Taiwan Today

Tall evergreen trees arched above us to shade the highway as we traveled on the island of Kinmen. Green willows lined the banks of waterways, and ragged eucalyptus framed the view of a scenic beach - a curve of white sand meeting a rolling surf.

Here and there, in that week before Christmas, poinsettias bloomed in clumps and hedges - green leaves and splashes of red, surpassing in size and brilliance anything we had ever seen in California. A scattering of forest marked the slopes of the rugged little gray granite mountain range, rising from the edges of fields of deep red soil marked off in checkerboards of growing crops.

Here and there humped cattle pulled plows and cultivators as the people of Kinmen worked their fields. Outside neat, modern schools, chil­dren shouted at their play.

And almost everywhere were trees. More than 75 million trees have been planted on Kinmen so far, mostly by soldiers of the Republic of China.

Where, we wondered, could there be a more beautiful and peaceful-looking place than this island-park just a little north of the Tropic Zone.

But there were, at the same time, reminders of crucial days of years past, and readiness for what the future might bring. At major crossroads, along the western shoreline and elsewhere at strategic points around the island, are massive concrete pillboxes and gun emplacements, manned by helmeted soldiers with bayoneted rifles - sol­diers watching skies, beaches, waters and the dim outlines of islets and hilly shoreline beyond. These fortified points are painted in camouflage colors, to blend into the shrubbery and shadows, and covered with nets on which flowering vines are growing. They are reminders that Kinmen is a war zone, as it has been for more than a quarter of a century - an outpost of the free world at the edge of a vast land, once free, now held by the forces of slavery.

There are other reminders, too, such as the sound of cannon fire in the night, and steel shell casings which hurtle out of the sky. Most of them now carry only propaganda leaflets, regarded by the Kinmen people with scorn and amusement. But some carry death. We were shown a theater where in October, 1974, a Communist shell crashed through the roof. Two civilians died - eight were injured. Over a year the death toll from "token" bombardment adds up to a sizable handful. But most of the people of Kinmen go calmly about their affairs and pay little heed, considering that the odds are against their getting hit in the present state of the war.

My wife, Elinor, and I flew out to Kinmen as the guests of the Republic of China Ministry of Defense, escorted by two young officers, Army Captain Lee Tung-ming of the Office of the Military Spokesman and James Jiang of the Air Force. We made the trip aboard a C-47 cargo-carrier, strapped to seats that went around the fuselage and wearing life jackets as a precaution. A pile of life rafts and miscellaneous freight oc­cupied the center of the cabin. We were the only foreigners and almost the only civilians aboard. A plane flies each day from Taipei, the temporary capital of the Republic of China on the island province of Taiwan, to Kinmen and back again. Schedules vary and are secret.

When it made black headlines in a desperate struggle of more than a quarter of a century ago, and again in 1958, Kinmen was better known to the Western world as Quemoy. Kinmen is the name in Mandarin Chinese, Quemoy in the Amoy vernacular. Both mean "golden gate."

Kinmen is a group of small islands and islets just off the coast of the mainland province of Fukien, about 150 miles southwest of Taipei. As a part of Free China, it blocks use of the major port of Amoy. Some 200 miles farther north the Matsu Island group, also held by the Republic of China, lies off Fukien province near the mouth of the Min River and the Fukien capital of Foochow. Between them, these outpost bastions give the Republic of China control of the Taiwan Straits, adding immeasurably to the strength and depth of the defenses of Taiwan and its 16 million free people.

The main island of Kinmen has an area of 137 square kilometers - 53 square miles - and a civilian population of about 62,000. The main island of the Matsu group covers 19.4 square kilometers­ 7.5 square miles - and has about 16,500 civilian residents.

Our C-47 flew south more than half the length of Taiwan, then turned west to the Penghu (Pescadores, or fishermen's) Islands. We flew over neatly tilled squares of cultivated land - the islands are famous for peanuts as well as fish - and caught glimpses of the arched bridge, longest in the Far East, connecting three of the islands. Our pilot then descended to perhaps 50 feet; and we flew the remaining 80 miles to Kinmen under the Com­munist radar. High above, we were escorted by a Republic of China fighter plane we never saw. The entire trip took about an hour and 50 minutes.

Army Colonel Chen Da-shon, and later Colonel Chao Chung-ho took charge of escorting us about Kinmen. We spent the night in a room of an old mansion, part of a hostel maintained by the mili­tary near the center of Kinmen City, the principal village.

"We'll put you on the ground floor," said Colonel Chen, "so you'll be close to the shelter. This is an odd day - and our night for being shelled."

(We heard the sound of gunfire - apparently a ROC response - not long before daylight, but no shells fell close to the hostel.)

"Could this really have been where it happened?" I thought as we drove down a tree-lined road. There are few scars left of one of the fiercest battles between the Republic of China's forces and the Communists, where thousands bled and died, nor of the most intensive shelling in the history of warfare. We saw much to confirm the boast that the Kinmen of today is a garden aboveground. And we were to see further proof of the rest of the saying - that it is a mighty fortress underneath.

Here and there, along roadsides, we saw crews of servicemen in fatigues at work - cleaning ditches or planting shrubbery or more trees - adding touches to the island's immaculate park-like ap­pearance. Part of every day, when not involved in strictly military duties, the defenders of Kinmen are kept busy with other work. Each summer college student volunteers come from Taiwan to help with work projects and to entertain troops. They have quite a party. Kinmen is garrisoned regularly by a force of some 100,000. The number stationed at Matsu is smaller. If the need arises for renewed military defense, all are highly trained and ready.

Chinese have lived on Kinmen since fairly ancient times. The Hai Yin Temple was built on a site of great natural beauty at the top of Tai Wu Mountain in the low range at the center of the island about 800 years ago. Fortunately, it escaped serious damage during the heavy bombardment. New plantings of flowers and trees have enhanced its ancient beauty. Many island residents make pilgrimages to the temple at the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.

Not far away is the Wen Tai Pagoda monument built in 1368. This area suffered heavy damage during the 1958 shellings but has been rebuilt and its 600-year dignity restored.

Kinmen was deeply involved in the history of the last days of the Ming and early period of the Ch'ing. The famous General Cheng Cheng-kung, known in the West as Koxinga, secured Kinmen for the Ming as the Manchus invaded China from the north. From Kinmen, Koxinga moved to Taiwan, where he succeeded in expelling the Dutch, who had briefly added Taiwan to the East Indies Empire that now is the Republic of Indonesia. Koxinga's death at 39 ended hopes for restoring the Ming dynasty, but he is remembered as a hero on Kinmen and in Taiwan. On the hilltop of Hsia-shu, the site of Koxinga's command post, the present-day defenders of Kinmen completed in 1969 an ornate temple honoring the sturdy general of 300 years ago.

The last Ming claimant to the throne of Im­perial China, King Lu, retired to Kinmen after the Manchus completed their conquest of the main­land. There he died and was buried. The site of his grave had been long forgotten until discovered by Kinmen defenders in 1959. The remains of the last of the Mings was removed to what was considered a more suitable location at the foot of Tai Wu Mountain. A handsome memorial built by Kinmen soldiers marks the spot.

For many years - as in much of the rest of China and in many other parts of the world - a large part of Kinmen was in possession of a few wealthy owners. Much of the island was devoted to horse-breeding. Many horses are still raised in hilly sections not suitable for cultivation.

Kinmen was a largely barren and unattractive chunk of land when it became the center of world attention in late October, 1949. As the Communist rebellion spread on the mainland, President Chiang Kai-shek's government moved to Taiwan. The port city of Amoy fell to the Reds on October 17.

Communist forces then moved on Kinmen, following the route of Koxinga to Taiwan. Early on the morning of October 25 artillery on the Fukien coast began a thunderous bombardment of Kinmen. Two divisions of Red troops moved out from the Tateng and Aotou areas under cover of the big guns. The invaders traveled by motorized sailboats, sampans and bamboo rafts.

They landed at Kuningtou, on the northwest tip of Kinmen, without any serious resistance, then spread out to occupy the nearby areas of Longkou, Lintso and Peishan. Communist com­manders apparently believed that all Kinmen would soon be overrun - and that a leap to Taiwan and the last battle against the defenders of Free China would quickly follow. Most of the free world sadly believed it, too.

But the invaders began encountering strong opposition from the defenders of Kinmen as they attempted to push southward. Government forces counterattacked. By dark they had pushed the Red troops back along the northern shore and recaptured the Longkou area. Their artillery fire destroyed most of the invading landing craft on the beach.

The situation of the Communists was becoming desperate by the early morning of October 26 and a battalion of reinforcements moved across the narrow waterway from Amoy. They landed at Kuningtou - but by this time a large part of that area was back in National hands. Most of the reinforcements were taken prisoners.

The Battle of Kinmen continued to rage through that day, that night and into the next morning. By 10 a.m. of October 27 it was all over and the island was secure. The invaders lost more than 7,000 killed, an uncounted number drowned when their boats were sunk and some 7,000 taken prisoner. Large quantities of Red weapons, am­munition and equipment were captured. The defeat stunned the Communist high command. It also persuaded free world leaders to take another look at the government of President Chiang Kai­-shek and at military forces which had so valiantly proved themselves at Kinmen.

The defenders were not without losses - and these weren't light. The Tai Wu Shrine of the Martyrs commemorates their stand and their sacri­fices at Kuningtou, not far from the cemetery where they rest among tall pines planted after they fell. A stone memorial tablet at the shrine bears the words of their commander, General Hu Lien:

"My dear, departed comrades, rest in peace. You are resting in the earth of the Republic of China, for which you have given your all... Lying here are martyrs of national freedom and true descendants of Huangti!" (Huangti is the legendary ancestor of the Chinese.)

After the victory of October, 1949, the National Government began to strengthen the defenses of Kinmen - and those of Taiwan - not doubting that the Reds would try again.

The next major Communist offensive came less than a year later, on July 26, 1950. Just after dark the enemy launched a flotilla of 27 motorized junks carrying 700 troops. The target was the islet of Tatan, south of Kinmen and a point of observation for activities in Amoy harbor. Tatan is only about 4 kilometers (2½ miles) from the mainland coast. The plan obviously was to use Tatan as a stepping stone in a new Kinmen inva­sion.

Shortly before midnight the Reds landed on the beach in the central part of Tatan. But they had misjudged the strength and determination of the defenders. Early the next morning the garrison commander ordered a counterattack. The fierce battle lasted just short of three hours. It ended with more than 200 of the enemy prisoners and nearly 500 dead. Tatan remained firmly a part of the Republic of China, as it is today.

Early in August of 1958, Nikita Khrushchev visited Red China and talked with Mao Tse-tung. Immediately thereafter the Reds began moving heavy reinforcements into the Fukien coastal area opposite Kinmen. They built up an invasion army of 200,000. Some 399 MIG fighters were moved to Fukien bases. Light bombers were held in readiness farther back.

Just before dark on the evening of August 23, 1958, the artillery batteries along the mainland coast opened up. In the next two days some 93,000 shells were poured onto Kinmen. Broadcasts from the mainland predicted an early mass landing on Kinmen and called on its defenders to "surrender now" to avoid death. The response was heavy counter fire.

The bombardment continued, almost without interruption, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. In the period between August 23 and October 6, the Communists hit Kinmen and nearby islets with nearly 500,000 rounds of artillery fire. In some places, what trees then grew were shattered and mowed down to stumps only inches high. Some 3,000 homes were destroyed or heavily damaged, and some 400 civilians killed or injured.

Kinmen stood firm.

Casualties among servicemen were comparative­ly low, mainly because of the massive fortifications built after 1949. The men of Free China replied in kind. We were shown a 155 mm. American­ made rifle capable of hurling a projectile nearly 20 miles from its emplacement, which was half underground and concealed by a vine-grown camouflage net. The big gun is credited with knocking out 10 enemy batteries during the six­ week duel and exploding 10 ammunition dumps. Now it fires occasional shells filled with leaflets and photographs prepared by psychological war­ fare experts.

Enemy radar stations and barracks also were destroyed by ROC fire during those six crucial weeks. Thirty-two MIG fighters were shot down and more than 40 enemy ships sunk.

Then, on October 6, the shelling suddenly stopped. The Communists announced "for humanitarian reasons" a ceasefire of a week and subsequently of a second week. Then, re­sponding to the news that U. S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles would visit Taiwan, they cut loose with 29,000 shells in three days. After that the Amoy radio announced that shellings would be limited to odd-numbered days.

There were several reasons for ending the bombardment. The fortifications and morale of the defenders had not been damaged. The cost of ammunition was high - at least US$120 million. In six weeks, the main island of Kinmen was struck by an average of 3,000 shells for each square kilometer of land (a little more than a third of a square mile). This outpost of freedom wasn't shaken. There was even a small benefit at one point. An exploding shell uncovered a previously unknown vein of coal!

The bombardment of Kinmen was to be resumed on a massive scale once more. On June 17, 1960, his last year in office, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the president of the United States, arrived in Taiwan for a state visit to the Republic of China. The Chinese Communists reacted by pouring a record 85,965 shells into Kinmen. Two days later, as President Eisenhower departed, they surpassed themselves with 88,789 shells. The two-day total is regarded as the most intensive bombardment in the history of warfare.

Because of the strong fortifications, military losses of the defenders were light. But 28 civilians were killed and many homes and a school destroyed. On June 19, a Sunday, a small Christian congregation was holding services at a Kinmen church when a shell landed just outside. It rocked the building and hurled fragments over the entire area. None of the worshippers was hurt. After a brief interruption the Chinese minister, the Rev. Joseph Tan, read an appropriate verse from the Gospel according to John: "Peace I leave you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." The congregation sang a hymn and went home.

That still is the spirit of Kinmen.

The island was a desolate looking place at the time of the Communist invasion of 1949. Its 30,000 people were mostly fishermen, or scratched out a poor living from the soil - in most cases on land owned by others. The government's land reform ended absentee ownership and share­ cropping. Farms are now owned by the tillers­ and the fields of rich red soil produce a rich patchwork of crops - sweet potatoes, peanuts, vegetables of enormous size and other food crops. Some plots grow the tasseled cane called sorghum. From the fermented sweet juice of its stalks is distilled a liquor called "kaoliang," one of the most distinctive products of the Republic of China. The Chinese call kaoliang "wine," but the un­cautious may find it has an effect similar to that of being hit by one of the Communist shells. With a proof of somewhere around 120, kaoliang has been called "liquid dynamite" by the Ameri­cans. Kinmen kaoliang is popular not only in the Republic of China but in many other countries, including those of Europe.

Most Kinmen farmers are still part-time fisher­men. They have prospered. Most homes have electricity. The average family has a motorbike and television - often a color set. They make a point of the fact that there are no family TV sets and few motorbikes among Chinese living on the Fukien mainland just across the channel.

Kinmen's 62,000 people - more than double the population of 1949 - are well fed. Most of what they eat comes from their own island. They are self-sufficient in almost everything and raise large amounts of produce to sell to the military and to export to Taiwan, Penghu and Matsu. Last year's exports included more than 3,000 hogs.

A third of Kinmen's people are children­ seemingly as happy as any youngsters to be found anywhere outside a war zone. The island has 25 elementary schools, five junior high schools and one senior high school with some 1,500 students. All schools are modern and well-equipped. To the north, Matsu has 14 schools and limited agriculture but extensive fisheries.

Any visitor to Kinmen is impressed with the trees. We found it hard to believe that a quarter of a century ago the island was almost bare. The more than 75 million trees have been planted by soldiers and college student volunteers. Fastgrowing, long-leafed Australian pines are the most common. Other varieties include acacias and eucalyptus, also from Australia. Most saplings are now raised in island nurseries. Fruit growing is being developed.

Water has always been a problem. Rainfall is less than a third of Taipei's. There are no large streams and only one natural lake­ Ku Kang of about 20 acres, now developed as the core of a beautiful park. Armed forces labor created three reservoirs to conserve fresh water for irrigation, domestic use and recreation. The most ambitious is Lake Tze-hu, once a useless tidal flat. The ocean was dammed out in 1970 and the resultant fresh water reservoir and fish pond covers about 450 acres. About 5,500 shallow wells provide water to irrigate 50 percent of Kinmen's fields.

While admiring the park-like garden that is Kinmen aboveground, we were even more im­pressed by the fortress that lies beneath. At one point we drove through a tunnel two cars wide that is part of an extensive system of subterranean defenses, storage facilities and shelters.

Deep inside the mountain called Tai Wu we visited Ching Tien Ting - also called Atlas Hall, after the giant of Greek mythology who bore the earth on his shoulders. Atlas Hall is a 1,000-seat theater chiseled out of solid granite and with three air-lock doors. It is 50 meters (more than 55 yards) long, 18 meters wide and has a granite ceiling 14 meters high. Above 50 meters of solid granite rise to the top of Tai Wu. Soldiers stationed on Kinmen gather in Atlas Hall almost every night for movies or other entertainment. It may be used as a hospital, if the need arises. All over the island are underground shelters. Ample room is available for military and civilians if the token war should heat up again.

From a point of land opposite the misty main­land coast, we looked through 40-power binoculars. Behind us one of several loudspeaker stations addressed the territory under Communist control. Broadcasts continue almost around the clock. They include news, economic reports, analysis of the thought of Mao Tse-tung, questioning of Communist ideology - and music. The broadcasts car­ry for about 22 kilometers - about 13 miles­ and are heard by several hundred thousand people living along a wide stretch of the Fukien province mainland, as well as by troops of the enemy. Standing just in front of the speaker, it sounded as if words and music could be heard for at least 25 miles!

From radio towers elsewhere on Kinmen broad­casts are transmitted 24 hours a day and beamed westward on several wave lengths - standard and short wave, AM and FM. Supplementing broad­casts to the mainland from Taiwan, they can be heard over most of China and Tibet.

At the Chu-kuang Historical Museum, a building of massive granite built by troops in 1952, we were shown other weapons of strategic warfare against the Communists - including tooth brushes!

One of the most effective weapons in the battle for men's minds, it is believed, are the thousands of hydrogen-filled balloons released from Kinmen to drift westward over the mainland. These balloons carry cargoes of up to 50 pounds and timing devices to cut them loose. They drift at three levels - the highest one traveling the farthest - and cover most of China.

When the cargo is loosed from a balloon, a shower of leaflets descends to earth along with a Santa Claus pack of other items, gifts of the people of Free China to countrymen living under oppression. The presents are items known to be scarce and much wanted on the mainland - simple, inexpensive and light in weight but needed. Bars of soap are included along with toothbrushes and toothpaste. Other items are candy, gum and cigarettes; such clothing as sweaters, shirts, blouses, socks, pantyhose and children's wear; small cans of food; toys for holidays; even small transistor radios set to receive broadcasts from Free China.

Leaflets include photographs and stories of the good life on Taiwan. Communist ideology and the dictatorship in Peiping are targets. Defection is invited. Enslaved people are told that freedom will come again some day

Gifts and leaflets are also floated across the narrow waters between Kinmen and the mainland. On holidays, the ocean surface is dotted with myriads of tiny rafts, each containing a small toy.

The appeals for defection have had results - notably from fishing boat crews. The incredibly patched clothes worn by those who sailed their boats to freedom are exhibited at the museum.

At the edge of Kinmen City we visited a large ceramics factory established to make containers for the fiery kaoliang and then expanded to produce vases, pitchers, jugs and lamp stands. Kinmen has deposits of high-grade potter's clay. The factory provides employment for many young and skilled artisans. We were fascinated to watch young men and women painting from memory such designs as birds, fish, flowers and dragons free hand. They are trained by experts in pottery making and decoration.

Conversation-piece curiosities to be found in Kinmen shops include kitchen cleavers forged from shell casings fired from the mainland. The Bible's injunction to beat the swords into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks has been heeded.

Not far away we paid a brief visit to the Catholic Mission supervised by Father Alfons Van Buggenhout from Belgium and Father Jose San­chez from Spain. Proudly they showed us the mission maternity hospital. With lumps in our throats, we watched through glass a dozen or so recent Kinmen arrivals, each sound asleep in his basket. We prayerfully hoped that they might grow up in a world as peaceful as Kinmen was that day. But sloping away from the nursery into the darkness was the hospital's underground shelter - ready to preserve life from a war that hasn't ended.

Near the top of Tai Wu Mountain stands a massive granite monolith boulder known as Cal­ligraphy Rock. On a polished section of its face are four huge Chinese characters painted in red. They reproduce the words of President Chiang Kai-shek: "Remember the Lesson of Chu."

In the Period of the Warring States, the state of Ch'i was overrun by invaders and in 284 B.C. had lost all of its cities but two - the fortress of Chu and Chimo. The people of Chu and Chimo refused to surrender. They fought on bravely and defeated the Yen aggressors. Ch'i's other cities were liberated and the state restored in 279 B.C. This is commemorated in the call to "Remember Chu!"

So stands Kinmen today - a garden above and a fortress beneath, a beacon and a promise - as its defenders remember the example of Chu.