Overseas Chinese Investment
Fifty years ago, a large number of overseas Chinese helped finance Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary movement to overthrow the Manchus. Today the Chinese residing abroad are participating enthusiastically in the economic buildup of their mother country.
According to the Taiwan Provincial Department of Reconstruction, overseas Chinese capital investment since 1951 has added up to an impressive total of US$66,840,000 in the form of machinery and equipment, raw materials, and foreign exchange.
Investors are from 18 nations and areas all over the globe, and their investments cover virtually every field of human endeavor—200 projects in 26 categories. Profiting from Taiwan's abundant labor force and developing industrial know-how, overseas Chinese-operated plants are turning out quality products for domestic and foreign markets.
Hotels are the weakest link in Taiwan's tourism promotion program, and overseas Chinese investors have moved in to fill the void. The Garden Hotel in Kaohsiung is the first such overseas Chinese-operated hostelry. The Kuo Ping Hotel in Taipei and Huachiao Hotel at scenic Sun-Moon Lake are under construction.
The biggest hotel project to be financed by overseas Chinese is the nine-story Chung Tai Guest House to be built in Taipei. When completed next year, it will rank with the Grand Hotel as one of the world's finest.
Chung Tai Guest House will have grounds of 324,000 square feet, 400 air-conditioned rooms, garage, swimming pool, ballroom, and theater. The project will cost US$2,250,000.
Overseas Chinese have formed the Overseas Chinese Investment Promotion Association to expedite investments. Functions include: (1) coordination and mutual assistance among members, (2) interpretation and propagation of national economic policies and related regulations, (3) dissemination of information about industrial and commercial conditions in Taiwan and elsewhere, (4) assistance to overseas Chinese investing in Taiwan, and (5) recommendations to the government for the promotion of such investment.
Mainland
Campus Revolt
Communist activists planted among the 1400 students at the Overseas Chinese University in Foochow had felt increasingly uneasy since early summer. They heard unusually bold complaints about the poor food and other privations. Some students openly compared life on the mainland with that they had led in their overseas homes.
The Red cadres dutifully noted their observations and reported them to party authorities. The party took no action. Complaints became louder every day.
On August 28, the student body presented a petition to Communist authorities asking more food and less manual labor in the field. The request was turned down.
Then a student shouted something like "Let's kill the Communists." The defiant chant was quickly taken up by other students. A few Communist activists stole away and returned with a company of armed police. The Communists figured this would quiet the clamor.
But presence of the police only served to aggravate the already explosive situation. Students began to hurl stones at the intruders. When Red policemen tried to disperse the rioters, they were surrounded and beaten up. Several Red policemen died in the scuffle. Other students rushed to the mess hall and smashed everything in sight.
According to reports received in Taipei, the Communists rushed some 2000 troops to the university. They laid siege to the campus and fired on students. The riot was quelled with the usual Communist brutality.
Two professors, accused by Communist activists of backing the revolt, were summarily executed without trial. Half of the students were rounded up and shipped to an undisclosed place for "reform through labor."
The Fukien Overseas Chinese University was founded only a year ago with Liao Cheng-chi as its chancellor. It is situated on the hillside of Pengshan Mountain in Chuanchow, northeast of Amoy. School buildings are still under construction.
When the August riot broke out, the students were temporarily housed at the Teachers College at Foochow and the Chi Mei supplementary school at Amoy. Students quartered at Amoy did not make trouble. They have been put under strict control since the riot of their schoolmates.
Communist "Efficiency"
While thousands die of starvation, food parcels sent by overseas Chinese to mainland relatives are allowed to tie up rail traffic and rot in warehouses.
These tragic facts were revealed by travelers returning from the mainland and confirmed by letters received in Hongkong. One visitor to Canton described the situation as "terrible." He said the parcels, mailed at exorbitant cost, are piling up on railroad sidings in south China and beginning to rot.
Floods in south China caused railroad stoppages on four occasions in three recent months. But Communist inefficiency was a bigger reason for the loss. Communists recruited experienced railroad employees to work in the fields last spring and early summer. Their replacements were unable to handle the torrent of food parcels sent by overseas Chinese.
United States
Better Seen Than Heard
Many overseas Chinese had heard about progress on Taiwan. Many of those who came to see for themselves this summer and fall have been agreeably surprised to find the situation even better than reported.
One of those who had that experience is Li Cho-chih, publisher of the Chinese Journal in New York. After a 40-day visit to Taiwan, he told fellow newsmen in the United States that what he had seen was "beyond my expectations, although I had been well-informed about the spectacular achievements."
He said he traveled to many places on the island and was profoundly impressed by economic reconstruction, social reforms, rural prosperity, education, transportation and military strength.
Mr. Li, who participated in the second phase of the Yangmingshan Forum, described these unity talks as "a great success." All participants had a chance to express their opinions and make proposals to the Government, he said.
He said that from what he saw at the Yangmingshan Forum, he is confident Chinese everywhere are united under the leadership of President Chiang Kai-shek for overthrow of the Communist regime and recovery of the mainland.
Brain Behind "Brain"
Seven years ago, a Rome-born Chinese science teacher was trying to land a job in New York. The prospective employer was Adriano Olivetti, the typewriter tycoon.
"What do you know about Olivetti?" was the first question fired at 30-year-old Mario Tchou.
"Very little" was the frank reply.
The honest answer got young Tchou hired. He was appointed to head a special department doing research on electronic computers, or "mechanical brains." Working under him then was a staff of 25. A year later it was 50, today 700.
In 1955, all computers used vacuum tubes. Mario decided to build one using transistors. First he designed a machine with both, then produced his famous commercial model, the Elea 9003, which was completely transistorized.
The machine can do the work of hundreds of accountants, book-keepers and file clerks, and do it quicker and more efficiently. Now Tchou and his staff are devising better and cheaper computers.
Yin Tchou, Chinese charge d'affaires in Rome before and after World War II, Mario's father, had always wanted his son to enter the diplomatic service. But the young man decided he was going into electronics. He wanted to pioneer. The Olivetti company gave him that opportunity and the world is thankful to both.
Vote of Confidence
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Republic of China last month, overseas Chinese in the United States reaffirmed their unwavering support of the home government on Taiwan, pledging their determination to back up its overall policy of recovering the mainland and its position at the United Nations.
In a manifesto issued on October 10, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of San Francisco declares:
(1) The overseas Chinese are highly confident of the bright future of the Republic of China.
(2) The overseas Chinese are united in supporting the Chinese national government which during the past years has built up a fortress of freedom and democracy on Taiwan.
(3) The overseas Chinese are unanimous in supporting the Republic of China's position at the United Nations and the policies of maintaining world peace and blocking the Chinese Communist regime from getting into the world body.
(4) The overseas Chinese are deeply concerned with the fate and suffering of the mainland compatriots under the Communist rule and therefore hope that the Chinese Government will lead the people to stage a counterattack on the mainland at an early date.
Similar sentiments were expressed earlier by the newly formed Chinese Committee of Five Million against the Admission of Red China to the United Nations. The committee represents the Chinese people and citizens of Chinese extraction in other countries. It has its headquarters in New York.
Hongkong
Vote by Flags
Ever since establishment of the Chinese Communist regime on the mainland, most Chinese residents of Hongkong have snubbed the Reds and expressed their support for free China. They have done it in a thousand ways. But the most dramatic expression is through display of flags on Communist usurpation day October 1- and on the national day of free China, October 10.
On every October 1 since 1950, Hongkong residents have ignored Red attempts to start a celebration and have gone about business as usual. But 10 days later they raised the Chinese national enblem of blue sky and white sun, held countless rallies, many parties, and exploded millions of firecrackers.
This year the contrast was especially sharp. On the golden jubilee of the Republic of China, residents turned the British crown colony into a city of flags. A Communist movie worker chose the occasion to defect to the free movie worker association. In nearby Macao, display of Chinese flags prompted eight farmers from Lappa Island to flee to freedom. They said when they saw the Chinese flags flown over Macao, they realized the Portuguese colony was a "place of freedom."
On October 1, the Hongkong response had been cool. Except for Communist fronts and' a few pro-Red businesses, no one produced the Peiping emblem. Even the pro-Communists did not erect ceremonial bamboo arches to glorify Peiping's "achievements" as they had done in the past.
Police patrols mobilized to prevent incidents were small. One British inspector said "things were so quiet we needed only a token force."
Anti-Communist groups in Hongkong and Macao held memorial services "for victims of the Chinese Communist regime."
The attitude of the Hongkong Chinese is a reflection of their knowledge. Living on the rim of the Communist-ruled mainland, they are in frequent contact with newly escaped refugees. Some have visited relatives behind Bamboo Curtain. What they heard and seen has shattered all illusions about Communism.
Wanted—Chinese Cooks
Hongkong has added one more item to its long export list-Chinese culinary art.
A recent survey shows the demand for Chinese from Hongkong to work in restaurants of Britain is on the increase. Response among Chinese cooks is good. Nearly 1000 chefs left Hongkong for Britain this year compared with half that number last year.
It is reported that even without knowledge of English, a Chinese cook can earn as much as $33 a week as an assistant chef. Experienced cooks who can speak English are paid nearly twice as much, the report said.