CHINA: Kao’s Dragon

Inside the great paper dragon which twists & turns through Chinese streets in festive parades are Chinese men. Last week the great paper dragon of Chinese industry was shuffled in its vertebrae, and up to the head and most honored position moved Kao Kang.

For two years stolid, square-faced Kao has been Communist boss of Mukden (Manchuria), center of such industry as exists in China today. In Manchuria there are more Russians than in any other part of Red China. Kao, who visited Moscow in 1949, has long been a slavish imitator of Russian methods. Last week he received a group of Soviet artists, loudly applauded (with the proper gradations of respect) both a Stalin Cantata and a tone poem, The Song of Mao Tse-tung. Mao has said: “Comrade Kao Kang is a consistently correct leader.” With this buildup, Kao, 50, is already a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s 1) Central Committee, 2) Military Council, 3) People’s Government. Last week he moved into Peking to take over the State Planning Committee and thus establish himself high in Red China’s inner circle.

Immediately he began breathing fire: China will industrialize the Soviet way, i.e., by developing heavy industry at the expense of light (consumer) industries, though this will entail higher taxes and greater economy in state industries. Capital for the operation: the people’s savings and the workers’ sweat. Coinciding with Kao’s appointment was a power-ingathering order abolishing six regional government and military administrations (including Kao’s own at Mukden, Lin Piao’s at Hankow) in favor of centralization. China was set to get its long overdue industrialization the hard way, but so far there is nothing to show that Kao Kang’s shuffling dragon is clothed in anything more than paper.