CHINA: CHINA Generalissimo’s Last Straw

Generalissimo’s Last Straw

China was boiling and popping with revolt last week. But China is mercifully vast. Centres of slaughter and pillage, rapine and rascality were strewn hundreds, thousands of miles apart. And firm in the saddle of his stumpy, strong-sinewed Chinese horse sat the great soldier-statesman who gives cohesion to the most populous and strife-wracked country in the world, His Excellency Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek.

To the man who conquered China, as Chiang did, in a great civil war which raged from Canton to Peiping, six major revolts occasion no appalling dismay. If China were really to be pacified the Generalissimo would have to ride off not in six directions but in sixty, for there were at least that many rascally “generals” insurgent throughout China. But life in the swarming cities, Shanghai, Canton, Peiping, Hankow and the capital, Nanking, went toilsomely and safely on. Swart Generalissimo Chiang wisely chooses to ignore all those local ruckuses which do not challenge his central national authority. (Most of them, he has said, are less significant than a Chicago gang-war.) Nevertheless, there came for Generalissimo Chiang last week an exciting and historic hour.

The really serious threat to his authority has been the spreading power of the Chinese Communist generals whose Soviet Governments rule some 200,000 square miles in fertile Kiangsi Province and thereabouts (see map). He has bought openly as many as 10,000 hospital beds at one clip, bought discreetly proportionate supplies of rifles, machine guns, field pieces, battle planes and munitions. For the heads of No. 1 Communist General Chu Teh and No. 2 Communist General Mao Cheh-tung—both Chinese of good family who received military training abroad—he has offered 80,000 silver dollars apiece, or $100,000 if the head is delivered attached to the body. With 300,000 Nanking soldiers in the field and ready to begin the anti-Red drive under Generalissimo Chiang’s personal leadership last week, he suddenly summoned all his generals and advisers to a conference at Nanchang, his field headquarters in Kiangsi facing the Soviet Sore Spots. It was possible, declared the Generalissimo, that he might have to place the entire anti-Red campaign in the hands of his subordinate General Liu Tze and rush off to battle in a zone of still greater danger. Ceremoniously, though they all knew that the Generalissimo had made up his mind where he was going, the Council of Generals reviewed the centres of revolt:

Inner Mongolia was the bloody scene of a furious contest between Generals Tang Yulin and Liu Kwei-tang, reported in dispatches to have devastated the eastern part of the Province of Chahar. But was not this, after all, their “private war”? The Council of Generals took that view. Generalissimo Chiang had neatly solved, they felt, the larger issue presented when Mongol generals under Prince Teh Wang raised the standard of Inner Mongolia for Inner Mongolians (TIME, Oct. 23). To Inner Mongolia the Nanking Government thereupon sent an envoy who ”granted local self-government,” but persuaded the Inner Mongols to let Nanking act for themselves in matters of foreign policy. After that last week’s Inner Mongolian war could be considered private.

Sinkiang, a province of barren wastes and rich oases 2,000 miles northwest of Nanking, was still the scene last week of savage guerrilla warfare between wild-eyed Moslem tribesmen and the better equipped Chinese troops sent out to rule them. Sinkiang paper money was worth 3% of its face value. But the threatened secession of Sinkiang from China to join the Soviet Union seemed to have been averted, partly due to the daring of Foreign Minister Lo Wen-kan of Nanking who has just led a “pacification mission” to and from these howling wilds.

“Conditions were appalling.” reported Mr. Lo. “Consider that for nearly three years the important trade routes between Sinkiang and ourselves were cut off by disturbed conditions. Consequently practically all of Sinkiang’s exportable output was routed to the only remaining outlet— the Soviet Union.”

The Chinese Governor, accused by Mr. Lo of having “unwarrantably oppressed” the Moslems of Sinkiang and of flirting politically with Moscow, sat in a Nanking jail last week. He had been seized by soldiers whom Generalissimo Chiang sent along with Mr. Lo. In view of the extreme remoteness of the province, Chiang’s Council of Generals felt justified in ignoring last week’s fresh rumors of massacre and insurrection in Sinkiang.

Szechwan, about 1,000 miles from Nanking, was in revolt last week against Governor Liu Hsiang who got his job last year by heading a successful revolt against his uncle, then Governor Liu Wen-hui. Chinese sometimes remark, with but slight exaggeration, that “Szechwan has been in revolt for the last 20 years.” Since Nephew Liu seemed to be holding his own against the insurgents Chiang’s Council of Generals wisely left him to hold down if he can Uncle Liu’s erstwhile seat.

Canton gave the Council of Generals pause. It is China’s fourth largest city and the “Mother of Revolutions.” Generalissimo Chiang got his start in Canton under “China’s George Washington,” the late sainted Dr. Sun Yatsen. It was from Canton that Chiang marched north to conquer all China—partly with the aid of Russian and Chinese propagandists trained in Moscow who fomented disunion in his Army’s path. Marching on to victory, the Generalissimo paid scant attention for several years to the seeds of Sovietism which sprouted and grew strong among Chinese in his wake.

In the last few years the Nanking Government has paid a subsidy to the rival Canton Government which has always taken the money while pulsating with opposition—now secret, now blatant—to Generalissimo Chiang. Last week Canton’s blatancy became a scream as her Government, headed by General Chen Chi-tang, who had just received an especially large subsidy in the hope of squaring him, telegraphed to Nanking a demand that the Generalissimo resign.

Fukien was the last straw of revolt last week, the straw that broke Generalissimo Chiang’s resolve to lead the anti-Communist drive in Kiangsi, the straw that caused him to summon his Council of Generals. Last month the Province of Fukien near Canton was announced to have “seceded” (TIME, Nov. 27). Last week Fukien’s bold rebels dared to claim that they, not Nanking, represent the true Government of all China. Hurling defiance at Generalissimo Chiang they announced that their army will be led by General Tsai Ting-kai, famed commander of the 19th Route Army in its deathless defense of Shanghai (TIME, Feb 22. 1932, et seq.) What is left of the Old 19th, brought up to full strength by new recruits, will fight under General Tsai. More important, the new Fukien Government has as its “brains” that amazing man of South Chinese politics, Eugene Chen. It was he who provided the potential menace to Nanking’s authority, he who caused Chiang to rush from his Council of Generals and mobilize his best troops to be led by himself against Fukien.

Hard, hot-eyed, taciturn Eugene Chen looks like Nikolai Lenin disguised as Rudyard Kipling. He was born in British Trinidad, got his start at the London bar and according to his many Chinese enemies “cannot speak or write Chinese.”

Since most Chinese statesmen are fluent in English, Mr. Chen seldom has to use his halting Chinese, lashes out with a searing, corrosive power of invective which has made him a force in China ever since he was appointed legal adviser to the original Canton Government of the late, great Dr. Sun. Last year Mr. Chen quarreled with Conqueror Chiang and since then with all the spleen in his bitter soul he has been out to smash the Generalissimo whom he calls “medievally minded,” “politically dishonest,” “the betrayer of China to Japan” and “the Dictator without a soul who would wreck the Kuomintang.”

It was in the name of the Kuomintang (“People’s Party”) that Chiang conquered China. Nanking still claims to be the Government of the Kuomintang. Last week the subtle, intriguing hand of Eugene Chen was seen when the Canton Government not only demanded that Generalissimo Chiang resign but added that the Nanking Government must be reorganized to give the People’s Party a greater share in the running of the State. Since there are no elections in China, the People’s Party leaders are self-made politicos like Mr. Chen whose prestige is their mandate. Nanking and Peiping politicos stand for conservatism in the Kuomintang, while those in Fukien and Canton stand for a radicalism nearly if not quite Communist. What Fukien’s defiance and Canton’s demands really meant was that South Chinese statesmen are launching a new onslaught to smash what they call the Nanking “Dynasty of Soong,” the real power behind the Nanking Government.

“Utter Annihilation.” Three smart sisters and their great brother comprise today the Dynasty of Soong. Their father, the late, pious and ingenious Charles Jones (“Charlie”) Soong, made money by printing in China millions of Bibles for the missionary trade. He helped to make history by harboring in his house and backing with his money the Great Rebel. Dr. Sun Yatsen, later First President of the Chinese Republic.

Eldest Daughter Ailing (“Pleasant”) Soong is the Sibyl of the clan. She approved the hot haste in which Old Charlie married off Second Sister Ching-ling (“Happy”) to First President Sun. Years later when Dr. Sun was dead and when Generalissimo Chiang, once a secretary of Dr. Sun, had conquered all China, “Pleasant” said: “We Soongs can make much of this man.” Though he was a Buddhist with concubines and the Soongs are Christians, she approved when Chiang put aside his concubines and married Youngest Sister Mei-ling (“Beautiful”). Meanwhile “Pleasant” herself had married the 75th lineal descendant of Confucius, Dr. H. H. Kung. Her little Brother Tse-wen (“Scholarly Son”) became Finance Minister and was to be known favorably in every chancellery in the world as T. V. Soong. Thus the tentacles of a single family linked China’s late, sainted First President and her living Conqueror, and her greatest Finance Minister and the 75th descendant of her foremost sage.

Soong close harmony could not last forever. Last week Eugene Chen was seen to have picked, with his usual perspicacity, a highly opportune moment to assault the House of Soong, i. e. the Chinese Government.

Month ago Generalissimo Chiang and Brother-in-law T. V. quarreled (TIME, Nov. 6) with the result that Mr. Soong resigned as Finance Minister. He was replaced by the Generalissimo’s other Brother-in-law, Dr. Kung. But in Chinese finance there is no such thing as replacing T. V. Soong. Dr. Kung is amiable and highly esteemed, less clever than his wife “Pleasant.” Mr. Soong is the only man who ever balanced China’s budget (TIME, Jan. 2), the only Chinese Finance Minister who ever held his country’s extravagant militarists in check. Unfortunately Soong the Financier tried to make himself a popular figure by clamoring for Chinese efforts to wrest Manchukuo back from Japan. Chiang the Conqueror (of Chinese) knew that against Japanese his forces could not for the present win. He also resented the encroachment into politics of Soong, the money man. Cross current of intrigue and personal gossip further estranged T. V. and Chiang. Last week Mr. Soong was in effect gloating on the sidelines as Generalissimo Chiang found himself forced to meet the challenge of Fukien and Eugene Chen. Overnight seven steamers were filled with picked troops and dispatched to attack the rebels by sea. Martial law was declared in Shanghai’s Chinese quarter. Troop trains roared off to the Fukien land front. From Nanking the Generalissimo sent up thun dering squadrons of airplanes which showered Fukien with bombs and with leaflets reading:

To the 19th Route Army:

Comrades!

Either clean up the bogus Fukien Government or the Nanking Government promises you utter annihilation.

Chiang, Commander-in-Chief.