January 16. President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam visited land reform projects and the farmers' association in Taoyuan, inspected Shihmen Dam and the Far Eastern Textile Mill, laid a wreath at the Chinese Martyrs Shrine, received the chiefs of diplomatic missions in Taipei and Chinese civic leaders.
The Chinese government decorated, through the Vietnamese director of protocol, Vice President Nguyen Ngoc Tho of Vietnam with the Special Grand Cordon of the Order of Brilliant Star. Messrs. Vu Van Mau, Vietnamese secretary of state for foreign affairs, Tran Chanh Thanh, secretary of state for information and youth, Tran Le Quang, secretary of state for public works and communications, and Tran Ngoc Lien, commissioner general for cooperative and agricultural credit, were also decorated at the same time by the Chinese government with the Grand Cordon of the Order of Brilliant Star.
Dr. Lee Pyon To, dean of the Seoul University graduate school, called for a cultural alliance between China and Korea at a tea reception given in his honor by the Sino-Korean Cultural and Economic Association.
17. President Diem saw the air acrobatic show in Kangshan staged by the Thunder Tiger Team, inspected units of the Chinese Navy at Tsoying and witnessed a simulated war game of the Chinese marine corps.
18. President Diem visited the Palace Museum at Wufeng in Taichung and witnessed at Pingtung a massive airborne operation of the paratroops. Twenty-four C-46's carrying a reinforced battalion dropped the airborne force in three waves. The operation was supported by nine C-119 flying boxcars which dropped equipment for the sky raiders.
19. President Chiang Kai-shek of China and President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam issued a joint communique before President Diem's departure at noon, in which the two Asian leaders expressed the hope that the temporary lull in Europe will not pull the free world off guard in Asia where threat of aggression persists as long as the Chinese mainland remains under the yoke of international Communism. They also urged that aid received by free Asian nations "on periphery of or in the path" of Communist aggression should not be reduced, but increased in order to meet the Communist menace. The communique also said that the chiefs of state have a "complete identity of views" on these policies of their respective governments which aim at "safeguarding national unity and preserving the common cultural inheritance shared by the two countries." They also reiterated their common stand that they are opposed to any discussion of problems concerning free Asian nations in any international conference or under any circumstance without their assent.
20. President Chiang Kai-skek received a message from President Diem expressing his thanks for the "most cordial welcome and extremely warm hospitality" extended to him and his party by the Chinese nation during his four-day state visit here. On his "most instructive and fruitful visit," said the Vietnamese leader," I have been deeply impressed by the outstanding achievements of your nation, particularly in the field of economic development. I have brought home with me most pleasant and happy memories of my visit. I am firmly convinced that under your wise leadership, the Republic of China will rapidly achieve all its goals and will contribute to strengthen still further the position of the free world and the cordial ties of friendship between our two peoples."
21. A seven-member Chinese military mission headed by General Peng Meng-chi, chief of general staff, departed for Bangkok for a week-long visit at the invitation of General Tanom Kittikachorn, Thai minister of national defense. Other members of the party are Lieutenant General Chiang Chien-jen, director of the General Political Department of the Defense Ministry; Air Lieutenant General Lai Ming-tang, deputy chief of general staff; Lieutenant General Sung Tah, Air Major General I Fu-eng; Rear Admiral Chao Han-liang; Colonel Wu Ping-chung and Captain Chao Chien, General Peng's aides.
22. Mr. Duncan Rae, a member of the New Zealand Parliament, who once favored the recognition of Communist China, changed his mind after a two-week visit here. He told the press he is now "opposed to the recognition or admission to the United Nations of the Chinese Communists" because that regime does not abide by the UN Charter. "Recent aggressive actions on the part of the Chinese Communists in the Taiwan Straits, Tibet and Laos have exposed to the world the real nature of the Red regime," he added. He was against the Communist seizure of the offshore islands because the Reds "can only attack Taiwan over the Kinmens and Matsus."
23. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, who is honorary chairman of the China Committee for the World Refugee Year, declared in a written statement delivered to a rally commemorating the 6th anniversary of the Freedom Day and the World Refugee Day that it is everyone's duty to help the refugees of the world regardless of their race and religious belief. She called on the Chinese people both in Taiwan and abroad to help relieve the refugees, especially the Chinese refugees from the Communist dominated mainland.
23. The MIG-15 jet fighter flown over to Taiwan by an unidentified anti-Communist pilot of the Chinese Communist air force and crash-landed at Nan-ao near Ilan in an effort to defect to the Republic of China was put on exhibition in the New Park.
24. Vice President Chen Cheng officiated at a ceremony to start a 75,000-kilowatt steam power generator at Shenao, seven miles west of Keelung. The total cost for installing the Shenao thermal power plant is US$13,000,000 and NT$240,000,000. Included in this amount is a US$4,557,000 loan from the Westinghouse Electric Company of the United States. Another generator of 140,000-kilowatt capacity is now under construction and expected to be completed in 1962.
The second plant of the Hsinchu Window Glass Corporation began production today, raising its production capacity from the present 220,000 cases to 500,000 cases annually. Cheng Shang-wen, board chairman of the corporation, said the opening of the new plant will enable the corporation to export 200,000 cases of glass annually.
26. Hsieh Tseng-fu, deputy secretary-general of the Free China Relief Association, reported that the Chinese Air Force has during the past ten years flown a total of 105 mercy missions which airdropped 3,515 tons of rice and 1,233 tons of articles of daily necessity for relief of the people on the mainland and to keep their hope alive. In addition to these relief materials, 95,000,000 consolation letters and leaflets were airdropped on the mainland. He further revealed that the airdrop ping operation by totally unarmed transport planes covered 721 cities and counties on the mainland, including Shanghai, Nanking, Hankow, Peiping, Tientsin, Tsingtao, Chungking, and Sian in 28 provinces and territory which include Kwangtung, Fukien, Kwangsi, Chekiang, Kiangsu, Kiangsi, Anhwei, Hupeh, Hunan, Szechuan, Yunnan, Kweichow, Shantung, Honan, Shansi, Hopei, Shensi, Kansu, Ninghsia, Sinkiang, Tibet, Jehol, Chahar, Liaoning, Kirin, Heilungkiang, Sungkiang and Antung.
28. Mr. Yang Chi-tseng, minister of economic affairs and special envoy to the independence ceremony of the Republic of the Cameroons, arrived in Conakry, capital of the Republic of Guinea, for a four-day official visit. Although Guinea has no diplomatic relation with the Republic of China, Mr. Yang and his party were accorded full diplomatic honors and warmly greeted by officials of the Guinean Foreign Office.
February 2. The Bank of Communications resumed domestic banking operations after a ten-year period of inactivity. The bank, first of four national banks to reopen in Taipei, will also handle a number of special operations including the granting of long-term industrial loans and United States aid and Development Loan Fund loans to local industries.
James Shen, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared the so-called "border agreement" and "non-aggression treaty" recently concluded between Burma and the Chinese puppet regime "absolutely illegal" and "null and void," and "the Chinese Communist regime on the mainland, being a puppet created by Soviet Russia, has no right to conclude any treaty or agreement with any foreign government in the name of the Chinese people." He also warned the Burmese government against being trapped by the International Communist bloc of aggression since there have been many instances to show that so-called non-aggression treaties have been used by the Communists to pave the way for subsequent aggression against other signatory countries.
The Chinese basketball team to the First Asian Basketball Championship Tournament held in Manila last month returned to Taipei. China won the second place in the tournament among six other teams from the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Malaya, Indonesia and Hongkong. General Yi Kuo-jui, leader of the team, said upon arrival that in addition to winning the second place in the Manila tournament, the Chinese team also won the sponsorship of the Second Asian Basketball Conference tournament to be held in Taipei in 1963.
A new service center under the Industrial Development and Investment Committee of the Council for United States Aid has been set up to assist capital investors to acquire the necessary reference materials relevant to industrial development and to handle procedures governing applications for investment. It will also perform such services as selecting and procuring of factory site, and handling the necessary procedures for registration and other details in the establishment of industrial plants.
4. The Cabinet approved a series of measures recommended by the Council for United States Aid to simplify the procedures for foreign and overseas Chinese investment in Taiwan.
5. The Government Information Office reported that a total of 293 parliamentarians, scholars, religious leaders and journalists from 15 countries visited Free China last year at the invitation of the Government. The foreign visitors were mostly from the United States which accounted for 174. The others were from Japan (40), Thailand (11), Canada (10), West Germany (8), Holland (8), Korea (8), The Philippines (7), England (7), Australia (4), France (3), Malaya (3), Mexico (2), Italy, Austria, Lebanon, Spain, Iran, Switzerland, New Zealand and Union of South Africa (1 each).
6. Communist Chinese batteries fired 165 rounds against Kaoteng, Matsu Islands after a 4-month lull at the Matsu front. The last shelling took place on September 23, 1959.
8. General Peng Meng-chi, chief of general staff, left for Manila at the head of a nine-man military mission for a seven-day visit as guest of Lieutenant General Emanuel F. Cabal, Philippine chief of general staff.
9. Vice President-Premier Chen Cheng declared that the government will carry out a third four-year economic plan from this July to the end of June, 1964. He said that the new economic plan aims to achieve: (1) an increase of 36% in gross national production, (2) a raise of 36% in national income, (3) a boost of 18% in per capita income, and (4) a 9.2% jump in employment.
10. The delegates to the third plenary session of the National Assembly which opens on February 20 started reporting their attendance with the assembly's secretariat at the City Hall. A total of 1,194 delegates registered on the first day.
11. Chinese Foreign Minister S. K. Huang and American Ambassador Everett F. Drumright exchanged notes on the purchase of more American farm surplus by China. Under the agreement, China will buy US$6,000,000 worth of wheat and/or flour, including US$800,000 in freight rates, with the local currency. An equivalent of US$900,000 proceeds from the sale of farm surplus will be reserved for spending by the American Government in China, while the rest of US$5,100,000 will be spent on mutual defense programs. The notes exchanged are a supplement to the Sino-American farm surplus pact signed by the two governments on June 9, 1959.
12. The Council of the Grand Justices announced that the total membership of the National Assembly, under the present period of national emergency, should be 1,576. It is computed on the basis "of the number of delegates who were duly elected according to the law and who are able to answer the summons to attend the meeting of the Assembly." This momentous decision removed the legal obstacle which would otherwise bar assembly from forming a working quorum to amend the Constitution and to elect the president and the vice president of the nation in the forthcoming convention.
14. In its report of the trade trend in Taiwan in the last decade, the Foreign Exchange and Trade Control Commission declared that Taiwan's economic system is undergoing a transition from an underdeveloped status in the course of the last ten years to a modern industrialized economy. The FETCC noted that the total international trade of free China was increased by 87.6% from 1950 to 1959 (imports by 99% and exports by 72.5%). In the category of imports, the past decade saw a gradual increase in the inflow of capital equipment, and farm and Industrial raw materials. The shipment of consumers' goods into free China steadily declined. In exports, some 84.8% of Taiwan's aggregate exports consisted of farm products in 1950. The proportion slipped to 53.6% in 1959. On the other hand, sales of industrial commodities abroad climbed up steadily from 7.3% in 1950 to 21.1% in 1959. The export of sugar and rice, two staple cash products of free China, showed a general decline in the last decade. In 1950, sales abroad of the two items took the lion share of 82.9%, but in 1959, the ratio was reduced to 55.7% of the entire export volume. With the island developing into a more diversified economy, Taiwan's export of sugar and rice is expected to take a less prominent position in the future. The key factor in the economy transformation of the island lies in the fact that Taiwan still has a big import excess over export. In 1954 the import excess reached almost US$100,000,000. In 1959, the unfavorable balance also came to US$93,800,000. It showed that Taiwan is still dependent on outside aid. This situation is considered as normal during the period when free China is undergoing vast economic development which requires a big amount of outside capital, including foreign aid.