Misunderstanding Rectified
For a time the growing friendship between Taipei and Saigon was halted by President Ngo Dinh Diem's order to reorganize the Chinese congregations in Vietnam to have their properties administered by specially appointed committees.
In Taipei these measures were viewed with alarm. Partly misled by vague wire service reports, and partly due to a natural concern for their overseas brethren, the people in Free China thought the Vietnamese government meant to "confiscate" the properties belonging to the Chinese congregations, valued at more than 10 million American dollars. As a result, demands were raised in certain quarters that the government "toughen up" in talking with Vietnam over the congregation issue.
With public sentiments in Taiwan waxing warm and warmer, Ambassador Yuan Tze-kien was recalled for home consultations. His arrival helped dispel the misunderstanding.
President Ngo's order of last June 10, according to the ambassador, was issued in the best spirit and in the hope of giving the interests of the Chinese community every fair consideration. The order, not without support from the enlightened Chinese congregation leaders themselves, he said, further stated that with the abolition of the provincial congregation groups, the properties owned by them should be disposed of and administered in the future for the better interests of the Chinese colonies in Vietnam.
Ambassador Yuan said he had been repeatedly assured by Vietnamese officials that Saigon had no intention of seizing the Chinese properties. Once the properties are carefully appraised, they will be administered by a joint committee composed of Vietnamese officials and of Chinese leaders for the welfare of the people of Chinese ancestry, he explained.
Many Chinese congregation leaders not only did not object to the reorganization decree, but even welcomed it, because it gave them a chance to uproot some unsound practices in running the welfare projects handed down from one generation to another. Yuan further reported that President Ngo had assured him there was no malice behind his order. Ambassador Yuan urged the Chinese people in Taiwan to understand the real situation. They should not work up emotions and confuse "our national pride" with "the prestige and jurisdiction" of a friendly government.
The furore in Taipei also brought forth a reaffirmation of Free China's policy with respect to its overseas subjects. Chow Shu-kai, chairman of the Overseas Affairs Commission, told the Legislative Yuan the policy was based on the principle that "One should not do to others what he would not like others do to him." The basic conception, he added, is that no country should try to extend its sovereignty to another country.
Sharp-Shooters from Overseas
A 23-year-old student of the National Taiwan University from Vietnam held a group of military reporters spellbound one day last month by out-performing William Tell.
Lun Chin-hsien, a senior majoring in electric engineering, shot a piece of chalk standing in a pipe bowl held in the lips of his military instructor, with a small-bore rifle from 50 feet away. The open-mouthed reporters recovered from their trance only after the instructor walked away unhurt.
Lun's performance was part of a marksmanship demonstration put on by five boys and two coeds of NTU. Six of them are overseas Chinese.
Lun performed another thriller by splitting a carbine bullet into two which in turn deflated two toy balloons placed on each side of a bayonet. He worked the miracle by aiming the rifle at the blade of the bayonet. The blade-pierced the bullet exactly in the middle and bounced off to explode the balloons.
Miss Yeh Lu-san, a 21-year-old junior student from Hongkong, thrilled the spectators by shooting a piece of chalk placed 35 feet off. The greater wonder was that she took aim at the object by turning her back and looking in a mirror to aim.
Miss Ho Feng-mei, also from Hongkong, hit the same object at equal distance. Her aiming position was most unusual. She turned her back on the target, bent forward, thrust her rifle through her legs and pulled the trigger.
The other sharp shooters were Kao Wei-jen, Ou Jun-chih, Chou Ho-chun and Lo Kuo-pan. Their shooting acrobatics included snapping strings, putting out candle flames, exploding firecrackers and a number of other wizard shots.
Overseas Chinese Project
A group of Chinese businessmen in the Philippines has decided to build a large village in Taipei for the accommodation of overseas Chinese from the Hongkong-Macao area.
The plan was disclosed by Li Chao-chin, head of a visiting Chinese group from the Philippines. He declared at a press conference the village will have more than 10,000 housing units complete with school, hospital, entertainment center, a park and a shopping center.
Li, a lumber merchant, estimated the project would cost the equivalent of about 10,000,000 pesos. The money would be raised from among overseas Chinese leaders the world over.
He said an application for the investment project has already been submitted to the government for approval. A preparatory body is being set up in Taipei to push the project, he reported.
Last Phase of Home Education
One hundred overseas Chinese youths who recently graduated from engineering colleges in Taiwan received a two-week industry training course last month to round up their education in the mother country.
Conducted by local experienced personnel, the training included courses in industrial development and in the operation and management of various manufacturing enterprises. The trainees followed the seminar with a round-the-island tour visiting industrial installations.
This was the first program of its kind ever initiated in Taiwan. It was sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. The training program was aimed at providing the students with an opportunity for practical application of their knowledge in industrial production fields. After returning to their resident countries they are expected to put their knowledge and practical experience to good use.
Monument of Generosity
In the wake of last year's flood disaster which laid waste one third of Taiwan's arable land, overseas Chinese donations poured in to help rebuild the devastated land. One of the most urgent tasks in the rehabilitation program was to restore the tens of primary schools leveled by the floods.
The completion of the rehabilitation program at the end of last June witnessed the appearance of the new schools, of which 21 were rebuilt with overseas Chinese donations. As a token of gratitude to the donors, the government affixed the Chinese character "Chiao"—overseas residents—to the names of the schools.
CANADA
Whose Fault?
The Chinese community in Canada has opened a campaign to clear the good name of Chinese immigrants following police raids on Chinese colonies across the country.
Dr. Henry Lore, a Chinese doctor in Toronto, told more than 1,000 fellow-Chinese last month that the police raids last May were "the biggest insult to the Chinese people in the history of Chinese immigration to Canada." Unless Chinese in Canada unite their forces, the fate of future generations of Chinese-Canadians is uncertain, he warned.
The police raids came after officials uncovered evidence of a ring bringing Chinese to Canada illegally. At first it was claimed nearly half of Canada's 23,000 Chinese residents had entered by illegal means.
Charley Foo of Winnipeg, one of the Chinese leaders who conferred with immigration authorities, told the Canadian government the Chinese involved in the racket were forced "to take irregular channels to bring members of their families to Canada only because of the unfair immigration laws."
Simon Yuen, secretary of the Chinese Benevolent Society of Montreal, pinpointed another cause of the immigration racket. He said the majority of Chinese being investigated by the Canadian government apparently came from the Toyshan district in Kwangtung where the people suffered intensively from the Communists in 1950. The Reds were to blame for terrorizing Kwangtung inhabitants into availing themselves of illicit means to escape to freedom, he said.
INDONESIA
Asking for Trouble
The Chinese Communists have recently intensified their anti-Indonesian propaganda in the wake of the slaying of two Chinese women in West Java in a clash between police and overseas Chinese. There is some evidence that Peiping engineered the trouble in the first place.
The Chinese Reds have been playing the role of protector to the Chinese in Indonesia since Jakarta banned Chinese traders from retail business in rural areas at the turn of the year. The greater the trouble between the overseas Chinese and the Indonesian government, the better they will be able to play that role.
But in the final analysis the Jakarta government has actually invited the trouble by choosing to deal with a regime whose specialty is subversion and whose goal is to profit from other's confusion. The Indonesian government may very well ask itself why no such trouble has happened in Southeast Asian countries which have recognized the Chinese government in Taipei.
UNITED STATES
Petition for Non-recognition
Lee Chueh-chih, former president of the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, submitted two identical petitions last month to the Democratic and Republican parties asking them to include in their platform an unequivocal pledge not to extend recognition to the Communist regime on the Chinese mainland.
The petition was signed by over 10,000 Chinese residents across the United States. The signature drive was initiated by the National Chinese Welfare Council, of which Lee is the presiding officer. He spent two weeks gathering the signatures and found the Chinese communities in the United States very enthusiastic in responding to the movement.