As far back as forty years ago, when the Communist Party came into existence in China, it had the definite objective of subverting the National Government so that the Party might take over the control of the country. From then on, directed by the "revolution experts" of Russia and other countries, it engaged in covert or open rebellion against the government to achieve its goal. From time to time it changed its line as necessity required, but never its objective. Sometimes the Communists would show a smiling face, feigning cooperation with the Government; sometimes they would take off their masks and revolt openly; then again they would feign allegiance to the Government with the object of boring from within.
Having defeated and eliminated all the warlords who had been engaged in intermittent civil wars among one another for almost fifteen years, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek unified China in 1929; and during the following eight years China made startling progress in every field, which appalled both Japan and the Chinese Reds. The former, trying to invade and colonize North China, did not wish to see China strong; the latter, bent on their expansion, hated to see the unification of the country, for what they desired was not peace and prosperity, but poverty and confusion. Only when China was poor and in a confused state could they hope to gain power.
Therefore, Japan hastened her aggression from without, and the Reds agitated for the anti-Japanese war from within. Eventually in 1937, there broke out the Sino-Japanese war which created an excellent opportunity for the Reds.
In the first stage of the war, China resisted bravely and heroically, but without outside help. Within four years, North China and a part of South China fell into the enemy's hands. As time went on, Japan faced a difficult problem: she did not have sufficient troop to police such vast territory and simultaneously carryon the war against the Chinese National Army. She was, therefore, compelled to adopt the policy of maintaining the communication lines open. She assigned a small portion of her troops to guard the cities and towns along the railroads in the occupied territory and her main force to operate at the front, thus leaving the vast territory behind the front unguarded.
The Reds infiltrated into every part of this unguarded territory. At first, under the slogans: "We are sent here by the Government" and "We defend our country against Japanese invasion," they were welcomed by the people ravaged by the Japanese forces.
Then they collected large bands of desperadoes, trained and indoctrinated them in Communism, and then sent them back to their native places, where they were entitled to do anything they wanted, if they would only further the Communist cause.
To lay their political foundation, the trained desperadoes set up various organizations, such as the Youth Anti-Japanese Pioneer Group, Women's Liberation Club, Old Men's Association, Children's Team, etc. in every village. Through these organizations, they put the villages under rigorous control and exercised their power recklessly. As a result, such things as the following often happened in every village.
An old man was arrested and detained for a day because he ate two eggs instead of one for dinner. The charge was that he had violated one of the regulations announced by the Village Office for having wasted consumer's goods. But where did the Office get the information? The old man's seven-year-old grandson, who, together with other youngsters, was required to join and work for the Children's Team, accused him for the purpose of getting some candy as reward!
There was a large crowd of people in front of the Buddhist Temple with a gentleman standing on a platform, his hands bound behind him. He was confessing that he used to inform the authorities of the cruelty and subversive activities of the Reds. It was his own wife who told the Women's Club on him, because she had a quarrel with him the night before.
When the Japanese soldiers came to the village to make a raid on foodstuffs, the villagers disappeared miraculously. They hid themselves in tunnels, dug by the Youth Group. Sometimes these tunnels interlocked with those the neighboring villages. They were designed not so much for the war with the Japanese as for fighting the National Army in the years to come.
Three brothers and their wives were kidnapped one night, leaving ten children crying at home all day long. Afterwards it came to light that the brothers were buried alive. Why? There was old enmity between the brothers and one of the Communist cadres in the Villages Office. Under what pretext were they murdered? Nobody knew.
A peddler from a neighboring village was hung with a rope on a tree and whipped to death. He had no traveler's pass and denied being a spy of the Japanese army. Any traveler who did not have or had lost the pass issued by the Reds was regarded as a spy. Who discovered the traveler? An old woman, who, as other women in the same village, was a member of the Women's Club, sitting at the entrance to the village, was responsible for checking the passport of anyone who passed that way. Under the circumstances described above the people could do nothing but obey in silence. Gradually, by vandalism and terrorism the Reds ruled the people and established a totalitarian but efficient regime behind the Japanese line.
At the same time, they were successful in a large-scale drive of conscription under the excuse of waging the anti-Japanese war. But it is doubtful whether or not they really fought a single battle with the Japanese! Those who escaped conscription were shot at the public square in front of people. Those who volunteered to be enlisted under the Red banner were hailed as heroes and their families were entirely supported by the Red regime. In this way they built up a tremendous army.
Though the Communists possessed a large army, they were extremely weak, as they possessed only a negligible quantity of arms and ammunitions. In fact, there were more soldiers than there were rifles, and more rifles than bullets. The Red Army won the nickname of "Fist Army" or "Bread Army," as they were scornfully called by the Chinese people at that time, because their arms, for the most part, were their fists, and as an army, they could do nothing but eat bread.
Then came the sudden unconditional surrender of Japan, and with the universal joy overwhelming the Chinese people, the most disastrous and tragic events in the history of China took place.
With a view to preventing the National Army from taking over the formerly Japanese-occupied area, the Reds immediately ruined the communication system to such an extent that thousands of miles of railroads were put out of action and a part of the dam of the Yellow River was destroyed. Consequently, transportation by land was paralyzed and millions of people were rendered homeless because of the flood. The whole country began to fall into a chaotic condition.
Meanwhile, the Red guerrillas attacked the National Army frantically all over the country. Furthermore, following the arrangement sponsored by Russia and international Communists, the Reds launched a vehement propaganda campaign at home and abroad, claiming that it was the Government that attempted to wage a civil war to eradicate the Reds, that they were obliged to resist for sheer existence, and that they meant nothing but to set up a peaceful and democratic government for the people. The guerrillas achieved nothing, but the propaganda performed wonders. Not only ignorant people but also our allied nations were cheated by their lies.
Then came General Marshall, representing the U. S. government to propose to settle the domestic strife by talk. The Government, having more than enough power to crush the Reds, hesitated; for it knew, from its long experience with the Reds, that the talk would be very unlikely to prove successful. Nevertheless, it accepted the proposal at last, partly on account of the fact that the traditional friendship between the U.S. and China had to be maintained, and partly through its keen desire to rehabilitate the postwar country as soon as possible. The Reds, on the other hand, accepted the proposal willingly, for it might bestow on them another chance to play tricks upon the Government and thus provide them with the required time to prepare for the decisive offensive. The talk began in December 1945 and lasted till January 1947.
During this period, the Reds got a large stock of arms and munitions from the Russian army. Five days before the surrender of Japan, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and the Russian troops occupied Manchuria, where they turned over the Japanese weapons to the Reds. The latter's "Fist Army," from then on, was very well equipped.
During this period, the Reds suppressed the people's opposition by intensifying their terrorism. Landlords, rich people of any kind, and those who dared to speak up against the Reds were all classified as "reactionaries" and slaughtered or put into slave labor camps. A s panic and consternation seized every heart in China, the executioners of the Reds shot, beheaded, and buried alive millions of innocent people.
During this period the Red agents, which had infiltrated and planted cells in every branch of the Government and every stratum of the community strengthened their propaganda for the purpose of creating the misconception that the Communist Party was democratic and hence anti-Communism meant anti-democracy. In this way, they succeeded in undermining the anti-Communist morale of the National Army and increasing chaos in the government.
During this period, a truce at all fronts was declared, but its terms were more often broken than observed by the Reds. General Marshall did his utmost to enforce the terms, but to no avail. The point was that the U.S. influence could be exercised only upon the government, and the Reds were free to attack government troop positions wherever they felt strong enough to do so. Eventually, the government forces had to be on the defensive at all fronts.
During this period, the Reds and their international fellow travelers, especially those in the United States, succeeded in undermining the traditional cooperation between the United States and the Chinese government by propaganda and in isolating the government in its anti-Communist struggle. The United States, with the object of exercising pressure upon the Chinese government to continue the futile peace talks, withheld its promised $500,000,000 loan to China for currency stabilization and general reconstruction. As a result, wartime inflation in China became uncontrollable and brought ruin to the entire nation. The most regrettable of all was that the United States, from the same motive of withholding the loans, stopped its supply of weapons and munitions to the Chinese government, thus greatly undermining the morale of the National Army.
By early 1946, the Reds saw that they had gained an advantage over the government, that their preparations were complete, and that the peace talks were no longer needed. They, therefore, bluntly and abruptly called off the negotiations and launched an all-out war against the government forces. General Marshall returned to Washington to take up his new post as Secretary of State, and an announcement was subsequently made by the State Department to the effect that the United States had abandoned its effort to mediate between the Chinese government and the Reds.
By that time, the Reds had gained control of a great part of North China, and Manchuria had been practically handed over to them by the Russians. With such vast territory and resources under their control, the scale now tipped in favor of the Reds. When the general situation became more and more critical, the government appealed to the United States for aid in finance and munitions, but to no purpose.
With a view to alienating China from the United States, the Reds conducted a series of anti-American movements. They pictured the United States as an imperialist nation and hence must be treated as an enemy state. They opposed the United States because it gave economic aid to Japan to put her on her feet again in preparation for a renewal of the invasion of China; they also opposed the United States because of the Sino-American Commercial Treaty, which the Reds said would "exploit" the Chinese people, and they opposed the United States on the slightest pretext. For instance, a U. S. soldier in Peiping raped a Chinese girl student. This incident developed into a nationwide "Anti-American vandalism" movement within two weeks, and the students, fanned by the Reds, held parades and demonstrations in large cities, yelling "Get out, Yankees!"
Probably motivated by the desire to show that it was not imperialist, or by other reasons unknown to me, the United States withdrew all of her troops from the mainland. The withdrawal was of no military importance but had great political significance, because it indicated that the United States was no longer interested in curbing Communist expansion on the mainland, and that the Reds were given a free hand to fight the government.
With the object of ousting President Chiang Kai-shek from the government, the Communist agents in the government actively spread absurd rumors to vilify him. Ambitious officials in the government thirsting after power took advantage of the chance and collaborated with the Reds. Little by little a feeling gained currency in the government that as long as President Chiang remained in the government, the U.S. aid would never come. The pressure grew heavier and heavier. At last, President Chiang had to retire temporarily from the presidency. This trick of the Reds was the most deadly blow to the government, because its anti-Communist campaign could no longer be carried out for want of leadership.
City after city fell into the Reds' hands, and the Red army marched into South China without encountering resistance, and by early 1950 the Chinese Reds had gained control of the mainland and its five hundred million people.
From what has been said it will be seen that the Chinese Reds gained control of the Chinese mainland not so much by military power as by intrigues and propaganda and the connivance of international Communists.