The first airdrop was made on June 26, 1950. About ten planes dropped 30 tons of Taiwan rice in the coastal areas. It marked the beginning of a valiant effort, and the techniques have been perfected over the past years. Since 1954, Taiwan-produced daily necessities were added to the air-dropping list to give more effective relief to the mainland compatriots and also give them a hint of material progress made on this island bastion.
These air-dropped commodities convey the regards and best wishes of the free men over the temporary plight of their deared ones shut up behind the iron curtain by the evil force of Communism. They include such daily necessities as clothes, towels, socks, underwear, soaps, candies, cigarets, dolls, canned meat, and first aid packages. Even under the constant vigilance of the Communist security forces, these relief supplies found their ways to reach the enslaved millions to meet their urgent needs and warm their hearts.
And these air borne packages also pointed a way to freedom. In a specially designed, small-sized pack of cigarets can be found safe conduct pass printed on a plastic sheet only an inch square, easy to keep and is water-proof. Over the years, many of the oppressed mainland brethren found their way to free China with the encouragement and guidance of this and other similar devices. According to the sources in the know, air-dropping of such safe conduct passes was started in 1958 when the Taiwan Strait was once thick with war clouds.
Proved Effectiveness
Some people on this island have doubts about the effectiveness of the air-dropping operation. This feeling is rather natural in view of the vastness of the mainland, the relative small quantity of the relief supplies, and the stern measures of the Reds in forbidding people to pick up these relief parcels. Yet firsthand information from behind the bamboo curtain indicated the operation has served its basic purpose, and the question that remains to be solved is just how to expand the scope of its operation.
There is sufficient evidence to show that these relief supplies reached the mainland people. Many of the refugees who escaped to Taiwan described in detail how they picked up the relief rice with a thrilled heart. Many concrete suggestions were made to improve the air-dropping technique. For instance, when the relief rice was first dropped in 1950, they were dropped in packages of 10 kilograms. Because of its weight, even the lucky ones who received the relief rice had mixed feelings, because their houses were sometimes damaged by direct hits.
The relief rice packages were subsequently reduced to 5 kilograms each and finally to 2.5 kilograms which is the standard unit weight today. Besides, a parachute was fastened to the rice package so that it can land slowly without danger to its recipients.
In order to keep alive the mainlanders' spirit of resistance, all the relief parcels contained colorful printed matters showing the progress made in free China. Some were packed in transparent vinyl bags printed like a newspaper page. Some pictures clearly reflected the tender feelings of the overseas Chinese communities toward their less fortunate compatriots on the Red-controlled mainland. These air dropped commodities also carry distinct trademarks of their producers in Taiwan so that people on the mainland will be reminded of the valiant struggle going on outside for their ultimate delivery.
Of course, a price had to be paid for ferrying these urgent supplies to the oppressed brethren. The Communists spared no effort to intercept the unarmed CAF transports which carried the supplies to the mainland. At first, news of the airdrop was released immediately after a mission was completed, giving the name of towns covered by the airdrop. Then it was discovered that the Communists pieced these information together to trace the flight route of the daring pilots. A policy was adopted under which only a selected number of the towns which received the airdrop were made known. There had been, of course, occasional losses of plane and personnel as the Communists completed their radar network. In 1959, for example, it was announced that in the eastern part of Chekiang province one transport was brought down by Communist anti-aircraft fire, and the crew presumably lost their lives. But these temporary setbacks did not retard the effort to give more relief supplies to the mainland. The airdrops continued, though no more news of the "mercy raids" were made known even after the planes had returned.
Tibet Airdrop
Official statistics showed that during the past ten years, 3,515 tons of rice, 1,233 tons of other supplies, together with 95,000,000 leaflets and letters of greetings, have been air dropped to the mainland in 105 CAF missions, each involving a number of planes. The operation covered 28 provinces of coastal and interior China including Inner Mongolia, Sinkiang, Tibet, and Manchuria. People of 721 cities on the mainland, including such great metropolis as Shanghai, Nanking, Hankow, Peiping, Chungking, have received the relief goods, which are symbolic of hope and deliverance to their recipients.
A leaflet for air drop, one of a series entitled "Heaven and Hell," contrasting living conditions in Taiwan against that of the mainland. (File photo)
In its communique on the Tibetan uprising, Peiping stated: "Many of their arms were brought in from abroad. The base of the rebellion to the south of the Tsangpo river received airdropped supplies from the Chiang Kai-shek bands on a number of occasions, and radio stations were set up there by agents sent by the imperialists and the Chiang Kai-shek clique to further their intrigues."
The Chinese Communists stop at nothing to deter people from picking up the relief supplies. All sort of tricks and lies were used to discourage people from picking up such relief supplies. They said that the air dropped food is "poisoned," that it should be turned over to the police as soon as it is found. They issued stern warnings: that these air dropped packages contained sabotage materials, and people would be liable to espionage charges if they hid them without turning them over to the police immediately. The regimented life under the Red Commune system made it easier for the Communists to supervise the movements and activities of their enslaved millions. This is viewed as a new challenge to the air dropping operation. However, the men in charge of the operation are confident that the air dropping can be carried on, and with greater success backed by ten years of experience.
Mail Campaign
The mailing of food and other parcels to the mainland, which is a new program of the mainland relief project, was started in June, 1959 following the unprecedented flood disaster in South China. Relief agency in Free China, out of purely humanitarian motive, suggested to use the good office of the neutral International Red Cross to send relief supplies to the flood victims on the mainland. When this offer was turned down flatly by the inhuman Communists, the method of mailing the relief parcels to the mainland was devised to give timely aid to those who suffered from the worst flood and drought recorded on the Chinese mainland for the last 62 years.
These leaflets are printed in natural color, showing the free way of life enjoyed by the people in Taiwan. (File photo)
These relief parcels were mainly directed to the seaboard provinces of Kwangtung and Fukien, known as the homeland of overseas Chinese, from points outside of Taiwan. They were sent in the names of individual overseas Chinese who live in Southeast Asia. A sum of no less than NT$300,000 has been donated since then by the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and in the United States for this mailing project.
This writer saw some samples of the cotton twill cloth, in pieces of five yards each, which were in the relief packages donated by the overseas Chinese communities in the Philippines. They are of superior quality, and are wrapped up in water-proof parcels. It is arranged that these parcels be mailed to the mainland directly from Southeast Asia so that Chinese Communists would have practical difficulties if they should attempt to intercept them. It is estimated about 160,000 mails and parcels were sent daily from Hongkong to the Chinese mainland, so that even Peiping will find it impossible to inspect each and every of these mails and parcels.
Letters of Greeting
Letters of greetings were airdropped to the mainland with the relief supplies ever since June 1950. This design as well as content have been improved over the years. Color pictures depicting the prosperity in Taiwan and the world indignation against Communist misdeeds have been introduced after 1954. These pictures convey a vivid impression to the mainlanders on what a free and bountiful life the people in Taiwan are leading.
On the lunar new year of 1958, letters of greeting. complete with pictures describing happy family life in Free China, were delivered to the mainland, where family life is disrupted by the inhuman commune system. This year, more pictures of similar nature were delivered to the mainland to remind the people there that the lunar new year, traditionally an occasion for happy family reunion and so full of human warmth, can be enjoyed again only after the overthrow of the Communist usurpers.
The air dropping of information materials is important in the sense that they correctly inform the mainlanders about the events of the free world, and at the same time, the internal difficulties within the Communist system. A typical example is the many leaflets reporting the Tibetan uprising in March, 1959, which were air dropped to the mainland in unprecedented volumes. These information materials are complete with news photos describing the moving historic saga from the beginning to the end. They showed the angry Tibetan mass meeting in Lhasa before the uprising, the grim-faced Red guards in the streets of Lhasa just after the bloody suppression the safe arrival of the Dalai Lama in India, and the mammoth rally in Taipei to give moral support to the struggling Tibetan compatriots. This serves to ensure the anti-Communist partisans that they are not fighting for a lost cause, and that they are not alone.
One such leaflet is put in every package airdropped or mailed to the mainland financed by donations from the overseas Chinese in North and South America. (File photo)
Officials in charge of the mainland relief operation constantly review their work with cold realism. While believing that the program has been fundamentally successful, they are ready to concede that so far as relief is concerned, it is only of a token nature. But it is their firm belief that the spiritual value of these relief supplies to the mainland people is inestimable. Some of these officials opined that practical experience gained in this stage of the air dropping operation can be utilized on the D-day when people in the war zones could be threatened with actual starvation and would have to rely on air-borne supplies for their existence.
Another point stressed is the expansion of the mainland relief operation through international support. The current relief effort is, from the beginning, carried out with the support and assistance of the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. How successful the current operation can be expanded to keep the fire of resistance burning on the Chinese mainland will depend to a certain extent on the future support of the free world as a whole.