Taiwan Today

In the spring of 1971, the Chinese Communists launched their so-called "ping pong diplomacy," which was to lead to a seat at the United Nations and President Nixon's visit to the main­land. The small and seemingly harmless ping pong ball became in Maoist hands a powerful and bloody weapon. The intent was to use the weapon to gain world recognition and open the way to world communization in the image of Mao Tse-tung.

Canton, the southern gate to China and the biggest and most beautiful city in South China, was my birthplace. Canton's geography and climate make it an ideal place for water sports and I became an enthusiast at an early age. Because of my aptitude and my father's encouragement, I won many awards in diving competition during my primary school years. Soon I was discovered by the Chinese Communist authorities. They thought I might have championship potential and put me in a preliminary training class of the "Sports College of Kwangtung." I still remember the two Communist Party representatives who came to our house and talked to my father. They wanted me to join the diving team. I was young, innocent and glad to join up. At the time I could not understand my father's opposition. It seemed contrary to his usual attitude of encouraging me to participate in sports. Father disagreed with the party representatives but finally changed his mind. I didn't understand that, either.

I reached the age of 12 and entered the college in April of 1958. The location is at Erhsatou, a Pearl River islet of three square kilometers near Canton. Here I spent most of my teen-age years in diving training and received preliminary ideo­logical education. All my needs were taken care of. My team leader and party representative gave me lessons in ideology; my coaches taught me diving. The medical staff took care of my health. I was paid JMP30.50 monthly and provided with clothing and other daily necessities. Beginning students were paid the JMP30.50 stipend. As we graduated to higher ranks according to how well we learned the invincibility of "Mao Tse-tung thought" and showed it in training and perform­ances, we earned more. Our training and daily life were militarized.

In August of 1958, a mainland-wide ping pong tournament was held in Canton. Participants came from 21 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and the special municipalities of Peiping and Shanghai. They stayed at the college and practiced there. One day I went to watch them work out. The game interested me and I wanted to try. Members of a Shanghai team were practicing and I asked one of the players for a game. He said okay and I walked to the table excitedly, picked up a paddle and tried to serve. "What are you doing here? Put that paddle down and get out! " It was the team leader and Communist Party repre­sentative. I stood there all but stupefied for a moment. Then I dropped the bat and walked away. The party man was giving the player who had dared take me on a very hard time. "Do you know what you are doing? " he demanded. "You haven't been trained to play ping pong for your own amusement. Your thoughts and conduct are deplorable. You have to examine and review your actions and submit a report on your behavior at the criticism session tonight. You had better think it over carefully."

The player stood there, head down, and mumbled, "Yes, Sir, yes, yes..." At the time, I could not understand why the party representative should shout and carry on about such a trivial matter. I was resentful as well as surprised. I could only presume that I was looked down upon because I was not a good player. My pride was hurt. I decided to learn to play ping pong so well that no one could fail to respect me.

Driven by this determination, I sneaked into the table tennis room to play during recesses and the after-lunch siesta time. I asked some of my school­mates to help me. In six months I had made tremendous progress. The coach of the team discovered me and reported to the party repre­sentative. Soon I was ordered to participate in ping pong and drop training in swimming. I won the Canton junior singles title in March of 1959, the Canton middle school tournament in June and the Kwangtung junior crown in September. I went to a five-province junior tournament at Hanko in Hupeh in November of 1959 and won the singles. I became a full-fledged player getting ready for senior competition.

Training was rigorous. When the whistle blew at 5:30 a.m., I rose to wash, dress and police my quarters. I ran to the assembly field in hobnailed shoes and skipped rope arid worked out with dumbbells and other equipment. It was still dark but the lights were not turned because of the shortage of electricity. I was fast but often got behind. There was too much to do in such a brief time. Sometimes there was no chance to go to the toilet. That might have to be delayed for two hours. Once I couldn't wait to go and then carried my clothes to the assembly field and dressed there. No one dared to laugh. Anyone who had would have been criticized. That didn't spare me. I had to criticize myself and then listen to the denunciations of my leader and team­mates every evening for two weeks.

Breakfast time was from 7:40 to 7:55. There was nothing to enjoy. We had to swallow rather than taste and chew. The "current situation study period" lasted from 8 to 9. This was a time for discussion, ideological indoctrination and criticism. A team member chosen by the leader would read a newspaper article or editorial aloud. Usually the material was from the Jen Min Jih Pao (People's Daily) or the "New China News Agency." After the reading, we had to connect what we had heard with the thought of Mao Tse-tung.

Then came Mao thought in action with the ping pong training period from 9:50 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. Table tennis players from 21 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and the special municipalities of Peiping and Shanghai were divided into two groups. One received special training to compete with foreign teams; the other received ordinary training. We called them the shooter teams and the target teams. The shooter teams practiced the traditional playing skills of the Chinese main­land. The target teams had to imitate Japanese and Western play and tactics. Li Ching-kuang of Hopeh, Tiao Wen-yuan of Shansi, Wang Wen-hua of Kwangtung and I were chosen as members of a youth team to play against foreigners. We received concentrated training in Peiping. Yu Chang-ch'un of Shanghai and Liao Wen-t'ing of Fukien imitated Japanese players. Su Kuo-hsi of Kwangtung and Wang Chih-liang of Hopeh were opponents using the Western style of play. I was matched against those playing as Japanese for four days a week and against those of Western style for the other three days. Practicing was exhausting.

Lunch was from 12:05 to 12:30. Then came the siesta. My team captain, who was a party member, often gave up his nap to practice. He was praised by the party as a "five good athlete" for his ideology, study, training, practice and competition. His example led to a movement to give up siestas for more practice.

Training for speed and physical endurance occupied the four hours from 2 to 6. We ran the 1,200 meters, 10 laps of 100-meter sprints, 4 laps of the 200 meters and 2 of the 400 meters. We ran sideways and up stairs. We did pull-ups and exercises on the horizontal bar plus other gymnastics. Exercise was endless and the medical staff stood by. Some of us vomited and others fainted. I passed out, too. Those who fainted frequently were subjected to criticism. The team leader would say, "Why is it that others can sustain the exercise and you can't? What kind of behavior, thought and performance is this? It is because you have not applied Mao thought in your studies and daily living. You are infected with bourgeois ideology. You must review and examine yourself thoroughly. You must not fail to live up to the demands of the party and the state and the people's expectations." I was often criticized in this way. Those who talked back were criticized even more severely.

I made a fool of myself once by arguing with my superior and had to undergo three months of reformation. I maintained that capacities for physical endurance differed. The next time I passed out, they sentenced me to an extra 400-­meter lap daily for three months. My request to discontinue training because of poor health was denied.

Dinner was from 6:20 to 6:50 p.m. Discussion and ideological studies followed until 10:50. This regimen was standard in sports colleges everywhere on the mainland.

Ho Lung was then "chairman" of the Chinese Communist Athletic Committee but real control was in the hands of Chou En-lai. In 1961, Chou said: "Playing ping pong is not for fun but to promote the Communist world revolution. In relations between countries, athletes may be sent before formal ties are established. Athletes must be vanguards of Communist world revolution. The sports ground is their battlefield. Ping pong paddles are their weapons and ping pong balls their bullets. Opponents are their enemies."

Mao Tse-tung said: "Political power grows out of the gun barrel. The enemy will not vanish before he is vanquished. To make friends with the enemy is the first step in defeating him. Knowing your own strength and that of the enemy guarantees victory in every battle." The team leader told how these lessons were to be applied in ping pong. He said: "The present phase of world proletarian revolution is not to be fought on the battlefield with swords and guns but on the united front." Mao thought will demoralize the enemy and break down his ideology. As peoples all over the world recognize the greatness of Chinese Communism, we can turn all nations into Communist societies and states. K'e Kuo-t'uan won the men's singles ping pong championship in West Germany in 1959 and was personally summoned by Mao Tse-tung. Since then table tennis, has become a major main­land sport and has drawn the attention of the whole world. This is the start of Mao Tse-tung's plan to make friends with the enemy and then defeat him."

Ping pong players had to demonstrate the greatness of "Mao Tse-tung's thought" by defeat­ing foreign opponents in every game. We had to carry "Mao Tse-tung's Quotations" with us and show it to foreign hosts. When foreign correspondents interviewed us, we had to say that winning was the certain result of Mao's thought. As we spoke, we held up the. "little red book."

Our team leader and players undertook a "united front" campaign. One successful campaign was carried out at the "Athletic Games of the Newly Emerging Asian Powers" at Jakarta in July of 1962. The Soviet Union wanted to participate but was barred at behest of the Chinese Communists on grounds that Russia was not an Asian country. The Chinese Communists went all out to subvert Indonesia. They financed construction of a Jakarta stadium and athletic facilities and equipment and paid the cost of the games. Rice and flour were shipped to Indonesia along with propaganda literature and films. They sent "architects, experts and athletes" under the guise of helping with construction and promoting sport. Liu Shao-chi flew to Indonesia for a visit. At the same time, Chinese Communist weapons and ammunition had been landed in Indonesia and delivered to the Communist chieftain, D. N. Aidit, for armed rebellion against Sukarno.

Subsequently, Peiping struck in an attempted coup d'etat. Ranking Indonesian army leaders were assassinated. But Suharto survived and the Indonesian army people and army joined him in putting down the rebellion. When their conspiracy failed, the Chinese Communists slanderously alleg­ed that Suharto had undertaken a coup and killed thousands of Indonesians. They instructed their sport teams, and especially those playing ping pong, to launch an expanded political and ideo­logical united front campaign. Ping pong teams were sent to Japan, Nepal, Burma, Laos, Hong­kong, Ceylon, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Iraq, Germany, Austria, Lebanon, Syria, Norway, Denmark and African countries on "friendly visits."

My performance in training gave me rank as a table tennis team member representing the Sports College. I was classified as a 17th rank cadre at the time I escaped from the mainland in 1966. My monthly salary was JMP76.50.

I was sent to Nanking and given a lieutenant's uniform in order to represent the "Chinese Libera­tion Army" table tennis team in the "Athletic Games of Friendly Socialist Troops" sponsored by the Chinese Communists. The PLA has profes­sional sports teams whose status and training are similar to those of the "Sport Colleges." The PLA team training quarters are in Nanking.

I was ordered to Peiping for advanced training at a time when cadres, members of the Chinese Communist Party and members of the Youth Corps were being sent down to the countryside to participate in agricultural production and labor education. As a middle-ranking official, member of the Youth Corps and a preparatory member of the party, I had to postpone training and serve agricultural production. What I saw was not what the Chinese Communists had described. They had said: "The farmer's life in the countryside is marching toward a modernized heaven under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist Party. Farmers eat chicken, duck, fish and meat. They live in houses of brick and tile. They wear beautiful clothes and till the soil with mechanized equipment." I saw a countryside without electric lights, running water or farm machinery. Most farmers lived in huts built of mud and rice and wheat straw. Rain poured through the roof. When the rain stopped outside, it would still be raining inside. Life was hell. I had to get up before dawn, march to the fields in line with the local farmers and work until the stars came out again. Mao thought study sessions followed each day's work. The two daily meals were of rice mixed with mud and sand. Nor were we welcomed by the hard-pressed farmers.

I began to doubt the Chinese Communists. From living with farmers twice a year I learned that the Communist authorities told only lies.

My treatment was much better than that of many other athletes I knew. Miss Han Yu-chen, a member of the girls' ping pong team of Heilungkiang province, was selected for the all-mainland team in 1960. She received training in Peiping and won the singles championship at Shanghai in March of 1963. She defeated her Japanese rival twice in international competitions, was named an "excellent party member" and "five good athlete" and received accolades from Chou En-lai. Then she became a purge victim. She had gone to Japan in 1964 with a Chinese Communist team. Miss Han wanted to defect. She broke her paddle and cut her palm with a knife in her hotel room. She told the team leader she had been attacked by Japanese gangsters and could not play. She asked to stay in her room. The leader consented but ordered her not to leave the hotel. The team left for the site of the matches. Miss Han thought she could escape. But a security guard had been left behind and she was caught and returned to the mainland. I did not see her again.

Miss Chiu Chun-hui from Yunan was a member of the mainland girls' team in 1958 and a member of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1961 she won a world title at Peiping and was praised as a model athlete. At the end of 1963, she was criticized and purged for "following the capitalist line." At 28, she had fallen in love with a Chinese opera actor. She was 28 years old. She was com­pelled to have an abortion, expelled from the team and the party, and sent to a farm village for labor reform.

Li Fu-jung of Shanghai became a member of the mainland team in 1959 and won world championships at Peiping in 1961, Prague in 1963 and Belgrade in 1965. He was criticized and purged in 1966 because his name, Fu-jung, meant rich and of high position. The Chinese Commu­nists considered this a bourgeois affectation and ordered him to change his name to Fu-yung, meaning richness in courage.

The "cultural revolution" brought organized sports to an end in 1966. Teams were ordered to stop training and play and to climb on the Mao purge bandwagon. My team's purge targets were coach Fu Chi-fen, team leader Jung Kao-tan and Ho Lung, chairman of the Athletic Com­mittee. The charges were "following Soviet revi­sionism" and being "traitors of the party and the state." Witnessing the purge of my teammates, I realized that I could not escape the same fate. I determined to escape.

In July, 1966, the Chinese Communist authori­ties commissioned me a member of the "cultural revolution committee" in Kwangtung province. I traveled through cities and counties and helped organize the people for activities of the "cultural revolution." The opportunity for me to get away came when I went to Shihchih township, Chungshang county, Kwangtung. This is only 76 kilometers from Macao. I left Shihchih and made my way to the coast. I slipped through the border guards and swam the last lap to freedom. With the help of free Chinese relief personnel, I reached Hongkong and came to Taiwan on January 25, 1967.