The Chicago Sun-Times published February 14 this report by Barry Martin: "When 16th Century Portuguese sailors discovered a mountainous island of the west Pacific, 100 miles off the China Coast, they named it Island Beautiful-Ilha Formosa.
"Shaped like a tobacco leaf 240 miles long by 90 wide, Formosa today is better known as Taiwan.
"As an island retreat of Nationalist China, Taiwan offers American tourists the chance of seeing China's traditional way of life first-hand. En route from Japan to Hong Kong or Manila, it costs no additional air fare to enjoy a few days' interlude.
"I flew in by Cathay Pacific's Convair 880 jet service from Osaka. As we circled over green rice fields and cloudy hilltops, the bird's-eye view looked like a Chinese scroll painting come to life.
"The capital, Taipei, is a city of broad, tree-lined boulevards with somewhat drab buildings. But it has excellent modern hotels of international caliber, charging an average room rate of $9 for singles with bath, or $15 doubles.
"The principal hotels can all serve American-style food. But among the attractions of Taiwan is the chance of sampling the full variety of Chinese cuisine.
"Americans are familiar with Cantonese cooking. But there are six other major regional cuisines, totally different from Cantonese. In Taiwan, you can try them all. Reckon $2 for a full-scale meal.
"Greatest highlight in Taipei is the National Palace Museum, majestically sited on a rural hillside just outside the capital.
"During the Nationalist Army's retreat from mainland China, some 240,000 of Peking's finest treasures were shipped across the China Sea to Taiwan. These cultural riches have remained in store ever since...
"This must be the world's greatest collection of Sung, Ming and Ching pottery, with wonderful jade in rich variety of colors, and bronzeware, paintings and Chinese calligraphy.
"Taipei is a good base for excursions around Taiwan.
"I took a three-hour train ride costing $1.25 to Taichung, by firstclass air-conditioned Express. The carriage was modern and comfortable, with reclining seats and adjustable footrests.
"A cute Chinese hostess brought round packets of tea - choice of green or jasmine - and was followed by another attendant with glasses and a kettle of hot water.
"There was piped background music, beginning with Johann Strauss waltzes and then selections of Chinese opera. Then came damp scented face-flannels, and later the morning paper in Chinese.
"Outside were beautiful panoramic views of a richly fertile countryside, with patient terracing that hugged the contours of every hillside. Village houses and farm buildmgs looked substantial.
"Every possible inch of land was under cultivation. Even the dried-up river beds carried crops of sweet potatoes and other vegetables.
"Taichung was a colorful market town, center of a rice-growing region. Farmers were bringing in their produce on light trailers powered by motorcycle. Other farmers came in by motor scooter, with wife perched side-saddle on the pillion.
"My destination was Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. The 2-hour, 50-mile bus ride into the mountains followed a steep valley terraced with paddy fields and plantations of tea, banana and betel-nut.
"Suspension foot-bridges swung across mountain streams. Water buffaloes grazed peacefully, herded by girls in brightly colored trousers.
"Sun Moon Lake is a tranquil haven where Gen. Chiang Kai-shek spends his own summer vacations. Little villages are spread around the 10-mile shoreline, including several aboriginal communities.
"The aborigines probably came by outrigger canoe from Polynesia or the Philippines about the 6th Century A. D., before the Chinese arrived in Taiwan. Once a year they don their colorful tribal costumes, and dance and sing for a day of festivity.
"However, in the interests of Taiwan's fast-developing tourist industry, they welcome visitors inside their aborigine stockades for twice-daily ritual harvest and hunting dances.
"After the performance, the aborigine girls rush around selling color slides, postcards and costume dolls.
"Then, as tourists depart by motorlaunch, the girls change back into mini-skirts, and return to their traditional-style homes roofed with bamboo, thatch and TV aerials. They buy their sets on installment plan.
"This two-day excursion from Taipei is operated by local travel agents for $30 to $36, including overnight hotel and all meals.
"The other top excursion, costing $25 for a one-day trip, is to the Taroko Gorge.
"First there's short flight by China Airlines over the mountain spine of Taiwan, with view of snowclad peaks that reach above 12,000 feet. A small coastal plain around Hualien has a river, paddy fields, factory chimneys and a theatrical backdrop of mountains. From the tour bus, you see crops of sugar-cane, ground-nuts, rice and pineapple, with duck-farms and pigs.
"The East-West Highway that drives across the central mountains of Taiwan ranks among the world's great scenic roads. It was built between 1956 and 1960 by Chinese veterans-120 miles that were hewn and blasted from a mountain of graywhite marble.
"There are fantastic deep gorges with a road clinging precariously to the rock-face high above a green, boulder-strewn river. Tunnels and galleries are pierced to give dramatic viewing points.
"Certainly Formosa is just as breathtaking and beautiful as when Portuguese galleons first explored its rugged coastline. The 20th Century American can savor it all on an airline stopover!" (Partial text)
Baltimore Sun - Off the beaten track
The Baltimore Sun published February 7 this report by Morris G. Simoncelli: "Every country along the tourist trail around the world has its well-known landmarks that group after group and individuals flock to see. But if you really want to feel the atmosphere of a country, get away from the cities and explore the countryside.
"Taiwan, for instance, the bastion of Nationalist China, has as its capital Taipei, a city of 1,600,000. It is renowned for its four ancient gates, Confucian Temple, National Palace Museum and, in general everything Chinese that is denied to many Western eyes by the Bamboo Curtain.
"But there is more to Taiwan than Taipei. A half-day auto trip to Wu Lai is recommended for a cross-section look at rural and mountain terrain and living. The drive to Wu Lai is south through the outskirts of Taipei, a busy part of the city, with small shops, houses, apartments and bustling people.
''Beyond the city, the countryside becomes picturesque. At times it seems like driving through a huge Chinese print. There are numerous streams and rivers and rice paddies in various stages of cultivation.
"Over each hilltop the views become more magnificent, with new foliage-covered mountains looming out of the ever-present mist. The terrain in this portion of Taiwan, as in most of Taiwan, is mountainous and spectacular. Thus it continues for many miles until the road ends at Wu Lai.
"This is as far as the car goes. Now driver becomes guide. From here, it's all on foot, push-car and ropeway.
"The walking begins through a small country town which seems to have a predominance of souvenir shops and restaurants with inviting fragrances; then across a bridge over a small stream at the beginning of a gorge is the first of many flights of steps to be climbed.
"This leads to a push-car track which has all the appearances of an oversize model railroad. The cars have four wheels and a canopy, can seat only two people and are pushed by hand by one man.
"The trip takes about 20 minutes, giving riders ample time to view the scenery. There are small shacks, children, dogs, chickens, flowers, and an abundance of tropical foliage.
"Far in the distance on the left, across the gorge, a slender waterfall becomes visible spilling down the side of a tall mountain. The waters crash 250 feet into the gorge.
"Wu Lai has the appearance of almost any tourist area. The people here are the aborigines of Taiwan, the original settlers, neither Chinese nor Taiwanese, but Caucasian. Years ago they were a head-hunting people. Now they number about 200,000 and dress in colorful costumes to the delight of picture-taking tourists whom they charge 50 cents per pose.
"After a late lunch at Wu Lai, it is up several more steep flights of stone steps to the beginning of the ropeway. Here the thin cable stretches from the bottom of the gorge on one side to the lofty opposite summit, rising up and over the top of the waterfall.
"The view from the cable car will linger. It takes eight minutes to go each way, so there is plenty of time to gaze out the windows. At the highest point, the gondola is more than 300 feet above the bottom of the rock-strewn river. The view up and down the gorge and out across the countryside as far as eye can see is spectacular. The mountains, rice paddies, an occasional Chinese gate and temple all lend themselves to this tremendous panorama that can only be seen by getting off the beaten path and into the countryside of Taiwan." (Full text)
Oakland Tribune - Explosive growth
The Tribune of Oakland, California, published February 2 this report by William Doyle: "The economy of Taiwan has enjoyed a growth in the last five years as explosive as firecrackers which pop outside my hotel as the Lunar new year celebration draws to a close.
"And government economists foresee little slackening in the expansion with a 20 per cent growth, paced by increases in manufacturing and public utilities, in the offing for this year.
"The rapid growth reflects in part the turn from an agriculturally oriented country to one in which manufacturing is much more important, but farm products still account for about half the total.
"Sugar, canned and processed foods and pineapple are major export items in this category.
"The big surge in manufacturing is in textiles, electrical equipment and electronics parts with most of the major U.S. companies in the appliance and electronics fields represented in the area around this capital city of 1.8 million persons.
"Japan and the U.S. rank first and second as trading partners for this island nation of 15 million, 100 miles off the mainland of Asia.
"The government of President Chiang Kai-shek is making an effort to broaden its trading base through contact with European nations and is experiencing growing success.
"The government has few restrictions on capital import or ownership but in its 'capital intensive' approach is encouraging investment of more than $200,000 in any new facility financed from outside the country.
"The Taiwan government is currently reviewing and relaxing its import policies and while encouraged by it as 'the beginning of a trend' Weiner, (Oakland-born manager of the Taipei office of Getz Bros.) says it is not too important yet.
Things have been good enough that the people of the second most densely populated nation in the world have more money to spend." (Partial text)
Stars & Stripes - Heartening response
The Pacific Stars & Stripes of the U.S. Armed Forces published March 11 this report by Andrew Headland Jr.: "The Nixon Doctrine, while providing for the U.S. to honor all its treaty commitments and to continue playing a major role in defense against aggression by nuclear powers, looks toward a somewhat lowered U.S. profile overseas and to a sharing of responsibility with its friends and allies.
"McConaughy (U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of China) said the United States was not going to cease being a Pacific power and would continue playing a significant role in East Asia. "'Our friends can be assured of that,' he said.
"He said that nations in this part of the world are doing mote and more to find Asian solutions for Asian problems. 'We are greatly heartened by the response that has been made, ' he said.
"He cited the Republic of China as being in the 'vanguard' of nations when is comes to self reliance and carrying a full load. He also noted that the Republic of China is assisting 23 less developed countries, mostly in Africa, with technical assistance programs in agriculture and other fields.
"He said the Republic of China was ready to assume the maximum part of the nation's defense burden that is necessitated because of the 'constant' threat from across the Taiwan Straits.
''They have the will, resolution, morale, heart and ability to carry their full share of the load and it's a privilege for us as allies to be associated with them on Taiwan,' he said." (Partial text)
Hongkong Standard - Overseas Chinese
The Hongkong Standard said February 26: "In Hongkong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines or elsewhere in Southeast Asia, when the Chinese celebrate Lunar Year most business activity in the area comes to a halt.
"These resilient, industrious people came to Southeast Asia from the peasant poverty of South China more than a hundred years ago at the height of colonial economic expansion.
"During the 19th Century and until about 1930, the British, Dutch and French imported this cheap, willing labour to work their mines and plantations in colonial lands to provide a reliable source of labour in place of local Southeast Asians.
"Over the years, many coolie labourers, with their penchant for hard work and thirst, accumulated capital and started small shops and businesses. Those who made it often brought in relatives from their home in South China provinces to help expand family enterprises.
"To survive and pr0tect their businesses, the Chinese are reorganising their enterprises along more modern lines, diversifying their individual holdings, and establishing public corporations that can be identified more visibly with the national interests of their host countries.
"Since the Communist takeover of (mainland) China in 1949, few expatriates have shown any desire to return to their cultural homeland.
" 'Unless the political system changes, few overseas Chinese will go back to (mainland) China,' says Mr. Ping Yuan Tang, chairman of South Sea Textile Manufacturing Co. in Hongkong.
"Mr. Tang, who fled Shanghai before the Communist takeover, has since built the largest cotton-textile mill in Hongkong, which employs 2,500 people and turns out $42 million worth of yarn and cloth annually for 20 international markets.
"Mr. Lien Ying-chow, Chairman of Singapore's Overseas Union Bank, arrived in Singapore as a 12-year-old orphan with no capital at all.
"Hanging on the wall of his Hongkong office is a lovely black brush painting of a pine tree that he took with him when he fled Shanghai. The painting reminds him, Mr. Tang says, of a Chinese saying: 'Sit like a pine - erect, upright - and you weather the winter.'
"Overseas Chinese who have risen to the top show an extraordinary uniformity in certain human qualities. They have abascus-quick minds, great curiosity, and remarkably strong wills. They worship education and learning and they find singular joy in getting things done." (partial text)
Twin Circle - Battle for America
The Twin Circle of the United States published February 28 this article by the Rev. Raymond J. de Jaegher: "Since the great proletarian cultural revolution, Red China is in a state of internal weakness. The Communist party has been weakened, and strong anti-Mao elements have been eliminated. The army has taken over power, so that the real rulers of Red China are members of a Chinese Communist military regime headed by Lin Piao, the future successor of Mao.
"Red China presents a smiling face abroad, while in the meantime carrying on a double offensive.
"The first is on the diplomatic front. During the Cultural Revolution all the Ambassadors of Red China were recalled with the exception of Hoang Hoa in Cairo. Now most of the Ambassadors have been returned to their posts in an effort to give the impression of a relaxation in Red China's policies.
"In the meantime a psychological offensive is being mounted. In a world yearning for peace, Mao plays as if he were very strong at home, using the revolutionary methods of alternated war and peace. For the Communists peace is a kind of war, and war, or war threats, a kind of peace tactic.
"This dual diplomatic and psychological offensive has tended to build up in much of the world the opinion that the country is in the midst of a change, and that recognition of Red China would help to promote this change.
"The U.S. has backed Free China up to this time, but the diplomatic and psychological offensives of Red China have made a considerable impact on many Americans, and segments of the news media are favoring the entry of Red China into the UN and a two-China policy. This puts strong pressure on the government of Free China.
"Peking is not a peace-loving regime as Article 4 of the UN Charter requires from all countries joining the UN. Aggression in Korea, against the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, attacks against India, the abortive coup in Indonesia led by Maoists, aid to Palestinian guerrillas in the Near East, the training of guerrillas in African countries, assistance to Castro's Cuba, the stirring up of students' and workers' riots in France-these are but a few instances of Red Chinese aggression.
"What the great mass of the American public does not realize is that Peking wants control of Asia, and later of the world.
"The West has shown a growing inclination to accept a two-China policy. But this is something that neither Peking nor Free China could tolerate.
"Free China has some good arguments on its side. The Republic of China is a founding member of the United Nations, and as a member of the Security Council she is one of the five powers with the right of veto. Free China can resist being expelled from the UN also on the grounds that she has been a peace-loving member from the time of the founding of the organization 25 years ago.
"The battle of the two Chinas in the UN is of vital interest to the United States. The Communist policy is to defeat the stand of the U.S. and thus weaken its stature in the eyes of the world.
"Thus the battle to save Free China becomes also a part of the battle to save America." (Partial text)
The Wanderer - mobilizing opinion
The Wanderer of the United States published February 25 this column by Robert Morris: "Red China's friends here, as well as those who sincerely believe we should make concessions to Mao's regime, are working feverishly to condition this country for next year's vote in the U.N. Assembly on the question of admission. They aren't waiting for September to make this move.
"Red China is in desperate condition. It badly needs the infusions of grants and loans as well as the prestige that would accrue to it with admission to the United Nations. 'It seems to be pulling out all stops in its effort to gain entry.
"The case against admission is a strong one. But very few people are presenting it and those who do, are either being blacked out or impugned. I don't see the State Department doing it.
"The United Nations Charter clearly makes Red China ineligible for admission. Only the most unconcealed hypocrisy would have to prevail for the General Assembly to hold that Red China is a peace-loving nation. The fact of the matter is that the People's Republic is still at war with the U.N. itself because there never was a peace treaty signed after it waged war against the world body in Korea.
"But there are other reasons which this column has set forth before. Can you imagine, for instance, the heightened ineffectiveness of that collective security body when it gives Red China, in addition to the USSR, the power to veto acts of the Security Council?
"What people fail to realize is that with recognition and admission of Red China by the high councils of the world, it will be virtually impossible for the score of independent countries all over Asia to resist its expansion and even the aggressions that Lin Piao and other leaders have openly declared they will carry out.
"There must be a mobilization of public opinion on this vital issue. The President and the Congress should provide a forum where this grave question can be openly discussed.
"Otherwise we will be blitzed by a veiled orchestrated public relations campaign that will be a driving wedge for Mao to achieve his present goal." (Partial text)
Editor's note: Style is that of the publication quoted.