The English-language China Post said the December parliamentary elections marked a turning point in the Republic of China's march toward democracy.
The paper said: "The Kuomintang's sweeping victory at the polls in nationwide elections deserves commendation from people of all walks of life. It was a cleanly run election which was not only orderly but also open and fair to all parties concerned, including the independents.
"The final returns show that the ruling Kuomintang swept to an easy victory with 63 new seats out of the 70 vacancies in the Legislative Yuan and 56 seats out of the 76 seats in the National Assembly. The voters elected 96 per cent of the Kuomintang endorsed candidates in all free areas. About 27 per cent of Kuomintang members who were not Kuomintang nominees also won election.
"Unfortunately, six Young China Party candidates were not elected and two Democratic Socialist Party candidates for the Legislative Yuan were defeated. But one of its two nominees was elected to the National Assembly.
"The results show clearly that democracy in the Republic of China has worked well as 7 million voters out of 9.9 million eligible voters went to the polls, representing a voting rate of over 65 per cent. It went up in some instances, such as Kinmen and Lien Chian Counties, to 95.98 per cent.
"The election results proved to be satisfactory to non-Kuomintang candidates. Independent candidates such as Kang Ning-hsiang and Ms. Chou Ching-yu were elected with big votes and expressed satisfaction at the results. Other independents also won election after a tough fight. Two Kuomintang nominated candidates were defeated, showing that all the candidates had to win by their own merits even though they had the backing of the Kuomintang. They could not take election for granted.
"The ruling party's decision to hold the elections at this time was indeed justified. The results should convince our friends and foes alike that democracy in the Republic of China has shown its ramifications and glorification. The people as a whole overwhelmingly supported the ruling party and the election was a resounding vote of confidence for its policies and recommendations. The results of the elections should enable the ruling party to go forward with greater confidence to promote greater freedom, democracy, economic prosperity and social welfare to enhance national welfare and security toward the goal of national recovery and reconstruction.
"The results provide a sharp contrast to the utter lack of democracy on the Chinese mainland, where the 900 million people are living under harsh tyranny and unable to free themselves from the despotic rule of the Peiping regime. Such a sharp contrast should provide the basis for re-examination of China policy by the new U.S. administration of Ronald Reagan. There is no doubt that in the final analysis, the American people will side with the free people of the Republic of China and not with the dictatorial regime which usurps the names of the Chinese people of the Chinese mainland to act on their behalf without authorization or justification."
Central Daily News — Communism on trial
The Chung Yang Jih Pao (Central Daily News) said the trial of the "gang of four" has sharpened the internal struggle of the Chinese Communists.
The paper said: "The crimes Lin Piao and Chiang Ching committed are also the Communist party's crimes.
"Though the trial is continuing, two conclusions are obvious.
"First, from Mao Tse-tung to Teng Hsiao-ping, all Communist leaders have gained power through trickery or as a result of bloody struggle.
"The government and people of the Republic of China oppose Communism because it is unacceptable to the Chinese people. The trial bears this out and shows the Free World that China's future requires termination of Communist despotism and implementation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People.
"Second, the Chinese Communists are revealing their true face of treachery and failing to show the slightest shift from violent leftist struggle to conservative moderation.
"President Chiang Ching-kuo has penetratingly said: 'The Chinese Communists have often contradicted their own policy line. They cannot escape from the ideology and system of the Communist dictatorship of the proletariat. Their claim of turning to the right is only a means of cheating the Free World.'
"Those who still have illusions about Communism should heed this analysis and escape from their self-deception."
China Times — Crisis deepens
The Chung Kuo Shih Pao (China Times) said the trial of the "gang of four" will deepen the crisis of the Chinese Communism.
The paper said: "The Chinese Communists are taking advantage of the trial to make propaganda. They have tried to give the appearance of an open and legal trial. There are defense lawyers, specially invited observers and televised coverage via satellite.
"But why are legitimate reporters barred and only Chinese Communist mouthpieces allowed to cover the story?
"Lin Piao failed in his 1971 plot and members of the 'gang of four' were arrested in 1976. The Chinese Communists have repeatedly postponed the gang's trial. Now they are putting Lin and the gang together despite serious inconsistencies.
"The crimes of the gang involve Mao Tse-tung. But seeking to save their own skins, Chinese Communist leaders could not agree on how Mao might be criticized.
"The trial is a farce."
Commenting on the same subject, the English-language China News agreed the real trial is that of Chinese Communism and not of the gang and its accomplices.
The paper said: "Emerging from the trial of the 'gang of four' is astonishment that the Chinese Communists could have survived as long as they have.
"The era of Mao Tse-tung was one of crazy people fighting over the means to destroy each other.
"Those who are trying the gang were protagonists in that battle.
"Nor is this a trial. The judges are puppets. Guilt has never been an issue. The puppet masters have had only to decide the punishment.
"The means by which Lin Piao and his elements of the gang were going to destroy Mao are more incredible than the wildest imaginings of a James Bond story.
"These were supposed leaders presiding over the destinies of hundreds of millions of people.
"It is a miracle that life has endured on the Chinese mainland. The credit is not that of those who have wielded and struggled for power. Mainland people have survived because of their own quiet courage and durability.
"They have hung onto life with their instinct for survival. One day they will be rewarded with the extinction of Communism and the return of freedom and democracy to the mainland.
"In a sense, the trial is a step in progress to that end. People now know that they have been ruled by madmen and that the only transition of power has been to other lunatics.
"For foreigners, the trial comes as a rude shock — a travesty on justice and an acknowledgement that Chinese Communism is incorrigibly evil.
"Inevitably, those who observe from afar are going to wonder how it is possible to have normal relations with those who claim to speak in the name of the Chinese people on the mainland.
"They are going to conclude that the Chinese Communists are bound to pollute everything they touch. The Peiping performance is distorted and Peiping promises are meaningless.
"Chinese Communism doesn't even have an ideology. Those who have enrolled in its aberrations have moved from 'great leap forward' to 'cultural revolution' to the present trial as though in a nightmare. They believe nothing and have laid aside the values of their Chinese culture for the enjoyment of sadistic brutality.
"If there is a comparison in world history, the Chinese Communists must be likened to the Nazis who sent 6 million Jews to their deaths and then prided themselves on preserving the purity of the German nation.
"The toll paid by the Chinese people over the last 30 years is on the order of 60 million rather than 6 million.
"If the Free World can see this trial for what it really is, the international acceptance of the Chinese Communists will be slowly reversed.
"Those staging the trial are so devoid of human understanding that they fail to recognize they are in the dock along side their prisoners."
Economic Daily News — Developed status
The Ching Chi Jih Pao (Economic Daily News) of October 25 said the Republic of China is nearing the status of a developed country.
The paper said: "The annual average economic growth rate of 9.1 per cent for 1952-1979 was first in the world. Per capita income for 1980 is expected to exceed US$2,200, one of the highest figures among developing countries.
"Industrial production has increased 37 times in the last 27 years. Value of industrial production accounted for 46 per cent of the GNP in 1979. Ninety-one per cent of 1979 exports US$14.6 billion worth came from industry, which is now the backbone of the Taiwan economy.
"Unemployment is under 2 per cent. Forty-four per cent of the population was employed in 1979.
"The gap between rich and poor has been narrowed. The income of the richest 20 per cent of families is only 4.2 times larger than the poorest 20 per cent. Wealth is equitably distributed.
"People eat, dress and live well. Over 99 per cent of all households have electricity. Completion of north-south freeway and railway electrification enhances transportation capacity and efficiency. Attendance at elementary schools is over 99 per cent. The average life span is 69 years for men and 74 for women.
"With these advances, the Republic of China soon will enter the ranks of developed countries."
Chinese News — Worthless contracts
The English-language China News said now the Communists in China are reneging right and left on contracts with foreigners.
The paper said: "The latest example is postponement of the second stage of the new steel mill outside Shanghai.
"One can only guess how a decision like this will ever be resolved technically, but it involves nearly $1 billion in contracts, mostly with the Japanese.
"The one last week was for an acrylic resins plant in Peiping. At $180 million, it was to be a pretty big one.
"Three Japanese companies were the foreign half of the project on a contract basis. They apparently were not advised that it had come to an end until Peiping's public announcement.
"It is an arbitrary way to go about canceling out on international contracts signed long ago, and on which a good deal of investment has already been made.
"The chemical plant is apparently canceled not just postponed. Since one of the excuses given is the fact of industrial pollution in Peiping, the cancelation sounds permanent.
"The steel mill second stage extension is ostensibly only postponed, but it is postponed in the context of the whole steel capacity in that country, so the postponement might be for a long, long while.
"Both these cancelation and postponement decisions come on top of the indefinite postponement of Sanyo Electric's joint project to build a refrigerator compressor plant in Shanghai. This one also came without warning or explanation.
"Japan has about $2 billion more in contracts with Communist China. They were suspended last year, and with a doubtful future.
"It must make all the Japanese companies concerned shiver. They jumped into this kind of industrial collaboration in Communist China. Now what happens to it all? And to all the oil, for that matter, which Communist China was expected to export to Japan?
"The Americans and Europeans sitting in their $7,000-a-month apartments in Hongkong while trying for, and waiting for, similar business in Communist China, might begin also to wonder if the game is worth it.
"Not much at all has come out of this starry eyed chasing after business on the mainland. The figures get smaller constantly, and many disappear, as witness the above.
"Now, as is being proved to the Japanese, even when you get a contract and put money into it, it isn't really a contract at all, Just a piece of intention, maybe.
"It is always pretty hard to feel sorry for the Japanese in business, or for Americans and Europeans in this mainland China business.
"All of them went rushing in after a profit bonanza in an alien and immoral environment.
"They seem to have been conned at it by the Communists. Communists are good at that."