On the 11th, three members of the Chinese Communist air force flew a Russian-built IL-28 jet bomber to freedom.
On the 12th, free Chinese everywhere marked the centennial of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Founding Father of the Republic of China.
On the 13th and 14th, the Chinese Navy won a decisive battle near the offshore bastion of Kinmen (Quemoy).
And on the 17th, the Republic of China retained its rightful place in the United Nations in the face of another attempt of the Chinese Communists to shoot their way into the international organization.
Dr. Sun's centennial was a momentous rededication of the nation to the principles for which he stood and the causes for which he fought.
More than half a million people rallied in the Presidential Square of downtown Taipei. They heard the stirring words of Dr. Sun's chosen successor, President Chiang Kai-shek, and then marched off in dozens of joyous parades through Taipei streets.
The President's message was touching, highly personal in his references to Dr. Sun, and flaming with courage and confidence in its references to certitude of the victorious liberation of the mainland.
He said: "Dr. Sun was like a teacher to me. He repeatedly told me that 'history revolves around people's livelihood as its center', and that 'benevolence and love constitute a broad avenue to victory in revolution, benevolence meaning kindness to the people and love, patriotism'. I fully realized then that the goal of the San Min Chu I (Dr. Sun's classic Three Principles of the People) was to restore the traditional moral values and to develop the intellectual and mental capabilities of the Chinese people, to foster modern and progressive science and technology, and, by means of democracy and nationwide reconstruction, to achieve political and economic freedom and equality among nations."
President Chiang recalled Dr. Sun's warnings against Marxist Communism—and took note of the fact that the Reds have not only enslaved the mainland, but now are trying to dominate all Asia so as to force their system on the rest of the world. It is the Republic of China, he said, that stands as the beacon of hope for free Asia and principal barrier to the Communist "floods of disaster".
Even today, he continued, it is the example and inspiration of Dr. Sun that assure the victory of Chinese righteousness and the total defeat of Chinese Communism. "I shall strive," the President said, "in concert with all the armed forces and the people of the Republic, to exorcise the nation of the Communist scourge, to remove the bloody stains from Dr. Sun's mausoleum, to recover the Chinese mainland, and to rehabilitate and reconstruct the country."
Many other events and undertakings honored Dr. Sun. His centennial is to last a year, not a day.
Work has begun on a gigantic Chinese encyclopedia that will be dedicated to him.
President Chiang laid the cornerstone for a Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall that will include the world's largest library on Dr. Sun's life and times. The building also will serve as a social and cultural center—as Dr. Sun certainly would have wished.
The new museum in suburban Taipei, housing some 300,000 of the greatest Chinese art treasures of 6,000 years, was renamed "Changshan" after one of Dr. Sun's pseudonyms. This museum is expected to become Taiwan's prime tourist attraction. It will do much to call attention to the beauty and splendor of the Chinese cultural heritage and tradition.
Dr. Sun would have been proud of the Chinese achievements that shone forth on "his" day—not the least of them the prosperous, stable life that the people of Taiwan are leading.
But, as President Chiang stipulated, the overriding goal of the Founding Father was a united, progressive, peaceful China to take its place among the great and responsible powers of the world. It is to the fulfillment of this objective that the centennial is really dedicated.
Defection of pilot Li Hsien-pin, navigator Li Tsai-Wang, and gunner Lien Pao-sheng presented dramatic evidence that the day of reckoning with Chinese Communism is not far away. This was the fourth plane flown from the Chinese mainland to freedom—but the first bomber.
After setting down in northern Taiwan, the IL-28 skidded off the runway and the navigator and gunner were injured. Gunner Lien subsequently died of a brain concussion.
Pilot Li, who appeared at the Sun Yat-sen mass rally, said the three airmen knew nothing of the ROC Air Force standing offer of 4,000 ounces of gold for an IL-28 flown to Taiwan. Their sole motive, he said, was to escape the tyranny of Mao Tse-tung.
"We abhor what Mao is doing," he said. "He and his henchmen ignore the people's interest and livelihood."
Morale of the Communist armed forces is sinking lower and lower, he said. Military men dare not speak out, but most are convinced that the days of Communism are strictly numbered.
As for the Red air force, Li said many pilots and crews would defect, if they had the opportunity. However, the Communist authorities maintain a close watch over men and machines. To get away is extremely difficult.
Conditions on the mainland are "miserable", Li said, adding: "I am firmly convinced that the moment the counteroffensive begins, the soldiers and people alike will cooperate with the forces of the Republic of China in bringing the Peiping regime to an end."
The jet pilot, one of the elite members of the Communist armed forces, said that the quality of Peiping's weapons has deteriorated steadily since the schism with the Soviet Union.
(File photo)
He saw ROC forces in action during maneuvers a few days after his arrival, and said that the Communists of today would be no match for them. This involves morale as well as equipment, he said; both are at a nadir on the mainland.
Although the IL-28 is a bomber of Korean War vintage, it is about as modern as anything the Chinese Communists have in the air, except for a few later MIG fighters. As the first such plane to fall into the hands of the anti-Communist bloc, it is of considerable interest to the ROC Air Force and its allies. Only slight damage was done by the skid off the runway.
Once the IL-28 was well over the Taiwan Straits, it entered into radio contact with the ROC Air Force and was guided to the landing by ROC planes.
Of four previous Red air force defectors—two MIG fighter pilots and the pilot and co-pilot of a small transport—three are with the Chinese armed forces. One of the MIG pilots was killed in a crash landing. Pilot Li met the three others. The ROC Air Force released an interesting picture of the three earlier defectors, their wives, Li, and General Hsu Huan-sheng, commander-in-chief of the CAF.
In the naval victory, four Communist gunboats were sunk and another severely damaged at the cost of one ROC minesweeper scuttled because of heavy damage. The other ROC craft involved returned safely to base.
The two Navy vessels were on a routine patrol 12 miles south of Wuchiu, an island north of Kinmen, when they were attacked by eight Communist gunboats. Shelling lasted for two hours, from just before midnight on Saturday, November 13, into the early morning of the 14th.
Radar confirmed sinking of the four enemy ships. The damaged Communist craft and its three companions fled into the night.
Fifteen crewmen of the minesweeper were rescued, including the skipper, Chen Teh-kwei, who was seriously wounded.
On Kinmen, which is still the odd-day target of Communist artillery shells, the people set off firecrackers in celebration of the victory.
This was the second sea encounter of the last few months. Last August 6, two ROC vessels sank five Communist craft in waters off Kinmen.
Military and political observers joined in pointing out that these naval battles represent an increased aggressiveness on the part of the Communists.
After the Communists failed to take Kinmen in 1948, they became relatively quiescent in the Taiwan Straits. Red planes have dared overfly the offshore islands only rarely—and then into the sanctuary of continental skies. ROC patrols were not challenged.
(File photo)
The shift in strategy, observers said, may be because of (1) mounting fear of the ROC counterattack and (2) massive mainland unrest that has been stirred both by oppression and the increasing operations of ROC commandos and guerrillas.
Military activity that so impressed pilot Li Hsien-pin was a part of the year-end presidential review—dubbed Exercise Chungking—in southern Taiwan. Perhaps prophetically, the maneuvers took the shape of an amphibious operation.
As President and Generalissimo Chiang watched approvingly, the Air Force softened up the beach, naval guns also pounded "enemy" positions, and waves of Army and Marine shock troops made their landings.
Meanwhile, paratroops leaped from CAP transports to cut the enemy's supply lines to the rear and then join up with those who stormed the beach.
Participating were more than 30,000 Chinese servicemen, 180 aircraft, and 87 ships. With the President as interested spectators were some 5,000 foreign friends and government leaders. An honored guest was Dr. Sun Fo, the son of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who came from the United States to participate in the celebration of his father's centennial.
Agreement was unanimous that the maneuver was one of the most impressive yet staged. Few such exercises are conducted by the Communists on the mainland these days. They cannot afford the expenditure of gasoline, jet fuel, and live ammunition.
Free China received news of the United Nations vote with mixed feelings. There was gratification that the Communists had been defeated once more, but disappointment at the 47 to 47 count on the final ballot.
Earlier, the Republic of China had been backed by 56 to 49 on a resolution to regard China representation as an "important question" requiring a majority of two-thirds. In other words, it would be grossly inaccurate to say that half of the members favor the Republic of China and half favor the Chinese Communists. The ROC position is much stronger than that.
Disappointment was concentrated on the African voting, which was not as favorable to free China's cause as had been expected.
Sierra Leone, for example, is receiving agricultural technical assistance from the Republic of China and has signed a formal aid agreement with the ROC government. A full-time Chinese ambassador was sent there in September.
Four parliamentary leaders of Sierra Leone came to Taiwan for a week's visit less than a month before the United Nations vote. One of them, Banja Tejan-sie, speaker of the Sierra Leone parliament, said his country would give full support to the Republic of China in the United Nations and elsewhere.
"I can say for sure," he said, "that our government will give 100 per cent support to the Republic of China when the so-called Chinese representation problem comes up on the floor of the United Nations for debate." The other three parliamentarians agreed.
And they were exactly 100 per cent wrong.
Some of the abstentions were disappointing, too.
Burundi supposedly has learned about the Chinese Communists first hand—and booted their supposed diplomats out of the country. Yet Burundi did not vote against Peiping.
Where were friendly Cameroon, Chad, Chile, Libya, Portugal, and Saudi Arabia when the chips were down? They were among the abstainers. The Leopoldville Congo was absent.
Not everything was bad. Three years ago Laos was virtually written off as a free world cause, even by the United States. Laos voted against the Republic of China in 1963. This time it announced itself as "not participating", a category in which Dahomey—another African country waking up from Communist bad dreams—was also included.
The United Kingdom at least had the consistency to vote on the affirmative side of the "important question" issue, although its vote went to Peiping on the 47 to 47 ballot.
China was pleased that Israel finally realized where free and democratic interest lies. Previously an abstainer and once a recognizer of Peiping, it cast its vote for the ROC this time.
Free Chinese opinion seemed widely agreed that a lot of fences must be mended during the coming year in order to strengthen the ROC position for the 1966 vote. There were suggestions of expanded aid programs in Africa—and augmented information activities.
Africans themselves have testified that the Chinese Communists have bribed and bought leaders—and U.N. votes—on their continent. This is a level of international struggle to which the Republic of China will not descend—but there is much that it can and will legitimately do.
No sooner had the vote been recorded than the Chinese Communists gave further signs that they will help defeat themselves.
Peiping's first comment was a virtual repetition of "foreign minister" Chen Yi's "terms" for Chinese Communist acceptance of a United Nations seat.
First, according to Chen Yi and People's Daily, the United Nations must condemn the United States and rescind General Assembly votes that have declared Peiping and Pyongyang the aggressors in the Korean War.
Then the U.N. Charter must be reviewed and revised so as to admit all Communist countries (such as North Korea and North Vietnam) while barring all "imperialist puppets", which certainly would include South Korea and South Vietnam and might go on to encompass the Latin American countries and almost anyone else who ever voted with the United States.
Peiping also declared that the United Nations is really a tool of American aggression and "a stock exchange for political dealings between the United States and the Soviet Union".
The conclusion was that the Chinese Communists were better off outside such an organization. That is a point of view the Republic of China will be recommending to the free world during the coming year.
Obviously, the moment Peiping took its U.N. seat, the international organization would cease to exist as anything except an instrument of Peiping's bid to establish and dominate a world Communist system.
General recognition of this must inevitably make 1965 the high tide of the Chinese Communist attempt to shoot, bully, blackmail, and bribe its way into the U.N. halls.
One African friend upon which the Republic of China can rely absolutely is the Malagasy Republic and its distinguished President, Philibert Tsiranana.
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President Tsiranana came to Taiwan in November for his second visit. The first was in 1961. He spent four days on the island, accompanied by his wife, and commented on the great progress that Taiwan has made in the last three and a half years.
Presidents Tsiranana and Chiang Kai-shek issued a communique, just before the visitor's departure, in which they reaffirmed dedication of their two countries to principles of liberty, democracy, and justice. They also pledged Madagascar and China to respect fundamental human rights and further pro mote human dignity.
The communique referred to Communism as the source of all the evils in Asia and Africa, and pledged the two countries to resist and defeat it so as to preserve world peace and security.
President Tsiranana deplored France's recognition of Peiping and its "improper attitude toward the Republic of China". Madagascar is a former French possession.
Madagascar and China also undertook trade and fishery talks. In 1964, China sold US$78,000 worth of goods to the island republic and bought less than US$1,000 worth.
A note of sadness came with the return to the Philippines of Ambassador Narciso Ramos, doyen of the Taipei diplomatic corps and a veteran of 10 years' service in the Republic of China. At the age of 65, Ambassador Ramos faced the compulsory retirement regulation of his country's foreign service.
Such is Ambassador Ramos' affection for China that he went home to retire, then returned to say his farewells to President Chiang Kai-shek and the other top leaders with whom he has had such a friendly association.
Throughout the 10 years, he worked diligently to mitigate the several difficult problems that are involved in Sino-Philippines relations. The continuing close friendship and cooperation of the two countries is largely due to his labors.
He is, moreover, one of Asia's most dedicated anti-Communist freedom fighters. As he departed, he renewed suggestions that the United States should quickly back mainland counterattack by the free forces of the Republic of China, and said:
"The patriots on the mainland will rally to the banner of the liberating troops."