2024/11/15

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Taiwan Review

News From the Mainland

April 01, 1952
Following the scheme to liquidate the propertied classes, the Communist Peiping regime will initiate a large-scale pogrom to eliminate the unreliable elements within the Communist Party itself.

It is learned that Mao Tse-tung has recently appointed a 7-man committee composed of Liu Shao-chi, Chou En-lai, Lo Jui-hsing, Li Keh-nung, Kang Sun and Kao Kang to draw up a detailed plan for carrying out the pogrom.

The massacre, which will affect the whole Communist hierarchy, is scheduled to begin in July this year.

According to a prominent Shanghai businessman recently arrived in Hongkong, Mr. Liu Ong-seng, famed "match-king," industrialist and shipping magnate, attempted suicide at his residence in Shanghai early in March. The informant, however, was unable to confirm whether or not he was successful in his attempt.

It will be remembered that another shipping magnate, Lu Tso-fu, General Manager of the Min Sung Shipping Company, had died under mysterious circumstances in Chungking in January.

Control over the people in the Northeastern provinces has been further tightened by the Communist authorities. Nobody is allowed to travel beyond a radius of 20 miles from the center of the city. To facilitate the work of the special police, people belonging to different professions have to wear clothes of a different color. Farmers are to be garbed in red, laborers yellow, wealthy farmers white, the intelligentsia grey.

The Communist 5-Anti Campaign has given rise to a number of double-entendre expressions that are being bandied back and forth in Shanghai. Some of them are given below:

Swimming in the Yangtze River - drowning oneself in the river;
Taking a leap on top of Cathay Hotel - Committing suicide by jumping off a building;
Brushing one's teeth with lysol - committing suicide by taking poison;
Crossing a bridge with pants down - indulging in confession and self-accusation;
A hoary old man hanging himself - life ceases to have any meaning.

According to a law recently promulgated by the Communists, listening to broadcasts from Taiwan or to the Voice of America program is a crime punishable by death. Investigators, who are sent out every day to spy on those who possess radio sets, usually ask the children whether their father had listened to the radio the previous evening, and if so, whether he had listened to a musical program or a radio talk, and whether the radio was turned on loud or low. If the reply is that their father had listened to a radio talk or that the radio was turned on low, the investigators take it for granted that their father had listened to a broadcast from Taiwan or to the Voice of America program. If the hapless victim confesses, he is given the death sentence. If he denies the charge, he is promptly clapped in jail.

The Communist authorities have announced the following requisites for Party members:

1. They must be convinced that the Chinese Communist Party is a political party of the workers.
2. They must understand that the immediate aim of the Chinese Communist Party is the establishment of a new democratic society in China, that the Party must strive for the establishment of a socialist state and that the ultimate aim of the Party is the establishment of the Communist system.
3. They must dedicate their lives to the realization of Communism.
4. They must carry out the policy and decisions of the Party. They must submit themselves to the rigid Party discipline. They must take an active part in all campaigns initiated by the Party and they must serve as models for the people.
5. They must, without condition, subjugate their personal interests to the interests of the Party and the people.
6. They should, under no condition, cover up their mistakes or defects. They must constantly indulge in self-criticism.
7. They must devote themselves to the service of the people. They must learn from, and maintain close contact with, the masses.
8. They must make themselves conversant with Marxism and the ideas propounded by Mao Tse-tung and conduct themselves accordingly.

Since the conclusion of the treaty between the Peiping regime and Soviet Russia, the disorderly manner in which Russian nationals conduct themselves in Shanghai has aroused the indignation of large numbers of students. To divert the attention of the student of Chiaotung University and St. John's University, many of whom have written anonymous letters of complaint to him, Yiao Shiu-shih, Chairman of the East China Military Council, has started join-the-army and agrarian reform movements for the benefit of the students.

Thrice-married Liu Shao-chi, reputed to be the second most powerful men in the Chinese Communist hierarchy, can look thrice-married Mao Tse-tung in the eye, in the number of wives he has acquired.

A graduate of Moscow's Sun Yat-sen University, he was at one time President of Far Eastern University in Siberia, where a large number of Asiatic Communist agents, including Ho Chi-minh, received their training. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Liu returned to Yenan by way of Outer Mongolia. In 1939, he was divorced from his first wife, a Russian by birth, who returned to Soviet Russia. His second wife was the daughter of Lin Po-chu, former Communist Chairman of the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia border region. After the fall of Peiping into Communist hands, she divorced Liu, became Director of Information in the Outer Mongolian Embassy in Peiping and married a high ranking Outer Mongolian official. In the summer of 1940, Liu married Miss Chang Yu-ching, Director of the Reception Center of the Chinese Communist Central Combat Control Department.  

Since the lunar New Year, the price of rice throughout Kwangtung has been on an upward trend. In early February, the controlled price of husked rice in Canton was JMP110,000 per picul while the black market price was JMP125,000. In Swatow, the controlled price was JMP135,000 while the black market price was JMP150,000. Towards the middle of February, the controlled price in Canton had jumped to JMP120,000 while the black market price was hiked to JMP135,000. In Swatow, the controlled price had gone up to JMP150,000 while the black market price had gone up to JMP165,000. It is expected that before the summer harvest, the price of rice will hit the JMP220,000 mark.

The skyrocketing price of rice is due to the following reasons:

1. The province of Kwangtung has always had to rely on imported rice to supplement its own supply.
2. With scant regard for the needs of the people, the Communists have collected large quantities of grain for export in exchange for foreign exchange for the purchase of strategic materials, such as "rubber, gunny bags, etc.
3. Natural causes such as drought, locusts, etc.

According to Communist reports, the Anti-America and Aid Korea Campaign has, between June 1 and December 31, 1951, netted a total of JMP5,024,687,000,000 for the purchase of planes. Taking the cost of each fighter plane to be JMP1,500,000,000, this amount represents a total of 3,349 fighter planes.

During the two-month period between November 20, 1951 and January 28, 1952 the same campaign has collected "voluntary" contributions amounting to JMP182,857,240,000 for comforting troops at the Korean front.

Food crops last year were blighted in an area totaling 35,000,000 mow scattered in 22 provinces and regions as a result of drought. Among the provinces and regions most seriously affected were North China, Inner Mongolia, the Northwest, the northern part of Szechwan, Yunnan, Kiangsi, Hunan and Chekiang. To avoid the recurrence of famine this year, the Red State Council announced on February 8 the launching of an anti-drought campaign, indicating that the food production claims made by the Communist authorities last year were nothing but lies.

The Communists have resorted to intensive cultivation of poppy and the sale of opium in order to finance the costly Korean war. Among the provinces where poppy is extensively cultivated are Yunnan, Szechwan, Sikang, Kweichow, Shensi, Kansu, Chinghai, Hunan, Fukien and Chekiang.

The center of the opium trade is Hankow, where daily transactions come to as much as JMP8,000,000,000, representing 32,000 ounces at between JMP200,000 and JMP 250,000 per ounce.

The export of opium is under the control of the "Special Commodity Section of the South China Trading Bureau" which maintain a number of branches in Chungshan Hsien and Shumchun on the British border, Opium is smuggled into Hongkong and Macao from where it is shipped to Malaya, the Philippines, Australia and even the United States. A certain quantity is also smuggled across the Yunnan border into Burma from where it is shipped to Thailand, Singapore, etc.

At a meeting attended by 52 regional representatives on December 30, 1951, an "Anti-Communist Association" was set up at Kalimpong, an important station at the Himalayan foothills on the Indian-Tibetan border. Among the officers of the association are a number of Tibetans as well as Indians, indicating the existence of an active anti-Communist core even in the remote province of Tibet.

Many industrialists and merchants of standing have burnt their old accounts, hidden their supplies, dismissed their leftist employees, allowed their goods to rot and created a black market for goods for which official prices have been fixed.

According to a secret "agreement concerning the employment of Soviet Russian specialists," signed between Red China and Soviet Russia in Moscow on March 27, 1950, Russian specialists are to be employed in all branches of the government in China. Large numbers of Russian "advisers" are engaged in construction work, drainage schemes, public health, cinema houses and railways. During the past two years, payment for the service of Russian "advisers" has amounted to the staggering total of US$1,800,000,000.

According to statistics available, the following represents some of the results of Russian cultural aggression on the Chinese mainland since the establishment of the Communist regime in October, 1949:

1. There have been 23 visits by Russian cultural missions;
2. Over 700 translations have been made of Russian literary works, including those of Karl Marx and Lenin;
3. The Sino-Soviet Friendship Association has put on 7,400 Russian film shows, seen by 16,900,000 people;
4. Ninety-seven "Russian music appreciation concerts" have been arranged under the joint auspices of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association and the Central People's Broadcasting Station in Peiping.
5. Following the conclusion of a Sino-Soviet cultural cooperation agreement, a number of Russian plays, translated into Chinese, have been staged throughout the mainland of China.

As a result of the costly intervention in the war in Korea and other places and of the inability of the Communist regime to balance its budget, the black market price of the Jen Min Piao has recently dropped from JMP3,800 to JMP7,000 for each Hongkong dollar. Since a further drop is expected, few people in Canton are willing to exchange their Hongkong dollars for Jen Min Piao even at that rate.

The number of Russian "advisers" is estimated at 80,000. The Northeast has the largest number of Russian "advisers," followed by the Northwest, the Southwest and South China. To avoid the creation of unpleasant feelings in the people, most of the Russian "advisers" in such large cities as Peiping, Tientsin, Shanghai and Hankow carry on their activities under the guise of merchants.

Early this year, an attempt was made by the Communist military authorities in Canton to recruit 4,800 women to form a "Women's Volunteer Service Corps." The following are some of the listed requirements:

1. Good looking, healthy mental attitude, age 16-31;
2. Healthy physique, preferably illiterate;
3. Ability to do laundry work, nursing, sewing and mending, cooking, "comforting;"
4. Volunteers are to be recruited from widows, beggars, female family members of former officials of the National Government and anti-Communist "criminals," nuns, missionary workers, etc.

At an oral examination held on January 6, the applicants were asked two questions: (1) Would you consider it an honor to sacrifice your body for the sake of the revolution? What would you do if a member of the armed forces makes passes at you? (2) Would you or would you not offer your body to a member of the armed forces if he desires to have you?

To the above questions, none of the "volunteers" dared to reply in the negative.

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