The same comparison can be drawn between Canton and Hongkong. North Vietnam's Communists continue the war against the south because they are hungry and those in the free half of the country have food.
Progress and the good life are always to be found on the democratic side, never on the Communist, and nowhere is the distinction so sharp as between the Republic of China's province of Taiwan and the starving, restive mainland.
During the last 13 years on Taiwan, the free Chinese government and people have carried out reform and construction programs leading to prosperity and stability. In Asia, only Japan has a higher standard of living. On the other side of the Taiwan Straits, famine, oppression and ideological persecution have led to sabotage and uprisings. Tens of thousands have risked their lives to escape.
Per capita gross national product of Taiwan totaled US$152.27 last year, that of the mainland $74.18, according to Pick's World Currency Report published July 8. Free Chinese average daily energy intake is 2,339 calories per capita, highest in Asia. Mainlanders, who work 14-17 hours a day, may receive as few as 1,200 calories.
Taiwan's farms are among the world's smallest but also among the most progressive. The island produces more food that it needs to feed its 11 million people. Per hectare yield is the world's highest. Surplus is exported to friendly nations.
Paralleling production efforts, Taiwan has carried out an agrarian reform program to achieve equitable distribution and realize social justice. Since 1949, land reform has benefited about half a million farm families (63 per cent of the total). The number of tenant farmers has been reduced from 41 per cent to 15 per cent.
Farm production has increased spectacularly: rice by 60 per cent; wheat, 450 per cent; soya beans, 400 per cent; vegetables, 35 per cent; tea, 70 per cent; pineapple, 400 per cent; citrus fruits, 200 per cent; hogs, 400 per cent.
High yields are being studied for application of similar methods in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. Last April 11 African countries sent 25 agriculturalists to Taiwan for six months of training in rice and upland cultivation and farm extension.
Land Reform
Land reform was carried out in three stages. First, farmland rent was cut to 37½ per cent of the value of the main crop. This enabled the tenant to save money for subsequent purchase and to make improvements, thereby increasing production and his share of the profits. The numerals "3-7-5" became symbols of prosperity. The farmer bought a "3-7-5 water buffalo," built a "3-7-5 house" and took a "3-7-5 bride."
Second, the government sold 250,000 acres of public land to farmers who had no holdings of their own. As in the subsequent purchase from landlords, payment was made in 20 installments over a period of 10 years. The price approximated the amount that previously had been paid to landlords for rent.
The third phase was the government's purchase of 344,000 acres from landlords and resale to tenants. Payment will be completed this fall.
Peasant Opposition
When the Chinese Communists were seizing mainland power in the late 1940s, they were mistakenly described as a group of well-intentioned "agrarian reformers." The true nature of the regime became wholly obvious when Mao Tse-tung drove more than 90 per cent of the 600 million people into 26,500 people's communes in 1958.
The people's commune supposedly is the ultimate in communization. The two stages preceding it are land reform and collectivization.
During the first stage, the Communists sought the total elimination of the land-owning class, which constituted about 10 per cent of the 500 million rural people. Landlords and rich farmers were denounced, humiliated, beaten or slain at public trials and "struggle" meetings by cadre-led village mobs. "People's courts" were set up in 1950 to try "ruffians, anti-revolutionaries and saboteurs of land reform."
Farmers had been disappointed by land reform results. According to Liao Lu-yen, "minister of agriculture," 700 million mou (115 million acres) of land were distributed to 300 million peasants, an average of 2.3 mou (0.38 acres) to a peasant.
Land apportioned to each farmer was too small. Out of the limited fruits of his labor, he had to pay an "agricultural tax" ranging from 30 to 50 per cent. The peasant was worse off than before.
In the agricultural collectivization campaign in 1955, 500 million peasants were forced to join collective farms or agricultural cooperatives. The concept of collectivization was contrary to the basic thinking and interest of the Chinese farmer. Soon after the introduction, widespread peasant resistance was reported.
Lo Jui-ching, chief of the "Public Security Department," announced on September 30, 1959, that some 3,000 anti-Communist groups had been broken up from 1954 to 1957. Estimates of the individuals involved ran as high as 1,800,000.
On August 29, 1958, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party announced its decision to establish the "people's commune."
Each commune embraces more than 20,000 members, who live and work collectively. Private ownership is abolished and so is the Chinese family system. Husbands and wives live in separate dormitories, away from their children. They toil as serfs for 14 to 17 hours a day, taking meals at "public mess halls."
At the end of 1958, Peiping announced that there were 2,650,000 public mess halls, 4,750,000 nurseries and 100,000 homes for the aged.
Calamity Widespread
Since the "great leap forward" industrial campaign began in 1958, agriculture has suffered drastically—partly because of human failure, partly because of flood, drought and insect plague.
On August 26, 1959, Chou En-lai said: "According to recent figures, this year a total of 510,000,000 mou (34,000,000 hectares) of farmland have been affected by flood, drought and insect pests, which form close to one-third of the total cultivated area."
In his report to the "National People's Congress" in Peiping last April, Chou En-lai said: "Our country suffered from serious natural calamities for three consecutive years and our national economy has been confronted with great difficulties."
To remedy food shortages, Chou set forth a 10-point program to "adjust" the national economy. It included retrenchment of capital construction in favor of agriculture and light industry.
A recent Communist report said calamity-stricken farms were to be found in 23 provinces. The New China News Agency reported on August 11 that many areas in north China had been flooded during the preceding two weeks. Hardest hit were the provinces of Hopei, Liaoning, Heilungkiang and Inner Mongolia. The Jen Min Jih Pao (People's Daily) said on August 10 that some 70 per cent of paddies in Shensi province was infected by locusts.
Taiwan has achieved an industrial miracle as well as agricultural progress.
Number of factories rose from 9,871 in 1949 to more than 20,000 in 1961. During the same period, industrial production increased by 298 per cent and industrial employment by 147,000 or 71 per cent.
Shopping is fun when life is free (File photo)
Industries established by the Japanese were seriously damaged during the war. The postwar development of private industry can be divided into three stages: from 1946 to 1952, from 1953 to 1960 and from 1961 onward.
In the years immediately after World War II, the chief task was to put the industrial machine back in operation. By 1952, output of such principal items as electric power, wheat flour, cotton yarn and fabrics, caustic soda, fertilizers, petroleum products and cement had exceeded their pre-war records.
During the second stage, industrial production climbed 144.5 per cent, averaging 11.8 per cent a year.
In per capita production of electric energy, Taiwan ranks third in Asia, trailing only Japan and Israel. About 84 per cent of the population enjoys lighting and other electric services. Installed capacity for production of power grew from 275,680 kw in 1950 to 923,420 in 1961.
Industrial progress also is reflected in the composition of Taiwan's foreign trade. In 1950, exports of industrial products were US$6,782,000 and accounted for 7.3 per cent of the total. In 1961, they reached US$85 million and accounted for 39.7 per cent. Main customers are Japan, the United States, West Germany, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Hongkong.
Fisheries production has been increased from 80,000 metric tons (88,000 tons) in 1949 to 312,000 metric tons (343,000 tons) in 1961, The rate of increase is the world's highest.
Textiles Boom
Tankers of the 36,000-ton class have been launched by the shipbuilding industry.
Virtually non-existent before the war, the textile industry has become one of the fastest-growing on the island. Exports increased from US$350,000 in 1954 to $27 million in 1961. It is second to sugar as an earner of foreign exchange.
Sugar exports totaled $61 million last year. Peak year was $110 million in 1957.
Annual production of cement rose from 291,000 metric tons (320,000 tons) in 1949 to 1.5 million metric tons (1.7 million tons) in 1961.
The bicycle industry is well developed and its product has come to be a necessity of the average rural household. Annual production is between 30,000 and 40,000 units.
The petroleum refinery is one of the finest in Asia. It refined 362 million gallons of crude oil in 1961, a 500 per cent increase over 1949.
Automobile production began in 1956. It reached 1,700 cars in 1961 and will be increased to 2,000 this year.
Pharmaceutical plants number about 160. Products are mainly for domestic consumption, but some items are exported to Hongkong, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
Backyard furnaces and constant military drill have been aspects of life under Communism (File photo)
The private enterprise share of industrial production increased from 30.5 per cent in 1950 to 59.3 per cent in 1960. The general index for industrial production in the private sector rose from 122 in 1950 to 866 in 1960, an increase of 610 per cent. This compares with an increase of only 114 per cent for the government sector.
By contrast, the Peiping regime seized all commercial and industrial assets in a three-stage attack on private property and enterprise.
First, any private enterprise useful to the Communists was given a temporary lease of life. During this period, the regime sought to sap financial strength of the companies. The second stage was characterized by systematic restriction of private control in a series of "struggles." In the third stage, the Communists moved in to share the management with private owners. Their ultimate purpose was to "reform" or take over the enterprises.
Purge of 1952
According to "Finance Minister" Po I-po, 450,000 households engaged in commerce and industry in Peiping, Tientsin, Shanghai, Hankow, Canton, Chungking, Sian and Mukden were subjected to the purge of the "five-anti" campaign in 1952. (The campaign included denunciation of bribery, tax evasion, theft of state properties, substandard material or workmanship and leakage of state economic information).
In Shanghai alone, more than 5,000 industrialists and businessmen reportedly killed themselves during the campaign. After the "five-anti" movement, Mao Tse-tung started to eliminate private banking.
In November, 1953, all sales and purchases of food, edible oils, cotton, and cotton cloth were centralized in the hands of the Communists. A great number of shops and factories was forced to close down or accept dictated terms for "cooperation" with the regime.
At the same time, the tentacles of state control spread far and wide. By 1954, some 22,000 monopoly companies had been set up and were waging a deadly war against private commerce and industry.
At the beginning of 1958, Mao Tse-tung formulated a wishful slogan: "A great leap forward in industry and agriculture," with a footnote, "Catch up with Great Britain in industry within 15 years."
Peiping began to announce a series of upward revisions in production targets.
The "iron and steel" campaign began.
Small native-type blast furnaces sprang up everywhere. At the height of the drive, 60 million people, from school children of eight or nine to aged grandmothers, were mobilized to smelt pig iron in backyard furnaces. Results were virtually nil.
Industrial failure has gone from bad to worse. Because of material shortages, nearly half of all factories had been closed down by this year. The percentage in Canton ran as high as 80.
Twenty million people were sent to the countryside for manual labor last year. This year the number is estimated at 30 million.
Communists boast of their progress in education but show no concrete results. Illiteracy is still widespread. By contrast, free China has raised the literacy rate above 90 per cent in the determined educational campaign of the last 13 years.
Six-year elementary education is compulsory. As children reach the age of six, they are assigned to public schools where everything is free, including textbooks.
High Attendance
The attendance rate of school-age children was 95.59 per cent in 1960-61, second highest in Asia. There are 1,884 elementary schools with 1,986,944 pupils, almost one-fifth of the island's population.
Family is the center of Chinese way of life except where the Communists have corrupted tradition (File photo)
Secondary schools total 399 with an enrollment of more than 400,000 students. Number of colleges and universities rose from six in 1949 to 30 in 1962. Enrollment was up from 5,900 to 38,000.
Taiwan's educational institutions have attracted students from all parts of the world. More than 8,000 overseas Chinese students and 263 foreign students from 29 countries and areas are pursuing their studies on the island.
Of the foreign students, 34 are enrolled in elementary schools, 80 in secondary schools and 149 in colleges and universities. Subjects of study range from Sinology to medicine. A third of them study under scholarships provided by the Chinese government.
Overseas Visitors
From 1954 to 1961, some 6,000 overseas Chinese youths visited Taiwan from Burma, Cambodia, Hongkong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macao, Malaya, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam.
Under Communist control, education has become indoctrination and a political instrument. Brainwashing was introduced in 1949.
Traditional culture was labeled as "semi-feudal"
A committee was organized to push "language reform." Up to July, 1959, more than 500 simplified characters for general use had been introduced to remove the ideographical value. In many cases they appear almost like a foreign language. Beginners as well as those familiar with the Chinese characters find the distorted symbols difficult to identify.
Extensive reorganization of schools and curricula began in 1953.
Political indoctrination has been emphasized. Everybody is required to study and discuss the texts of Marxism-Leninism, the writings of Mao Tse-tung, official bulletins, propaganda tracts and current events.
A high-level meeting in Peiping in February, 1958, decided that a vigorous program in political training should be one of the fundamental missions of school education, aiming to destroy "capitalistic thought" and to affirm "socialist thought."
When thought reform through political indoctrination failed, the Communists tried what they call "labor education."
The slogan "education and labor for production must go together" became a deadly serious business.
The Central Committee of the Communist Youth Corps issued a directive on January 27, 1959, stipulating that all schools open factories, operate farms, or establish working relationships with productive enterprises already in operation.
In the Communist mind, the thinking of intellectuals is illusory and their actions equivocal. Criticism campaigns were manipulated among scholars and students.
In 1955, a general attack was directed against Dr. Hu Shih, outstanding philosopher and man of letters. To condemn his "capitalistic philosophy of experimentalism," his son, Hu Sze-tu, was compelled to reject his popular and respected father publicly. Former associates and friends were rounded up and required to denounce Hu Shih.
According to the Jen Min Jih Pao of July 18,1957, more than 81,000 counterrevolutionaries and more than a million political suspects were uncovered in the 1955 campaign.
With respect to art, literature and science, the policy of "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend" was proclaimed by Mao Tse-tung in May, 1956.
In September of the following year, several professors and students were executed in Wuhan for their part in leading the students' revolt in Hanyang, climaxing widespread opposition to the regime that had been touched off by the "blooming and contending."
Ideological Reform
According to a New China News Agency report of April 5 this year, Mao now has decided to launch all-out "ideological reform" of some 17 million party members.
The agency said reorientation of the party members is necessary because many of them have acquired the bad habit of "bureaucracy."
Between 1951 and 1956, many Chinese youths in Southeast Asia were lured to the mainland by Communist agents, but found only disappointment and frustration there. Many were thrown into slave labor camps.
In 1957, the number of students going to the mainland from Singapore was 893; in 1958 it had declined to 212 and in 1959 to 152. Sources in Hongkong also state that there has been a persistent decline in the number of Chinese students going to the mainland since 1957.
Manuel Migone, a Chilean who studied theatrical direction at Peking University in 1960, said many foreign students on the mainland did not stay on long. Four Africans and four Italians at Peking University left. In 1959, of 23 Iranians, only eight stayed. At the Institute of Foreign Languages 20 of 40 Somalis left.
In a June issue of the Chilean newspaper El Tribuno, Migone recalled:
"During my 15-month stay there, I never heard any talk of a single cultural conference at the university. No painting exhibition was organized. I saw many films. But they were nothing but Communist propaganda."
Migone said he was lured to the Chinese mainland by the "glossy descriptions" in China Reconstructs and China Pictorial, Peiping magazines available in Chile in both English and Spanish.
For centuries, the family has remained the basic unit of Chinese society. It is the nucleus of Confucian teaching and the foundation of Chinese civilization.
Juniors are taught to respect elders, children to be filial to their parents. Parents should be kind to their offspring. Husbands and wives should love each other.
There is privacy for each family. When the family head dies, he leaves his belongings to his sons and daughters.
People pay respect to their ancestors. They refrain from doing wrong so as not to soil the good name of their family.
Betrayal of one's parents is a terrible crime.
Morality plays express the deep, Confucian-based ethical ethos of the free Chinese (File photo)
All these virtues remain on Taiwan. But the Chinese Communists consider them the "biggest stumbling block to the progress of the Revolution."
In 1950, the "new marriage law" was promulgated to encourage divorce under the pretext of "liberating women from the feudal bondage of the family system." The number of divorce cases handled by "people's courts" in that year totaled 186,167. In 1956, it passed one million.
Family members were forced to denounce their own parents and spouses.
In the people's communes, husbands and wives live in separate dormitories. At day-break, the sound of a bugle calls them into factories, paddy fields or to far-flung labor sites. After a day's labor, they have no place of their own to go to.
Women have been "liberated" from the kitchen. They do not cook for their families. They enjoy "equality" with men in terms of labor. At the beginning of 1959, more than 120 million women in rural areas had joined in "social labor."
Respect for ancestors is termed feudalistic. Children do not have to honor their forbears. A father has nothing left for his children because ownership is collective.
Children do not belong to their parents. They are confined to nurseries.
The Chung Kuo Ching Nien Pao (China Youth Daily) on January 9 of this year reported that Chang Chin-lin, second secretary of the Young Communist League Peiping Municipal Committee, "urged teen-agers and children to be sincere, brave, lively, united and to become good children of Chairman Mao."
Religious Contrast
Traditionally, the Chinese are tolerant in religious matter. People enjoy freedom of worship.
Taoists cooperate with Buddhists. Compromise has created in China a kind of religion that is a combination of many. The Chinese take this attitude because they think all religions preach just one thing: to be good.
On Taiwan, there are 1,850 Buddhist temples and shrines, 1,800 Taoist temples and hundreds of temples not directly connected with either Buddhism or Taoism.
There are 1,600 Protestant and 224 Catholic churches and 10 mosques.
After Communists won control, religious institutions on the mainland became political rather than ecclesiastical.
The "Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association" meeting in mid-January of this year claimed that the "Vatican is following the position of U. S. imperialism in its hostility toward new China", and that "since the launching of the campaign for social education in 1958, the broad masses of clergymen and laymen have realized that Chinese Catholics must accept the leadership of the party and follow the socialist road."
A message of greetings to "respected, beloved and great leader Chairman Mao" by the "Chinese Buddhist Association" conference in late February of this year said:
"We wish to give you this pledge: We will accept the party leadership resolutely, embark on the socialist road ... and illuminated by the three red banners (people's commune, great leap forward and general line), positively carry out self-transformation."
In international society, the Republic of China has been supported by a strong majority of nations and peoples.
Of 108 U. N. member states, 59 maintain diplomatic relations with free China. Among non-U. N. member states, three recognize Taipei. Peiping has diplomatic missions in 41 countries.
Except for Cuba, all Latin American countries (19) have friendly relations with Taipei. Of 32 African states, 16 have established diplomatic ties with free China, eight with the Peiping regime.
In the United Nations, the tests of "moratorium" and of debate on the "China issue" had been successfully weathered.
The 61-34 victory on passage of a five-nation resolution to regard the representation issue as an important matter—requiring a two-thirds vote—was one of 1961's biggest victories of the democracies at the United Nations.
Especially noteworthy are the increasing relationships between China and African states.
Of the 29 African states that voted on the U. N. representation issue, 17 were in favor of free China, although six of these had no diplomatic ties with Taipei.
Since 1960, some 50 groups from Taipei, consisting of 150 members, have visited 28 countries in Africa. They included trade missions, agricultural technical groups and official envoys.
Coming from 22 African countries, some 150 leaders have visited the Republic of China. Among them were the President of the Malagasy Republic, ministers, trade leaders, agricultural experts and journalists.
Feeding of mainland commune workers in the field. At night they will eat in mess hall (File photo)
Friendship also has been promoted by economic cooperation. Chinese farm demonstration teams have been working in Liberia and Libya.
Chinese teachers have gone to some French-speaking countries of Africa. More will be going.
From 1949 to 1961, more than a million refugees from the mainland arrived in Hongkong. They fled because of tyranny and hunger. Tens of thousands escaped to Hongkong last April and May. Recent reports say thousands of people in Fukien province are obtaining permits to leave the mainland.
In the last 13 years, the Free China Relief Association has provided help for 2,670,000 anti-Communist refugees, of whom 76,000 were brought to Taiwan for resettlement. These included 14,000 ex-prisoners of war in the Korean War. Refugees have been voting against Communism with their feet ever since the Peiping regime usurped mainland power.
Toward the Future
The Republic of China's record on Taiwan, is not perfect. Economic weak spots remain. U.S. assistance has switched from grants to loans, but is still needed if Taiwan is to maintain its present rate of growth. Politically, an effective multi-party system has yet to be developed. The strong military machine is highly competent and does not lack for courage, yet has been unable to come to grips with the enemy in the necessary prelude to liberation of the mainland.
Still, the contrast of island and mainland is such that almost all who can make a choice unhesitatingly opt for Taiwan. All the defections are one way. It would be easier for a defector to go from Taiwan to the mainland than vice versa, but none do. The difference is not merely one of food, although to the hungry people of the mainland, that is an important consideration. After telling of near starvation, almost every refugee also cites the total lack of individual liberty under the Communist system. Some testify that restrictions are so all-encompassing as to make a permit necessary before an individual can go to the other side of town or to the next commune.
Within the family system, Chinese are dedicated individualists. The most oppressive of emperors rarely dared to curtail personal freedom, and if they tried, the dynasty was quickly overthrown. When the same fate overtakes the Communists, the government of the Republic of China will be there, ready to step into the breach with the lessons and the experience of Taiwan. Progress of the last 13 years assures that China and its people soon will have their chance at peace and prosperity in a modern world. Conditions will be those of freedom, democracy, and responsible government.