Free China is the purveyor of Chinese Communist secrets to the outside world. Almost everything is a secret with the Maoists - from economic statistics to the latest internal pronouncement of Mao Tse-tung. The only publicized output is that of propaganda. Party charters and constitutions are rarely made public. Yet these documents reach scholars in Taiwan and elsewhere through the Republic of China's mainland underground.
The Communists also proscribe speeches except those which are mere pap for purposes of protocol. One speech made this year by Chiang Ching, the wife of Mao Tse-tung, implied that she considered herself to be a maker and manager of foreign policy. That lecture was obtained by the free Chinese sources and made public in Taipei. In May, "foreign minister" Chiao Kuan-hua ad dressed the political department of the "Tientsin Garrison Command." This text also reached the Republic of China.
Chiang Ching's remarks were largely concerned with the inner workings of the "foreign ministry" and some the personality conflicts to be found there. Chiao Kuan-hua spoke out bluntly on the objectives of Chinese Communist foreign policy. He made no bones about the Chinese Communists' intention to use diplomacy as one of Mao's gun barrels in conquering the world. His approach to foreign relations is purely Machiavellian.
Much has been made, for example, of Chinese Communist promises to keep "hands off" the overseas Chinese populations of countries in Southeast Asia. Chiao makes clear that this is solely a policy for deceiving such countries as Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The intention is to buy Quislings and establish fifth columns. When the time is ripe, the overseas Chinese who are loyal to the Communist cause will be used to destroy the governments of their countries of residence. This is a lesson the Indonesians learned while almost losing their country to Communism. Chiao wryly remarks that the Filipinos and Malaysians are "reasonable" in approaching the overseas Chinese question, while Indonesia is the "least reasonable."
These are excerpts from the Chiao speech in Tientsin with some explanations and comments:
Chiao views the world as composed of the "First World" hegemonies of the United States and the U.S.S.R.; the "Second World" of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan; and the "Third World." The three worlds may be compared with the ''Three Kingdoms" of ancient China, which became one with the victory of Wei. In other words, the Communists are to be equated to Tsin and Mao to the earlier First Emperor. Maoists are going to take over the world.
First, the Chinese Communists must protect themselves. The U.S.S.R. is worse than the United States and is capitalizing on the global pullback of American forces. "Soviet revisionism is more aggressive and deceptive than the United States. Temporarily, the Soviet Union can be resisted by "uniting with the West to avoid attack from both front and rear." In time, "capitalism and all exploiting classes will be destroyed. The three parts of the world will be incorporated into the communized world" of Maoism.
The hegemonists are to be defeated one by one. So in uniting the rest of the world against the United States and U.S.S.R., it is necessary to arrange a sequence - lest "we force them to stand on the same side by pushing them to hard. This could get us into hot water." According to Chiao, the Chinese Communists predicted the course of events in Vietnam when Henry Kissinger made his first visit to Red China in 1971. The United States was "expected to let its puppet in South Vietnam play the role of scapegoat. We anticipated that the United States would assure its own safety at the expense of its allies."
In visiting France, Teng Hsiao-ping (he was accompanied by Chiao) hoped "to kill three birds with one stone." France itself is one bird. The Chinese Communists support France against the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. but do not approve of its political system and will participate in its over throw. The second bird is the United States and the third is the Soviet Union. Both are to be opposed in Europe, but the United States is to be manipulated into dealing a blow against the Russians. The French and Chinese Communists can not belong to the same family until France is remade in the image of Mao.
Overseas Chinese are to be welcomed to the mainland and then sent home "to disseminate Mao Tse-tung thought in their host countries." Most overseas Chinese "educated in Marxism and Leninism will be inclined to engage in revolution. Many of them may even lead the masses. Some will become revolutionary leaders in their countries of residence." But "since many countries of the world are not ripe for revolution and have established diplomatic relations with us," three matters must be handled "prudently." In other words, the overseas Chinese are to pretend to be loyal to their countries of residence and "to honor the governments and laws and get along with the native peoples." In the end, they can be expected "to live up to the expectations of the Chinese Communist party."
Conflict in the Middle East stems from the U.S.-Soviet struggle, which "will surely lead to world war." Israel (the Arabs may be shocked to learn from Chiao) "is a fait accompli." Palestinians cannot be returned to the land from which they were ejected "and the Israelis made into refugees." The continued existence of Israel is to the advantage of the Chinese Communists but will "not be recognized for a while. Soviet revisionism is struggling against American imperialism; let us follow the policy of watching the tigers fight."
This is the Chinese Communist view of the Arab world according to Chiao: "The chieftains, big and small, have nowhere to spend their money. They do not love their people. They do not love their miniature kingdoms. Bored with playing with camels and tired of their desert dwellings, they have turned to playing with rifles and guns and to showing off their wealth and strength. Let them buy Russian aircraft to fight U.S. aircraft and U.S. rockets to knock out Russian tanks. The desert will calm down in time. There will be no winner. Both Jews and Palestinians will survive. In the end the Middle East will be rid of U.S. imperialism and Soviet revisionism. The exploiting, high-handed, debauched, feudalistic ruling class will be over thrown. Faisal, Ghaddafi, Sadat and their successors cannot escape the judgment of history." In other words, the Middle East will be Maoized. Meanwhile, Peiping will "make deals" with the capitalist countries and "support the Arabs," but will never give up the ideological task of world revolution.
North Korea is revisionist, Chiao said. This led to whisperings and frowns while Kim II Sung was visiting Peiping. But North Korea has its own problems and should be treated objectively. The Chinese Communists will provide moral sup port and aid to North Korea for the march south but will dispatch troops only if the "imperialists" again march toward the Yalu. "On the diplomatic front, we sometimes must beat around the bush without following a fixed rule," Chiao said. North Korea leaned toward the Russians for a while but was cheated and then came to fear Japan's return to militarism. So the Koreans are now constructing monuments and memorial halls to Chinese Communists who fought in the Korean war. "We do not mind Kim II Sung's visit to Russia. He consulted us and the visit is nothing more than our visit to France." However, the Soviet Union is seeking air and naval bases in the Pacific. Kim II Sung is hesitating, wishing to offend neither the U.S.S.R. nor Red China. He faces the additional uncertainties of a South Korea supported by the United States and a rearming Japan. The terrain of Korea differs from that of Indochina; it is not suitable for guerrilla warfare or a war of movement. Victory will depend not only on the will to fight but upon heavy firepower. The North Koreans have been urged to prepare carefully. There is also the possibility that the South Koreans will bring confusion and disaster upon themselves. "Internal trouble is the basic factor and an external strike is the decisive factor." Japan could equip 100 divisions with modern weapons and wage limited warfare within six months; it could send troops to Korea in half a day. But Japan's return to militarism would not be viewed indifferently by the United States, Red China or the U.S.S.R.
Nixon, Ford, members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. military leaders should receive gold and silver medals for the victories of North Vietnam and the Cambodian and Laotian Communists. Uncle Sam's generosity was responsible for the Communist triumphs. Had the wars dragged on longer, they would have been difficult to sustain. Some refugees from South Vietnam reached Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces. They were returned be cause the Chinese Communists do not recognize a "refugee" status for anyone.
The Chinese Communists have been represented as hoping that the United States will not withdraw from South Korea and Japan. This, Chiao said, is merely a temporary strategem. The goal is the replacement of capitalist society with Communist society. "We are fighting a perimeter battle to wipe out the enemy's outer strongholds and pluck out all the obstacles, overt and covert, before a final showdown to bury imperialism, revisionism and reaction. If the socialist forces can join together and adopt the strategy of defeating the enemy one by one, our force will be able to overcome everyone of them." The timing will be decided by the battle on the perimeter. If one generation cannot complete the task, the next will carryon. The socialists had planned to knock out the imperialists at one stroke after World War II. The foes of Communism were alarmed and closed their ranks. "We could neither tear out nor swallow this fish bone in our throat," Chiao said.
Foreign aid is important but will fail without self-reliance. This accounts for the American failure in Indochina. "All of her puppets attached greater importance to foreign aid than self reliance. Had Lon Nol emphasized internal unity and mobilized the masses while seeking foreign aid, even 10 Sihanouks could not have hurt him. Once the people rise up to make revolution, we shall certainly give them our full support. We are telling Malaysia and the Philippines that we shall not send agents or troops to their countries. But this does not mean we shall dissuade the local people from undertaking revolutionary struggle. We will support the Communist parties of these countries until they win the final victory." Chiao said that there is no problem of "exporting revolution." Communism has already been imported by countries around the world.
This is not to be construed as any sign of Peiping's military weakness. "If we chose to aggress and export revolution," Chiao said, "all the Southeast Asian countries would be easily conquered within six months to a year." The Vietnam war continued for 10 years and the war in Cambodia for five. If the "people's liberation army" had fought these wars, their duration would have been less than a year. Recalling battles with American, Indian and Kuomintang forces, Chiao asked whether Thai, Burmese, Malaysian, Philippine and Indonesian troops could fight so well. After 25 years of modernization, he said, the PLA is always victorious in war, irresistible in attacking and unafraid in the face of the "cold faced stare of the Russians."
Peiping has no respect for the countries of Southeast Asia or their leaders. "It is difficult to find in Southeast Asian countries a leader who is not corrupt," Chiao said. Most of the Southeast Asian countries are anti-Communist and outlaw the Communist party. "All these countries have a stake in the United States and connections with Taiwan. None of them is a democracy. They have such weaknesses as starvation, poverty, death, corruption, backwardness, uneven distribution of wealth and a high level of dependence on the United States. The people are not so diligent as the Chinese. Economic infiltration and monopolization by the developed countries, as well as overseas Chinese success in economic ventures, are made possible by manipulation of the corrupt governments. If the Soviet revisionists give them a couple of U.S. billion dollars in aid, they will turn themselves upside down, oppose Washington and Peiping and throw themselves into the arms of Moscow. Is their anti-Communism assumed in the national interest? Neither Suharto nor Marcos can answer.
"It seems that Mrs. Marcos, the wife of the Philippine president, is a beauty queen. Beauty contests are productions of the obsolete system of capitalism in which the bourgeois and big landlords may toy with girls. They are also conspicuous examples of a system in which women are regarded as vassals to amuse the ruling class. You may judge the class interest represented by the Philippine president and his wife. However, the international situation impelled us to invite him here for a talk. Just as in the case of Nixon, we had no alternative."
Southeast Asian rulers and governments have recognized Peiping in an effort to save themselves. They have become anti-American and pro-Chinese Communist. They think to align themselves with their local Communists, saying, "Communist bud dies, as you have seen we have made a friend of (Red) China and the Chinese (Communists) will therefore not support you from now on. Since we are anti-American, we can work together to make the revolution." But these countries still have hungry people and big gaps between rich and poor. The bourgeoisie still exists and the proletariat has nothing. "After the establishment of diplomatic relations with (Red) China, the people can see more clearly that their calamities are not caused by the export of Chinese Communist revolution, but by big landlords, big entrepreneurs, foreign consortiums and the reactionary governments of their own countries. The revolution in Southeast Asian countries soon will bear fruit with our support."
Overseas Chinese are of enhanced value to Peiping if they are naturalized in their adopted countries. ."For instance," Chiao said, "Yang Chen-ning (the physicist) can still love (Red) China as ardently as ever although he has been naturalized as an American citizen. What is more, he can take advantage of his rights of foreign citizenship to conduct propaganda activities for us. If the more than 10 million overseas Chinese (the usual estimate is 21 million) are all granted citizenship by the governments of the foreign countries where they reside and are willing to take advantage of their rights to propagate the superiority of our great socialist country, what a tremendous effect will be produced! If an overseas Chinese spends a dozen years or so to indoctrine 10 local people and these 10 exert an influence over 10 others, there soon will be a strength of more than a billion people. Moreover, we have a population of 800 million at home and numerous friends abroad. When more than half the world's population takes sides with us, either overtly or covertly, will not the effect on world revolution be profound? This is our emphasis in overseas Chinese affairs, rather than how much money the overseas Chinese will invest and how much foreign exchange we shall earn from it.
"When Chinese become involved in revolution, no complaints can be laid at the door of Peiping. These Chinese are citizens of the countries in which they are making revolution. If they are arrested, that is part of their sacrifice. Besides, they can always manage to escape and return to mainland China, where they will be welcomed. These Chinese are not exporters of revolution because they were not sent out as agents. They were only told to go forth and destroy their benefactors."
Chiao said Taiwan was the most secure and yet the most dangerous area in Asia. Southeast Asian countries have severed relations with the Republic of China but continue to maintain economic and cultural ties. The Taiwan economy is little affected by political events. "The geographical location of Taiwan is important. Soviet Russia is constantly watching Taiwan," he said. The Republic of China has made use of its geographical importance "to seek advantages with the United States, the U.S.S.R. and Japan. We are closely watching these trends, exposing the dirty tricks of these countries and trying to imbue our fellow countrymen of Taiwan with the desire for liberation. We have done a great deal about Taiwan in past year and we should do more in the future to win over the people. It is no use to slander Taiwan. I do not wish to say more because this is the territory of (Red) China and should not be mixed up with external issues."
All this, Chiao concluded, has one objective: the planting of Maoist banners "the world over to light up all five continents and all four seas." It is a frightening prospect. The Republic of China has made public Chiao's speech - and other Chinese Communist documents - to help give the free world the understanding, the time and the determination to avoid the fate that Mao, Chou and their successors have in mind for the democracies.