All Cain's Horse Show and Yesmen
Communists from 59 different nations "who speak the same language" came to Peiping in mid-September to watch one of the world's biggest horse plays — the eighth Chinese Communist party congress.
The show went on stage on Sept. 15. Mao Tse-tung led 1,021 party faithful, who represented the 10,734,384 Chinese Communists, into the meeting hall of the "Chinese people's political consultative council" while 28 radio and facsimile circuits kept on reporting the proceedings to every corner of the mainland.
But everything had been pre-arranged. The Politburo in three earlier meetings had decided on the agenda of the congress and approved the reports and candidate lists to be submitted to the congress. The 1,021 delegates did not have to work hard. They need only clap their hands and shout their approval.
Mao Tse-tung delivered the first speech which opened the congress. Stopped 33 times within 10 minutes by the cheers and handclappings of the delegates who hardly understood his Hunanese mandarin, Mao managed to claim that "the line of action laid down by the party's Central Committee has been correct. Our party is now a great, politically mature Marxist-Leninist political party (enthusiastic handclappings). Our party is united and consolidated now more than ever (enthusiastic handclappings). Our party has be-, come the nuclear force in uniting the people for socialist reconstruction (enthusiastic applauses). Our woo k has been correct but we also have committed a few mistakes (no handclappings)."
After reminding the delegates of their duties to the party and discussing in brief the international situation, Mao Tse-tung gave his full approval to the anti-Stalin resolutions of the Russian Communist party. He praised the Soviet Russians and added he was sure that there would be more Kremlin successes. This remark was greeted with "sustained and enthusiastic handclappings."
But the most important report was delivered by Liu Shao-chi, secretary of the Red party and generally considered Mao Tse-tung's fair-haired child plus heir apparent. Liu's 50,000-word report was divided into six parts. He took five hours to read it.
Liu Shao-chi claimed that in the past seven; years, the Communist party had won two revolutions, one against the National Government and the United States and the other against the farmers, handicraft workers and the capitalists. He called for "reconstruction of the nation into a great socialist country as speedily as possible."
According to Liu Shao-chi, this reconstruction could be consummated in the next ten years when all private capital and means of production have been put under Communist ownership, all political parties have been transfigured into "parties of the proletariat working class" and every preparation has been made for the adoption of full communism. The present moment is a time of "socialist reformation." During the second five-year plan which begins in 1958, the Communists will concentrate on "socialist reconstruction." When this phase of work is completed at the end of the third five-year plan, the Communists will have no use for other political parties, nor other social classes except the proletariat.
Nor will they need socialism itself any longer even in the Communist interpretation of the word.
Liu said that up to June 1956, 110,000,000 out of 120,000,000 farming families on the mainland had joined Red agricultural production cooperatives. He asserted that 90 % of the individual handicraft workers had participated in production units or supply-marketing production cooperatives. The industrial and commercial firms had all been put under joint state-private ownership and management.
To the surviving capitalists, Liu promised both toleration and forced extinction. Their fate may be said to have three stages: "utilization, restriction and reformation." As for the fellow-traveling parties and personages, he said that the "united front" will continue for a long time and that the Communists will help them "reform themselves" into parties of the workers.
He said that in party management more' voice would be given to the lower echelon cadres who, however, must carry out party decisions. He brushed aside suggestions that party members are not omnipotent. "The party should believe that it is able to lead in every field of work," said he. But he blamed many evils committed by the Communist party on "bureaucracy, subjectivism and sectionalism."
In reviewing the Communist record, Liu Shao-chi attributed every success to the "correct leadership of the party and Comrade Mao Tse-tung." Wherever there were failures, he pinned the responsibility on mistakes in implementation.
Peace, he said, is what he wants and is around the corner. But he instantly added: "Taiwan, part of our motherland, is still being occupied by the American imperialists. This is the most serious threat to our country's security. The problem of liberation of Taiwan is our internal problem. We are willing to get Taiwan back to the bosom of 'the motherland through peaceful negotiations while avoiding the use of force. If it is necessary to use force, then that will come after the failure of peace negotiations."
The free-swinging Liu Shao-chi attacked both the "leftists" and "rightists" in his own party. He seemed to be the epitome of moderation and warned against complacency. He also called for continued efforts to copy the "revolutionary experiences of the Soviet Union."
In short, what Liu Shao-chi said in his speech may be summarized as follows: The Chinese Communists are in the midst of a new peace offensive but will resort to war if the free world sees through the mask. The Communists will go ahead with their Marxist policies on the mainland until the day when the Communist party is the sole owner and governing force. And the Chinese Communists, being Soviet Russia's willing puppets, will follow the Kremlin's lead through thick and thin.
35 Years of Sins & Crimes
Collective leadership and denunciation of one-man's cult notwithstanding, the brief history of the Chinese Communist party as prepared by two Red historians, Hsiao Yi-ping and Chang-Kung, entrusts the fate of the Red party to one man, Mao Tse-tung. When the leadership is securely in Mao's hands, the party succeeds; whenever Mao loses the grip, the party falters, the authors say.
The Communist party was able to come into being in 1921 mainly because "there appeared in China the revolutionary intellectuals who embraced the Communist thinking, as represented by Li Ta-chao and Mao Tse-tung," Hsiao and Chang declare.
In the second party congress held in 1922, it ignored the leadership to be exercised by the proletariat because Mao was not sitting in the chambers. But the third congress in 1923 made a big step forward because comrade Mao "was elected a member of the Central Committee."
The fourth congress in 1925 failed to give due "attention to the land problem and the issue of establishing a revolutionary armed force" owing to the conspicuous absence of Mao Tse-tung. The fifth congress in 1927 was worse as it handed the party entirely to Chen Tu-hsiu. The authors angrily declare, "Comrade Mao took part in the congress, but as Chen was treating the party as his own family, Comrade Mao' was completely barred from the congress leadership. His voting right was revoked."
This, of course, led to "the miserable defeat of the first national revolutionary war," the authors declare.
After the sixth congress passed many resolutions in Moscow in 1928, the leadership fell into the hands of the "leftists." But it had the good fortune of electing Mao Tse-tung as member of the Central Committee, the jubilant authors point out. A rebellious and dissenting Mao Tse-tung was described as "not only able to develop the correct phases of the congress line of action but even going further to solve many problems which the congress failed to solve or was not able to solve correctly."
The two writers are referring to Mao Tse-tung's decision to disobey orders, declare himself the leader and take all his men to North Shensi although the party headquarters refused to grant him the permission.
Since the seventh congress held in 1945 in Yenan, everything has been correct and there has not been a single mistake as Mao long since has been the sole leader, the authors conclude.
The authors also admit that the Chinese Communists had planned in that congress, held before Japan's surrender, to take over the mainland by force in spite of the lip service allegiance it was still paying to the National Government. Here are their own words:
"Comrade Mao Tse-tung called on the party to pay attention to city work and to deem the work in Japanese-occupied areas as important as the work in the liberated areas. The purpose was that when the great counterattack finally came, the party would be able to grab the big cities and take them over."
The historians, however, discreetly omitted the fact that while Communist troops were doing the grabbing and taking over, Mao Tse-tung was himself in Chungking pledging once again his absolute loyalty to President Chiang Kai-shek.
Peiping's Insidious "Marshall Plan"
The Chinese Communists have a "Marshall Plan" of their own. Under this plan, the Peiping regime was spending millions of dollars in foreign countries to intensify infiltration and prepare for eventual Communist conquest of those countries, mostly in Southeast Asia.
Li Hsien-nien, the Peiping "minister of finance," first revealed the existence of such "foreign aid" when he reported to the "people's congress" that in 1955 a total of 455,220,000 new Jenmin-piao dollars was spent on "aid to foreign countries." This is equivalent to US$193,000,000. In the 1956 budget, he called for US$284,000, 000 (JMP$669,315,000) in "foreign aid" spending. It was not found in the original 1955 budget.
Li never did come around to elaborate on or itemize the spending.
Many people doubt the veracity of the figures. Actual fifth columnist spending must be far bigger than that, they insist.
According to the best available information, the "foreign aid" was and is still being parceled out to aid the North Vietnamese and North Korean Communists, to finance and assist the Communist armed bands in Malaya, Burma and Thailand, to push subversion in Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Indonesia, to buy up overseas Chinese and native newspapers, associations and trading firms, and to send out, train or help spies in the various Asiatic countries including Japan.
The only genuine, publishable "foreign aid" item was the latest Peiping loan to Cambodia which amounted to 8,000.000 pounds sterling. Another form of this "foreign aid" was the dispatching of "technicians" to countries like Burma to help build up industries.
Samples of Red "Efficiency"
The Communists are proud of their record of "over-accomplishment of tasks" land "successful implementation ahead of schedule." Behind these fairy tales, truth sometimes peeps out. The following are two samples of Communist "efficiency."
About one year ago, the Peiping regime announced the completion of the Chengtu-Paochi railway. Ahead of schedule, of course. The railway was built on the white bones of the 500,000 slave laborers, most of whom died along the newly laid rail tracks.
But the rail line has never been in operation. The same is true of the newly constructed extension of the Lunghai railway. Traffic on the mainland suddenly became congested and the Reds investigated.
About the Chengtu-Paochi rail line, a Communist official explains that most part of the railway is open to traffic but the section from Feng Hsien to Yangping Path is denied to passengers and freight. The reason is that along that section there are over 380 points where the work proves to be highly defective. He says the railway cannot be expected to be in operation before 1957.
He stresses that a few mistakes have resulted from poor investigation and surveys. Some mistakes have arisen from poor designing, The track sometimes runs by the brink of a river when it should be in the form of a winding road in the mountains. Sometimes, the track line is wide open to landslides and floods. Moreover, the work was so hastily executed that a complete correction is now required.
To the Communist efficiency experts, therefore, half begun is well done.
Communist "efficiency" has also been demonstrated in Shantung province. Shantung has good underground and surface water resources for irrigation. When the Peiping regime ordered a nation-wide well-digging campaign, the Shantung Communists decided they should push the campaign ahead of everything else.
They decided that in 1956 two million wells should be dug. The quota was later upped to three million and finally to five million.
The farmers had to abandon crop sowing to fill up the quota. They worked day and night and the quota was met in time.
But many wells proved to be not needed as there was water near at hand. The next step for the farmers to do was to fill up these wells again, on Communist orders.
When the whole campaign came to a "successful" end, spring crop sowing time had long passed. At least 1,200 acres of land were wasted through the digging operations. And the manpower consumed in digging and refilling the wells amounted to 860,000 work days.
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The Snake said to the Wind: "When I walk by moving my back and ribs, I have something that look like a foot. But when you start roaring from the North Sea and storm into the South Sea, you have nothing that look like a foot. Why?"
"Yes," said the Wind. I do start roaring from the North Sea and storm into the South Sea. But if you point your finger at me, I cannot resist you. Nor can I resist you, if you kick me. But when it comes to breaking a big tree or blowing off a house, only I can do it," Therefore, many small defeats make one big victory. Only sages can achieve big victories,"— Chuang Tse