U.S. Retaliation
Taipei newspaper editorial writers staunchly supported U.S. retaliation against North Vietnam torpedo boat attacks.
The Cheng Hsin Hsin Wen Pao expressed hope the United States will continue to use strong measures in North Vietnam to prevent expansion of Communist power.
It said: "The arrogant challenge has more political than strategic significance. The North Vietnamese know very well that with a few PT boats they cannot compete against the United States in the Gulf of Tonkin. However, they thought they could cause trouble for the United States.
"Both the Chinese and Vietnamese Communists want to fight a limited war to prove the United States is only a "paper tiger' which will not dare to use its 'nuclear teeth'. The Communists also want the war to create a situation that will be favorable to another round of talks."
The New Life Daily News (Hsin Sheng Pao) said: "For the last three or four years, the Chinese Communists have had grave difficulties. Their economic situation would not permit them to fight a fair-sized, lengthy war. Militarily, they also have suffered setbacks since the Soviet cut off aid. Thus it seems high time for the United States to tackle the problem of Indo-China thoroughly, once and for all."
The English-language China Post said editorially: "Why have the North Vietnamese Communists suddenly become so bold as to launch two unprovoked attacks on U.S. warships within 48 hours? In this connection, observers in Taipei are reported to be of the opinion that the whole thing is being manipulated by the Peiping regime. This cannot but be the case since North Vietnam is nothing but a puppet of the Chinese Communists, and is in no position to make any independent decision of its own. Under Peiping's instigation, however, they could go to any extremes. As for the Chinese Communists, they are playing a very safe game. Since the unprovoked attacks on U.S. warships have been launched by North Vietnamese PT boats, any retaliatory actions taken by the United States will be directed against the northern half of that peninsula and can do no harm to Communist China. Even if the United States and its South Vietnamese allies should decide to carry the war to the north, the Peiping regime may go to North Vietnam's rescue but does not have to be directly and openly involved unless it wants to."
The United Daily News (Lien Ho Pao) said that without approval and support from Peiping, North Vietnam PT boats would not have dared to attack an American naval ship in international waters.
"The fact that the U.S .... retaliated ... spiked the Chinese Communist idea of carrying out guerrilla warfare on the sea. The Chinese Communists cannot build large ships and therefore stress the use of PT boats in their naval forces. They have developed naval guerrilla tactics. PT boats attack enemy ships that are far away from their bases under cover of coastal artillery, and quickly retreat to safety. However, the Gulf of Tonkin encounter proves to the Communist strategists that such tactics cannot win against a much stronger naval force fortified by air supremacy.
"Why should the Chinese Reds attack an American naval vessel? The Chinese Communists have built up Hainan island as a naval base for southward expansion and used the Gulf of Tonkin as the main sea supply line to Southeast Asia. The Chinese Communists had to lash out."
The Cheng Hsin Hsin Wen Pao predicted the Chinese Communists and Viet Cong may carry out guerrilla warfare in the air instead of on the sea.
The paper said: "Before the North Vietnamese PT boat assault on the U.S. destroyer Maddox, the Chinese Communists had sent a top-ranking military mission to North Vietnam to size up the situation, and had moved army and air force units to Yunnan province and the Liuchow peninsula neighboring North Vietnam. Furthermore, Chen Yi, the Peiping regime's foreign minister, had threatened to enlarge the war in Indochina. Thus the PT boat assault was merely an inevitable consequence. Before the Communists made the assault, they probably anticipated U.S. retaliation. The second attack proved they were prepared to brave U.S. response. In this light, it will be unrealistic to predict that the Communists will stop their aggression merely because the U.S. has acted.
"However, it is also unrealistic to predict that the Chinese Communists will start a Korean-type war in Vietnam. They cannot, because they are no longer supported by the Soviet, they have lost firm control of the mainland populace and they are facing a stronger United States. In this context, it is likely that the Communists will continue limited, localized warfare in Indochina."
Peiping's Maneuvers
Commenting on Chinese Communism's "large-scale maneuvers" in South China, the Central Daily News (Chung Yang Jih Pao) gave this editorial analysis:
"From the very beginning, the Soviet wanted to control the Peiping regime through military cooperation. It was not its intention to help Mao Tse-tung establish a 'people's army'.
"After the Moscow-Peiping dispute worsened, the Soviet suspended military aid. As a result, many Russian-made armaments in the hands of the Chinese Reds have become useless for lack of spare parts and maintenance. The Chinese Communist armed forces now are equipped with homemade small arms and outmoded planes and ships. The rank and file have begun to doubt .the effectiveness of their weapons, are afraid of war and have low morale.
"To build up morale, the Chinese Communists have resorted to a propaganda line of 'fighting with what we have' and 'fighting a revolutionary war' and have prudently refrained from any mention of 'modern war'. To allay fear, they have tried to build up the image of the United States as a 'paper tiger'.
"The Chinese Communist maneuvers involve some segments of the militia and are confined to marksmanship, grenade throwing and river crossings-all skills that are relatively unimportant in modern war.
Ostentatiously, the Russians did not join the maneuvers. Even if relations with Peiping permitted, they would find it difficult to drill their modern nuclear-equipped forces side by side with Chinese Communist troops armed with outmoded weapons and using guerrilla tactics.
"Russians and Chinese Communists are guarding their common border as though they were enemies. Large Chinese Communist forces are stationed along the Sino-Russian to guard against Russian invasion and along the coastline to guard against counterattack from Taiwan, leaving few to carry out aggression elsewhere.
"The Chinese Communist maneuvers are an empty show of strength. It is high time for the United States to bring military pressure to bear on the Peiping regime or help the Republic of China launch a counterattack. Prompt victory is assured."
Trade Offensive
The Central Daily News wrote:
"There are nations in the Western world that intend to trade with the Chinese Communists but few that would like to establish diplomatic ties. Since France and the Congo (Brazzaville), the Chinese Communists have found their attempted penetrations and subversions futile in both South America and East Africa.
"As the Peiping-Moscow split deepens, the Chinese Communists also have lost support in the Eastern European Communist group.
"To make up for these setbacks, the Peiping regime has begun a new diplomatic offensive. It is trying to tempt such market-hungry nations as Japan, Canada and West Germany with profit, to deceive the newly independent and underdeveloped countries with false kindness, and to flatter such ambitious autocrats as de Gaulle, Ayub Khan and Sukarno. It also has sought to promote pro-Peiping advocacy by such influential Westerners as U.S. Senator Fulbright.
"All this leads us to these conclusions: Militarily, the Chinese Communists have found no place to carry out new adventures, and diplomatically, they are being isolated. The new diplomatic campaign will be their last effort."
The Cheng Hsin Hsin Wen Pao said:
"Most Americans have talked of opposing a world that is half free and half slave. But most American policies have perpetuated this situation. If Americans had the courage and vision to back up their beliefs with deeds, they would not continue to allow Eastern Europe and the Chinese mainland to remain in the hands of the Communists.
"The Peiping regime is trying to break out of its diplomatic isolation. It has dangled opportunities before free nations eager to enter the Chinese mainland market, supported power-hungry foreign personalities, and offered money to many newly emerged nations to help in their economic development.
"With this three-pronged foreign policy, the Peiping regime has reached France, Japan, Canada, and a number of African, Latin American and Asian countries with its sugar-coated poisons.
"We do not believe that President Johnson has exchanged letters with Chou En-lai. However, if President Johnson had, it would to a flagrant betrayal of the free world and the American commitments to her allies."
The China News called for a free world offensive against the Communists, especially in Africa.
The paper said: "As Moise Tshombe has told the world, the Chinese Communists are pouring money, weapons, propaganda, and technical assistance into the effort to subvert Africa. Leadership is being provided Africans trained in Peiping.
"Can anything be done? It seems to us that something can. The free world already has given away too much by sheer default.
"One possibility is a considerable expansion of the agricultural demonstration program that the Republic of China already is conducting in nine African countries. Results arc important in terms of needed food, but even more so as an example of what can be done by African-free world cooperation and as a statement of proof that the Republic of China is interested in Africa for Africa's sake as contrasted with the aggressive intentions of Peiping.
"Another approach might be through a world-wide, multi-nation Democratic Assistance Agency—to coin a tentative name—that would provide the same help for anti-Communist Africans that the Reds give to those of pro-Communist persuasion.
"To put it another way, the answer in Africa and elsewhere is to abandon the defensive and begin attacking the enemy in an organized way and with the superior equipment and ideology that the free world can supply. It's that or continuation of the slow retreat until democracy's back is against the wall in every underdeveloped country."
Singapore Riot
The English-language China News said that "Communism's long hand is reaching across the world, from Harlem to Singapore, to stir racial differences into hatred and violence."
The paper said that Communist actionists in the United States, "having formed an 'unholy alliance' with the Black Muslims and other extremists, are financing and stimulating the lawless terror.
"What the Communists dream of is the generation of hate and division that will tear America to pieces, destroy the democratic progress of two centuries, and weaken the United States for assault from without.
"For Singapore and Malaysia, the crisis is deeper and more decisive. Singapore itself has a good many Communists hidden under various covers. Some undoubtedly remain in the Malay states after the 10-year anti-Communist war. Infiltration is of serious proportions in northern Borneo, where further complications are provided by the confrontation with Indonesia."
The paper concluded: "Harlem and Singapore are not isolated examples. They are a mere foretaste of what the Communists, and especially those of the Chinese variety, hope to achieve by pitting race against race, group against group. The goal is Communist take-over in which the Reds will enforce their own brand of inequality."
The English-language China Post expressed concern about the riots in Singapore. The paper said: "Many overseas Chinese, as a result of their hard labor, have made a great fortune, owning most of the major business and financial organizations and forming a segregated community with many of the local people living under conditions of abject poverty. This feeling of jealousy and the nationalistic movement in the newly independent states of Southeast Asia have now combined to produce a strong anti-foreign chauvinism which has led to the outbreak of racial riots here and there in recent years.
"The discriminatory policy against them is by no means justifiable. What really worries many people is that such a policy is most likely to offer the Communists a golden opportunity to drive a wedge between the overseas Chinese and the native people and create endless disturbances."
The China News declared that Peiping is trying to establish Communism in the United States by instigating a second civil war.
The paper said: "The United States apparently is hesitating to tell the whole truth about Chinese Communist instigation of a second 'civil war' of black against white.
"Presumably the reason is fear that the charges will boomerang. Liberals in the United States frequently hesitate to go after the Communists as hard as they might, because they are afraid conservatives will seize upon the opportunity to whip up a witch hunt.
"This time the conspiracy is too serious to be ignored. The Red summons—literally—is to armed Negro insurrection. American Negroes are told to rise up and fight—to kill the whites—because that is the only way they can ever win their rights.
"This call to hate and violence is sounded by Peiping radio and in printed materials which have been smuggled into the United States. Apparently money—presumably earned by profits from the insidious and vicious narcotic trade-is being poured into Harlem and other centers of conflict."
Chang Chun's Mission
The China News expressed hope that Gen. Chang Chun's' trip to Japan and Korea will bring closer ties between those two nations and China:
"Korea and China long have been interested in the anti-Communist unity of this part of the world. Japan has been hesitant. The Japanese were uniquely placed under an American protective umbrella by their defeat in World War II. Resulting defense economies have saved them billions of dollars since the occupation ended.
"Another problem in Northeast Asia is to get Korea and Japan together under one defense tent. The two countries still have not normalized relations, largely because of Korean suspicions growing out of a Japanese occupation that lasted for nearly 40 years. Until they do, a defense pact is unlikely.
"Yet the effort should be made, even if the beginning is restricted to China, Korea, and perhaps some of the endangered countries of Southeast Asia.
"The anti-Communist cause of East Asia has not been lost. But would certainly be unrealistic to say that our region has made progress in the last decade. In Southeast Asia, our friends are more seriously threatened, and in the northeast, Japan's trade and political flirtations with Red China are alarming.
"Perhaps a larger degree of free Asian unity would not have made any difference. There is no way of telling. But judging from other alliances in other parts of the world, we might have done better.
"NATO is weaker than once it was. Still, the fact remains that despite sizable Communist movements in France and Italy, Western Europe is far stronger and more secure than 10 years ago, Additionally, the example of military cooperation has served to bring the participating countries closer together economically, and their prosperity is now undermining the Soviet Union's eastern bloc.
"General Chang Chun will not come home with an alliance tucked away in his breast pocket. We can hope, however, that he will have received some encouragement for the start of a closer relationship-even at a consultative level—among the three free countries of Northeast Asia. If a small beginning is made today, we at least will have a chance to make a little more progress in the next 10 years than we have made in the last 10."
Philippines Relations
The China News commented on the Philippines new immigration policy:
"The Philippine government, according to recent press reports, has relaxed its immigration procedures by giving a 15-day visa-free privilege to all foreign nationals of friendly countries beginning this month.
"The move was designed to promote tourism in the Philippines which in recent years has scared away many an international visitor because of numerous cases of taxi robberies and touts victimizing travelers to Manila.
"The incentive is expected to give the Philippines a big boost in tourist development. Unfortunately, the new order specifically banned Chinese nationals from entering the Philippines on the 15-day visa-free grace. The Chinese Embassy in Mam1a has been instructed to protest to the Philippine government against this discriminatory act.
"In the overall cordial Sino-Filipino relations, the questions of the Chinese businessmen and the overstaying Chinese always pose as dark shadows in an otherwise clear sky. Although efforts were made in the past years to resolve the differences and patch things up, little result, if any, has been achieved.
"On the other hand, the recent decree of the Philippine immigration authorities to deny the Chinese nationals of the 15-day visa-free grace is nothing but an irritable and unnecessary face-slapping. As the Chinese people are face-loving people, they take this indignation seriously.
"There is no reason whatsoever for the Philippines to refuse the entry of Chinese nationals, particularly those from Taiwan who are anti-Communist to the core and who are beyond security risk. The reason given by a Filipino columnist that the Chinese don't like to leave the Philippines once they get there is preposterous and damaging to the Chinese national character. The statement seemed to reflect more on the integrity and efficiency of the Philippine immigration service itself than anything else.
"On other fronts, Taipei and Manila seemed to be getting along well. Visits of Philippine and Chinese officials and specialists have been numerous. Chinese experts on land reform and agricultural extension have been invited to work in the Philippines. From the technical field, the two nations may move toward greater areas of cooperation such as trade and investment later on.
"Both nations seem to have exercised a great deal of patience and restraint in shelving some of the difficult questions marring the normal relations between the countries. It takes courage and statesmanship on both sides to resolve these outstanding issues on a give-and-take basis. The time to do it is now."