffice for better films, earnings can be plowed back into productions that are suffi­ciently professional to please the Americas and Europe. The Asian film then will come of age and will have opportunity to disseminate the values and philosophies that the Orient has for so long promised the Occident.

Tragedy struck swiftly and cruelly in the wake of the Film Festival.

It had been a lovely Saturday, June 20. The weather smiled for the sightseeing of Film Festival delegates in Taichung, and their visit to the collection of art treasures in a museum near by.

A group of Americans had taken advan­tage of the clear skies for a tour of the picturesque Penghu (Pescadores) islands off the southwestern coast. The Civil Air Transport C46 airliner on which they were returning to Taipei landed at Taichung, took aboard the Film Festival personalities, then took off into the late afternoon air on the last leg of the day's down-island flight.

Five minutes later and the plane was in­explicably only a scattering of shattered debris, and the 52 passengers and crew of 5 were dead, all killed instantly.

Beginning with President Chiang Kai­-shek, the whole of Taiwan bowed its head in deepest sorrow for the loss of these guests and friends, and some of its own people.

Several memorial services were held, attended by thousands of persons. Top govern­ment and civil leaders joined in tribute to the crash victims, who included Malaysia film and aviation magnate Dato Loke Wan Tho and his wife.

Intensive investigation was under way to determine the cause of the disaster, which was the first fatal accident involving a CAT plane and the first commercial crash in Taiwan since the province was returned to the Repub­lic of China by Japan in 1945.

Both government and CAT, which is China's flag carrier internationally as well as one of three domestic airlines, promised that a full report would be made on findings of the local and foreign experts who were sifting the wreckage and seeking the reason for the tragedy.

News on the military front was encouraging because of two developments: the longest ranging raid yet credited to the com­mando forces of the Republic of China, and the growth of cooperation between the anti­-Communist military command structure of this country and Vietnam.

The commando attack was against a strategically important garrison post on the Shantung peninsula more than 700 nautical miles north of Taiwan. A force of some 30 attackers landed, engaged the Communists in a half hour's battle, and then withdrew suc­cessfully with only one fatality. Some 35 Red soldiers were killed. What mattered was not the failure to stay longer, or to bring back prisoners or other contraband of war, but the fact that a free Chinese force could carry out a mission so far from home and get safely away. The 30 men who comprised the striking force might easily have been 300 or even 3,000, and the results of the battle on the beach then would have been quite different.

Observers noted that the Shantung ex­pedition showed fighting units of the Republic of China can hit the mainland anywhere and at any time. This means that the Communists are compelled to assign sizable coastal defense forces not only across the Taiwan Straits, but up and down the more than 7,000 miles of the continental shore line.

The more troops who must patrol the Communist-held coast, the fewer left for ag­gression in Southeast Asia, Tibet, Korea or elsewhere. Authorities on Red Chinese military affairs say Peiping already is hurting be­cause of new military manpower demands in Sinkiang, where reinforcements have been required to match a Soviet border buildup; along the frontier with Outer Mongolia; and in provinces where restive people increasing­ly turn on their tormentors in uprisings that are fast approaching the status of all-out revolt.

Some Taiwan newspapers and commentators suggested that the time had come for sizable enlargement of the commando and guerrilla offensive as a way of relieving pres­sure in Vietnam and Laos.

Something of the sort seemed under consideration. Several Vietnamese missions have come to free China in recent weeks. A mid-June guest was Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, chief of his country's general staff, who was accompanied by six high-ranking aides. The general said that the Vietnamese forces are prepared to strike into North Vietnam wherever that is required.

Should the United States give the green light for attacks on the bases of Viet Cong aggression, that could mean action against South China as well as North Vietnam. Guer­rilla reinforcements come from Vietnam, but their supplies, their advisers, and top training personnel come from Red China, whose Yun-nan and Kwangsi provinces border North Viet­nam. In strikes at South China bases, the designation of Chinese military personnel would be almost inescapable.

Solidarity with Vietnam also was demonstrated in a Chinese aid program that included fertilizer, seeds, machinery, other goods, and technical assistance. This was a response to U.S. appeals for an expression of free world solidarity in terms of actual assis­tance rather than mere words.

On the diplomatic front, the news was encouraging with regard to two very important countries: India and Japan.

From India, which has a new prime minister and which in time may come to have a somewhat altered international outlook, came 10 members of Parliament to see Tai­wan, talk with government officials and the rank and file of free Chinese people, and then return to New Delhi to report their findings and opinions.

Chinese press reports of the visitation were enthusiastic, perhaps prematurely so. Those who came were anti-Communist rather than neutralist. If they had their way, India would ally itself with the Republic of China and break with Peiping forthwith. India's dominate political opinion may develop in this direction somewhat more slowly than they wish—but there seems no question of the direction itself.

India's disenchantment with Peiping began with the border fighting and the Chinese Communist advance that for a time seemed to threaten the entire subcontinent. Nor has the Peiping regime done anything since to endear itself to Indian hearts. To the contrary, Red China has joined with Pakistan in an arrangement that New Delhi can only regard as a hostile act.

Dispatch of an Indian diplomatic mission to South Korea shows the trend of the future, just as does the simple fact that 10 Indian MPs were permitted to come to Taipei for an official visit. The Chinese government was leaving no stone unturned to restore the Sino­-Indian relationship of World War II. Some Indians still have not forgotten the strong backing that President Chiang Kai-shek and China gave the cause of their country's independence.

With the return of a Chinese ambassador to Tokyo, the Republic of China waited expectantly for the promised visitation of Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira. Diplomatic sources were reasonably sure that Minister Ohira and high Chinese officials could wipe away the last traces of unpleasantness going back to Japan's political flirtation with Red China in late 1963 and early 1964.

As Foreign Minister Shen Chang-huan remarked, since the visits to Taipei of former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and Vice Foreign Minister Matsuhei Mori, Japan has strictly followed its announced principle of separating politics from economics in dealings with Peiping. This was evidenced in the Jap­anese Justice Ministry's refusal to admit poli­tical figures disguised as members of a Com­munist trade mission, and at Tokyo's opposi­tion to Red trade fairs that propagandize and attempt to subvert the Japanese people.

No one expected that all would be orchids and cherry blossoms in the new Sino­-Japanese relationship. Japan's desire for more exports and its exaggerated ideas about the mainland market still exist. Patient firmness will be required on China's part and free world loyalty on Japan's. With strong em­bassies in both countries, open channels of communications, and awareness of the stakes involved, the two countries have, however, the opportunity to achieve an understanding that is deeper and more constructive than the relationship of the past.

Economic success note of the first part of 1964 was a favorable trade balance of more than US$50 million for the January-May period. The economists were beginning to hope that a favorable balance of $100 million might be attainable for the year. This would contrast with last year's US$21 million, which was the first plus-side figure since the government moved from the mainland in 1949.

Such economic prosperity made China the logical candidate to become the first free Asian country (other than Japan) to stand on its own feet without U.S. economic assistance. Washington announced that economic aid will end a year hence, although the Re­public of China will still be able to purchase U.S. surplus farm commodities (with repay­ment in U.S. dollars and at interest).

Military aid will be continued but presumably at a pared-down figure required by U.S. Congressional economies. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara recently testified that military aid to China had to be cut 36 per cent to US$85 million for the 1963-64 fiscal year, and that a "calculated risk" was being taken because of inability to modernize Chinese armed forces. The Defense Department's request for 1964-65 is the same as the amount approved by Congress in the previous fiscal year, so China can expect no material increase.

U.S. economic aid termination also posed a problem of military financing because of the approximately 50 per cent of counterpart funds now going to the armed forces. This is money raised by U.S. aid that arrives in the form of goods to be sold for local currency.

The government was studying the aid picture with a view to making all necessary preparations and budgetary steps to protect both the civilian economy and the defense establishment.

Revealing footnote of the month was the unscheduled overnight visit of Mrs. Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno, who was deposited in Taipei because her Tokyo-bound airliner had to land for repairs. As president of In­donesia, her husband is no friend of the Re­public of China. She herself was understand­ably alarmed—but she need not have been.

Mrs. Sukarno was treated with traditional Chinese courtesy, shown the city, and carefully protected from any unpleasant demon­stration during her brief stay on the island.

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In Memoriam Fourteen Film Festival delegates and personalities met tragic death in the June 20 crash of a Civil Air Transport airliner near Taichung.

They were:
Dato Loke Wan Tho, chief of the Malaysian delegation, and his wife. He was board chairman of the Cathay film organization and of Malaysia Airways.
Miss Noni Wright, scenario writer for Cathay.
William C. K. Hu, chairman of the Free Motion Picture Associa­tion of Hongkong and Macao.
Henry Chow, board member of the Cathay organization, and his wife.
Paul Wang Chi-po, production manager of the Motion Picture and General Investment Corporation of Hongkong.
Mrs. Deacon T. K. Chu, wife of the managing director of the Far East Bank in Hongkong.
Chen-ping Hsu, independent producer and Motion Picture and General Investment Corporation representative in Tokyo.
Wei-tang Hsia, independent producer and Motion Picture and General Investment Corporation representative in Taiwan.
Peter F. Long, manager of the Taiwan Film Studio.
Lt. Col. York Pang, Government Information Office official who headed the Festival reception section.
Wu Shao-sui, director of the Taiwan Provincial Government Information Department, the host for the sightseeing trip, and his wife.

(For crash details, see The Month in Free China)
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