The Chinese Communists have begun setting up "people's communes" in cities all over the mainland.
Mindful of the stiff resistance they encountered in the establishing of the rural communes, the Communists adopted a mild and gradual approach this time. Since the beginning of 1960, orders went out from Peiping to organize the "economic life of the people" through such devices as street factories, neighborhood mess halls, nurseries, barber and sewing shops, and other "service teams."
In Peiping's Hsinchiehkou Street Administration Office, the Communist Party street committee set up 64 neighborhood mess halls, 112 nurseries and 77 neighborhood service offices during the course of two weeks "without spending a single cent." The term of people's commune was not yet brought up, but the signs were unmistakable.
Declared the local paper, Peiping Jih Pao, on February 24: "As soon as the year of 1960 began ... the people evinced a strong desire for the collectivization of livelihood and socialization of domestic laboring to a further extent. Under such a situation, it also became necessary that the Party and the Government should take a keener interest in the life of the masses and make arrangements for it by further taking account of its various aspects."
How were the Party and the regime to achieve the task of "comprehensively organizing the economic life of the people and increasing the collective livelihood service undertakings"? The paper prescribed:
"(1) The Party committees at different levels should increase leadership over the organization of the economic life of the people. It will be necessary, first of all, to step up Communist ideological education for the basic-level cadres in the streets, the workers in the finance and trade system, and the residents at large. It should be borne in mind that organizing the economic life of the people is not only an economic task, but also a political task ....
"(2) As the organization of the economic life of the people is also a mass undertaking, it will be necessary to unfold mass movements on a big scale. The masses should be urged to make suggestions and take action. Work should be carried out in many ways with a view to developing production and serving the laboring people, and efforts should be exerted for organizing street mess halls, street nurseries, and neighborhood service offices and, in coordination with the state-owned commercial, service and banking units, for rationally organizing and arranging for the clothing and boarding of the residents, the provision of hair-cutting, bathing, sewing, washing and repairing services to them, the supply of commodities to them, and their savings ....
"(3) Socialist finance and trade departments, such as commercial, service and banking departments, are instruments which the Party can make use of during the period of socialist construction for organizing the economic life of the people."
There could be no doubt that the movement was started at the same time in all major cities on the Chinese mainland. Reported the Tientsiin Jih Pao on February 23: "With a view to strengthening the Party leadership and organizing properly the people's economic life in a comprehensive manner, Party committees in various districts of the city, in accordance with the demand of the Municipal Party Committee, have all set up 'committees for the organization of the people's economic life' headed by their secretaries." It claimed that many residents "voluntarily" lent out their houses and utensils, large mess halls accommodating hundreds or thousands of persons were established as well as "neighborhood mutual-aid service centers."
In Nanking, there were more than 3,000 neighborhood factories and workshops, according to the New China News Agency on March 9, and they accounted for one fifth of the total industrial and handicraft output value of the city in January. In Tsinan, there were 894 street factories with 22,300 workers, 70 per cent of them housewives.
The glory of experimental urban communes set up in 1958 was extolled. The Tsaomen Red Flag People's Commune of Kaifeng, which controlled 37 streets with 15,993 residents, now had 14 public mess halls, 10 nurseries, 10 factories and 54 production units. In Chengchow, the communes in Kuancheng Chu had a total of 118 factories, 574 neighborhood mess halls, and 71 nurseries and kindergartens.
Observers believed that within three or four months, Peiping would announce that the "economic life of the people" is so well organized as to make the establishing of people's communes in all cities a natural result, thus completing its rigid control of every man, woman and child on the Chinese mainland.
Mao's Thought
Why should the Chinese Communists decide to launch the urban communes, after they were forced to retreat from the original blueprint for the rural communes? While only the Communist leaders knew the real answer to this question, it was interesting to watch the unfurling of another movement on the Chinese mainland, that of "study Mao Tse-tung's thinking."
This was not the ordinary "political education" which the people under the Communist regime had been subject to all the time. Analysts in Taipei saw it as an attempt to consolidate Mao's leadership, to justify the "general line, great leap forward and people's commune," and to spearhead the urban commune system.
The movement for studying Mao's thought was launched on a grand scale in every province, autonomous region, city and county on the mainland. In Kwangtung, for example, the Nanfang Jih Pao reported: "In order to speed up the development of the movement, the first secretaries of Party organs at different levels are taking personal command, planning ways and means to solve difficult problems as they proceed, and mobilizing the masses far and wide. Cadres, workers and peasants all pledge that they will seriously study Mao Tse-tung's thought." It said that most of the cadres were spending "one hour a day" to study the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. Of 17 counties and cities in the Swatow Administrative District, 11 had witnessed the full scale development of the study movement. In Chi yang Chaoan, Puning, Hsingning, Tenghai and Sunwui, people's communes organized classes for the teaching of Mao's thought. Small teams or groups were the principal form of study in the movement, but large numbers of Party schools, Young Communist League schools and "red and expert" schools were established in many areas to make the study movement a greater success.
In Wuhan University, a research institute was set up "for study and research in Chair Mao's writings." According to the Hupeh Jih Pao, this Institute, headed by Li Ta, "president" of the University, "is not only a theoretical research organ, but also a pedagogic research organ and a mass study activity organization." It had four divisions: philosophy, political economy, history, and literature and the arts. More than 90 cadres and teachers served on its staff. In addition, "the broad masses of teachers and students have universally organized small units for the study of Mao Tse-tung's thoughts, carrying out their activities under the guidance of the Institute," the paper said.
Typical of the articles supporting this new movement was the one entitled "Strengthen the Party's Theoretical Work Under the Red Flag of Mao Tse-tung's Thinking," appearing on the Hsinhua Jih Pao of Nanking, signed by Ouyang Hui-lin.
"Comrade Mao Tse-tung has not only solved the series of fundamental problems of China by the full application of Marxism-Leninism," Ouyang wrote, but has gone a step further by developing and enriching it with originality. Whether it was in the period of the democratic revolution or it is in the period of socialist revolution and construction, Mao Tse-tung's thought has always been the only correct guiding thought. The general line for democratic revolution, the general line for socialist revolution and the general line for socialist construction all of which were adopted at the suggestion of Comrade Mao Tse-tung, are the only correct lines, and the leadership of the CCP Central Committee with Mao Tse-tung at its head is the best and absolutely correct leadership.
"There is ample evidence in the history of the Chinese revolution that whenever the revolution was in the hands of Comrade Mao Tse-tung and proceeded under the guidance of his thought, it was invariably successful, and whenever it departed from his leadership, it failed. The victory of the Chinese revolution, therefore, was the victory of Marxism-Leninism and the brilliant victory of Mao Tse-tung's thought."
But why this movement? The People's Daily of February 25 supplied the answer. In an article entitled "Study Comrade Mao Tse-tung's Thought of Building Socialism at Full Speed," signed by Su Hsing, it was pointed out that "the question of speed is most important in our socialist construction. The soul of the general line for socialist construction lies in the leap forward at full speed in the national economy."
Mao was using this movement to consolidate his position in the Chinese Communist Party, to justify the general line, the great leap forward and the commune system, and to deal a blow to those labeled "rightist elements" whose sin was simply counselling against "full speed" ahead.
Tibetan Anniversary
The Tibetan uprising was one year old on March 9.
Despite Chinese Communist claims that the "counter-revolutionary armed rebellion unleashed by the upper strata reactionary clique" was quelled two months after its beginning, there was evidence that Peiping still acted the role of an uneasy master in the former Buddhist theocracy.
Tibetan refugees continued to flow into India, getting around Communist patrols and roadblocks. In Lhasa, the Communists still had to work hard to maintain their control over the "Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region," which replaced the Tibetan local government, even going to the length of keeping Panchen Erdeni Chuji-Geltseng, the new puppet they put in place of the Dalai Lama, away from Tibet for half a year. Panchen Erdeni did not return to Lhasa until February 15, and then only because the Tibetan New Year was approaching and the lamas and laymen were wondering what had happened to him.
The Chinese Communists made a lot of fuss over the return of Panchen Erdeni to Lhasa. Banquets were given in his honor and for the Tibetan New Year. He gave two "report meetings" on March 10 and March 14, first to 1,000 office workers and "People's Liberation Army" officers of Tibetan, Han and Hui nationalities, and then to "patriotic members of the upper strata." The New China News Agency said he spoke on "the brilliant achievements of the motherland in the past decade, the superiority of the people's communes and the bright road taken by other national minorities in the country."
But the real boss of Tibet is Chang Ching-wu, representative of the "Central People's Government" and secretary of the Working Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet. On March 1, an article under Chang's signature appeared on the Red Flag, the Party's theoretical magazine, and the People's Daily, entitled "The Victory of Democratic Reform in Tibet." It gave the Communists' account of what happened in the "roof of the world" in the past year.
Chang first defined the Tibetan uprising as a "class war." He wrote: "In the initial stage of their armed revolt, the reactionary elements of the Tibetan upper strata attempt ed to cover up, under the cloak of nationalism, their motive for perpetuating the feudalistic serfdom dedicated to serving the interest of the serf-owners. As subsequently shown by facts, the launching of the revolt and its suppression should by no means be looked upon as 'a war between nationalities,' but a war between social classes, a war that was started by a small herd of most reactionary serf-owners who were mortally opposed to the Communist Party's effort in emancipating the Tibetan broad masses; it was an irreconcilable war between classes."
Peiping policy immediately after March 9, 1959, according to Chang, was to take "concurrent action in quelling the revolt and in initiating reform." He declared: "The Party divides the revolution in Tibet into two stages: democratic revolution and socialist transformation. The current stage of democratic reform consists again of two stages: (1) implementation of the 'three-anti and double reduction' and (2) redistribution of land."
By "three-anti and double-reduction" he meant anti-rebellion, ante-ula, anti-slavery; rent-reduction and interest-reduction. (Ula, a Tibetan word, is the system under which peasants were required to provide free transportation for officials and persons travelling with a government order for assistance.) In pastoral areas, this slogan was changed into "three-anti and two-benefits," meaning benefit to both cattle-owners and their employees.
By his own accounting, the Chinese Communists had dared to subject only about 60 percent of Tibet's population of approximately 1,300,000 to the "democratic reform." As of January 31, Chang revealed, reform was launched in only 57 of the 78 tsong (counties) in Tibet. In other words, 21 other tsong and their 510,000 population were as yet untouched by the Communists. He did not say whether it was because the army under his direction had not yet established effective control over these areas. And of the 57 tsong with 790,000 persons in which the Communists had started agitation for reform, only 35 tsong with around 470,000 residents completed the land distribution phase.
In the pastoral areas of Tibet, the Reds were encountering even more difficulty in stirring up mass enthusiasm for their reform program. Chang's article showed that many of the "feudally oppressed" herdsmen were still carrying on their rebellion against their "liberators." He stated that the reform movement was being launched in 12 tsong in the pastoral area, involving 70,000 persons, while the total population of the pastoral areas stood at 300,000.
Spring Drought
With drought spreading on the Chinese mainland, the Communists were launching drought-resisting campaigns in over half of all the provinces. The following were taken from the Communist press, which revealed the serious conditions when boasting of mass efforts to avert the calamity:
Honan—"Factories and enterprises in the cities and towns of Honan province have recently transferred more than 148,000 technicians and technical personnel, with whom more than 25,000 anti-drought, mechanic and medical teams and repair and fitting depots are organized. They have penetrated into the first line of anti-drought defense and are working hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder with the broad masses of peasants in their action against drought." (NCNA, Chengchow, March 14.)
Shensi—"Since the beginning of spring, Shensi has not had any soaking rain and drought has been developing. To push the anti-drought struggle to a higher upsurge, all members of the Secretariat of the CCP Shensi Provincial Committee, with the exception of those away on duty, have begun a tour to each part of the province to inspect and launch anti-drought work." (NCNA, Sian, March 4.)
Kwangtung—"Every river in Kwangtung province is being used for diverting water to the fields that are to be transplanted soon with early rice. This is among the measures being taken by local peasants to fight off the dry weather which has persisted for months." (NCNA, Canton, February 25.)
Shansi—"The campaign against drought is gaining momentum is Shansi province. In the Southeast Shansi Special District, 300,000 persons are taking part in the construction of reservoirs and irrigation canals. In the Central Shansi Special District, over 10,000 wells have been sunk, and some 6,000 more are being sunk." (NCNA, Taiyuan, March 4.)
Fukien—"Fukien has not received any soaking rain for the past several months. In order to defeat the spring drought and to bring about a continuing leap forward in the current year, the Party and the people have called for an emergency mobilization to launch a large scale anti-spring drought offensive .... In the more seriously affected administrative districts of Lungki, Chinkiang, Minhou, Fuan and Amoy, more than a million men have been mobilized." (NCNA, Foochow, March 9.)
Chinghai—" Three hundred thousand young people in Chinghai province, organized into more than 4,000 shock brigades, have taken part in the drought-resisting campaign under the communes' unified leadership." (People's Daily, February 22.)
Kansu—"Since last winter, many districts in Kansu province have had only a very small amount of snow. At present many places are already affected by drought. In view of the insufficient rainfall in most of the districts, the CCP Kansu Provincial Committee in the middle of February conducted a telephone conference and issued an important directive mobilizing the Party and the people in a large-scale prevent-drought and anti-drought campaign." (NCNA, Lanchow, March 9.)
Cuban Example
Ever since Fidel Castro came into power, the Chinese Communists have been busy courting Cuba. The only bureau of the Communist New China News Agency in Latin America opened in Havana last year, with a staff far greater than it needs for legitimate news collecting and editing purposes. An overseas Chinese newspaper in Havana was also turned into the only Communist newspaper in the Chinese language in the entire western hemisphere.
Whenever Castro blamed the United States for his troubles, the Chinese Communists were loudly supporting him. Sometimes they jumped on the wagon too soon, such as the blowing up of the ship "Le Coubre" in Havana harbor in early March.
Following Castro's accusations which were later proved to be unfounded, a stream of messages poured from all kinds of front organizations in Peiping to their Cuban counterparts. Li Teh-chuan, widow of the late "Christian" General Feng Yu-hsiang and president of the Communist "Red Cross Society of China," cabled the Cuban Red Cross Society that: "We sharply condemn those who plotted this inhuman crime. They cannot frighten the Cuban people, whose resolution to carry the revolution to the end will increase."
The "National Women's Federation" declared in a message to the Revolution Women's Union of Cuba that: "The Chinese women strongly protest the savage U.S. imperialist atrocity of attempting to strangle the Cuban revolution and sow death among the Cuban people and resolutely support the Cuban people, particularly the Cuban women, in their just struggle." And the "All-China Youth Federation" and "All-China Students' Federation" told their corresponding bodies in Cuba that: "The logic of U.S. imperialism is to sow disaster, then failing, to sow disaster again and again fail, till they meet final destruction. Victory will belong not to U.S. imperialism but to the revolutionary Cuban people."
Clearly, Peiping was more interested in denouncing the United States than offering any real help to Castro's Cuba. The real motive behind its friendly gestures to Havana was plainly laid down in an editorial which appeared on March 2 on the People's Daily, entitled "Flames in Cuba Can Never Be Put Out." It said:
"It goes without saying that the victory won by the Cuban people is bound to have a tremendous impact on the other Latin American countries.
"Since Cuba, a small country with a population of 6,000,000, next door to the United States, is capable of doing it, the people of the other Latin American countries have every reason to believe that they, too, are capable of doing it. The flame of the Cuban people's revolution has illuminated the way for the Latin American people to safeguard their independence and fight for democracy and economic independence.
"Inspired by the victory of the Cuban people's revolution, the national democratic revolutionary movement in the other Latin American countries has made further progress in the past year, the fight in defense of in dependence and for democracy has broken out everywhere, and the storm against U. S. colonialism has swept across the whole Latin American mainland.
"It is precisely because of this fact that the U.S. ruling circles bear a bitter hatred for the Cuban revolution and have tried to crush it by every means. On the other hand, it is also this general awakening of the Latin American people that has so far prevented U.S. imperialism from taking reckless actions against Cuba."