18. American Ambassador Karl L. Rankin, at a farewell dinner given in his honor by the American University Club, said that he was leaving Taiwan "with confidence" in the victory of Free China's cause. He described the past seven years since he arrived in Taiwan as "a period of trial, but also a time of accomplishment and hope." Declaring that those who advocated the recognition of Red China overlooked the real facts, the American envoy said, "Honest acceptance of the two-Chinas concept is a political impossibility for any Chinese regime, whatever its political complexion. A great people like the Chinese will never acquiesce in the permanent dismemberment of their country ... Since the concept of two-Chinas in permanence must be excluded, there is no substantial alternative to reunion but a return to the mainland."
20. The Japanese translation of President Chiang's book "Soviet Russia in China" published by the Mainichi Shimbun, one of the three biggest Japanese dailies, came off the press in Tokyo.
Nobel Prize winner Prof. Chen Ning-Yang presented a thesis on recent theoretical development of the Parity Law before a large audience composed mostly of leading physicists throughout the world at a meeting held by the American Physics Society at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Yang's thesis was well received by fellow physicists of international fame.
21. The Sino-German Society of Bonn announced its plans to send out a travelling exhibition of ancient and modern Chinese art to all major West German cities beginning early in 1958 as a result of enthusiastic public response to the articles on Chinese art and literature in the first number of their bulletin just published.
23. The Chinese Operatic Group of the Republic of China performed before a full house on its opening night in the Monte Carlo Theater in Monaco. During the intermission, Prince Ranier and Princess Grace received "members of the Group and expressed their appreciation of the performance.
25. President Chiang Kai-shek presided at a ceremony celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Chinese Constitution promulgated on December 25, 1947.
Jan. 3, 1958 American Ambassador Karl L. Rankin, re-assigned to the post of Ambassador to Yugoslavia, left Taiwan for the United States.
4. The Chinese Operatic Group concluded its successful performances in the cities of Lisbon and Porto in Portugal.
John Holland, an Australian newspaperman, said in Tokyo after a visit to Communist China that "Shanghai is now a city that has donned garments and the air of a second-class funeral parlor primly presiding over the final formalities for the lately dead." He noted its startling silence and remarkable change which he said "could never have been accomplished with anything less positive and authoritative than death."
6. Two Chinese opera actresses, one of them a pupil of the leading Chinese opera female impersonator, Mei Lan-fang, arrived in Taiwan from the Chinese mainland by way of Hongkong. Miss Li Hsiang-fen, 26, of Hunan, and Miss Chang Yu-fan, 42, of Hopei, were sent to Hongkong by the Communists in October 1957 to promote the so-called "united front tactics" in the British colony. Taking advantage of this trip, the two actresses repudiated Communism shortly after their arrival in Hongkong. Chang Yu-fan was accompanied by her nine-year-old son. With the assistance of the Free China Relief Association, the three of them finally found their way to Taiwan.
Twenty-eight other Chinese, who had fled Communist China arrived on the same day at Keelung from Hongkong by S. S. Szechwan. On their arrival, the escapees told a familiar story of enslavement, blood purge and starvation on the Communist-held mainland.
8. Representatives of students and youths of four countries - the Republic of China, Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam - signed in Manila a Cultural and Goodwill Exchange Agreement to promote and foster lasting friendship, unity and understanding among the four countries' concerned in their fight against the menace of Communism.
10. President Chiang Kai-shek's "Soviet Russia in China" was recommended as a "must" to the reading public in Japan by Professor Toichiro Takamatsu of Tokyo University at a time, he said, when "waves of Soviet and Red Chinese intrigues of world domination are lapping the shores of Japan."
A 10-member West German goodwill mission composed of eight parliamentarians, one industrialist and one political commentator arrived in Taiwan for a 10-day visit. The group wad headed by Dr. Richard Jaeger, vice president of the Bundestag (Lower House). Organizer of the group, Dr. Ernst Majonica, Chairman of the Sino-German Society in Bonn, who had visited Taiwan in 1956 told newsmen upon the group's arrival in Hongkong on January 8 that Germany was in political sympathy with Taiwan and recognized the fact that "there is only one China - the legal China on Taiwan."
12. Hsu Fu-lin, Chairman of the Democratic Socialist Party, who ran for the presidency in 1954, died of heart disease in Taipei at the age of 79.
Dr. Lewis Katona, 70, a prominent Hungarian writer who left Hungary after the October 1956 revolution and has been a refugee ever since, was granted political asylum by the Government of Free China.
14. Chang Chun-sheng, 38, a lieutenant colonel in the Chinese Red army and deputy commander of a Communist artillery division, who was a member of the Chinese Communist Party for 19 years, defected to Free China. He was formally appointed deputy chief of staff of a government anti-aircraft artillery command with the rank of full colonel at a public welcoming ceremony in Taipei presided over by General Wang Shu-ming, Chief of General Staff. He was also given a cash award of NT$50,000. Chang was the first high-ranking member of the Red Army to respond to President Chiang's call to Communist military personnel to come over and join the armed forces of Free China in the Double Tenth message of October 10, 1957. In that message, the President guaranteed lenient treatment and reward to those Communist personnel who would repent and join the anti-Communist cause of Free China. Chang deserted the Communist 63rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division in the Fukien area and crossed over to Kinmen in a sampan on December 17. He was brought over to Taipei on the next day. At the welcoming ceremony, Colonel Chang said he was happy to start a new life in Free China and pledged to devote the rest of his life to the anti-Communist cause of the nation. Communist armed forces were, he said, under strict control of Soviet advisors who are entrenched in all branches of the services. He said he decided to defect to Free China when he finally saw that all Communist promises were' false.
General Wang Tsan-hsu, former governor of Szechwan province, was intercepted by the Communists while attempting to flee the mainland, according to a Military Information Service dispatch from Hongkong. Quoting Communist newspapers the dispatch said that Wang was arrested by Communist soldiers on the night of November 14 when he almost succeeded in crossing the Hongkong border. Lei Shao-cheng, former chief of security police in Chengtu, who tried to escape with Wang, was also arrested. They were taken back to Chengtu for trial.