CHINA: Passing of a Promise

In hand-to-hand fighting last week, Communist troops battered into Anshan, steel capital of Manchuria. Anshan’s fall tightened the Red ring about Mukden, but the loss had a deeper significance. What had changed hands was the chief symbol of Manchuria’s industrial promise.

The Japanese had been first to exploit Anshan’s strategic location in the midst of Manchuria’s iron and coal resources. They built furnaces for pig iron and steel, rolling mills, coke ovens and chemical byproducts plants. Up to V-J day Anshan’s steel output (nearly 2,000,000 tons) was the biggest on the Asiatic continent.

At war’s end, the Russians removed much of Anshan’s movable equipment; the Nanking government was never able to restore production to more than a fraction of what it had been. For China, Anshan had remained just a promise. This week, the promise, like most of Manchuria, belonged to others.