DEVELOPMENT OF NEW REGIMES IN CHINA
BUREAU OF INFORMATION, DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
IN reading anti-Japanese newspapers published in China, one is struck with the frequency with which the term " traitor " is used. This may be construed as revealing the existence of a state of affairs quite contrary to Chinese propaganda which elaborates on the unshaken, united stand of the entire nation against Japan prevailing throughout the country. Its more important significance, however, is that such an apparently contradictory use—contradictory from the point of view of propaganda—of this opprobrious term indicates the desperate efforts being made by the leaders of the anti-Japanese national front for checking and counteracting the growing tendency among the people toward appreciating and supporting the principles and policies of the new régimes in Peking and Nanking.
This press campaign aiming at alienating the people from the new régimes by means of reckless application of this disgraceful term had proven effective for some time, since it is the name by which no one in any type of collective life wishes to be called. But as the situation has changed, the false charge has lost its restraining force in the face of realities. The number of thinking people who have come to be connected with the new Governments has increased. Accordingly, the anti-Japanese front has been driven to cry " traitor " all the more frequently.
An Important Move
Discerning this favourable turn of tide, the leaders of the new régimes made an important move in the direction of their union which had already been decided on in principle. Thus their representatives, Tang Erh-ho of the Peking Government and Liang Hung-Chih, Wen Tsung-yao and Chen Chun of the Nanking Government, held preliminary conversations at Dairen on the ninth and tenth of September, which resulted in complete agreement in views. After the two-day conference of September 20th and 21st, the Federal Committee of the Governments of the Chinese Republic was formally inaugurated on September 22nd at Peking. Following this significant ceremony, the Committee issued a statement, which reads in part as follows :
Development of the situation has been carefully followed and studied by the two Governments since their establishment in close succession several months ago. They have found it difficult to execute important political affairs in the state of their separate existence. Further deliberations are needed, however, before the Central Government is established.
As a result of thoroughgoing studies and conferences, the Federal Committee of the Governments of the Republic of China, has been organized with a view to realizing united anti-Communist principles and policies in accordance with the spirit of national salvation.
Mr. Wang Ko-min, Chairman of the Administrative Council of the Peking Government, has been elected Chairman of the Committee, other members being Messrs. Wang I-tang and Chu Shen of the Peking Government and Messrs. Liang Hung-chih, Wen Tsung-yao and Chen Chun of the Nanking Government. Messrs. Chu Shen and Wen Tsung-yao have been elected members of the Standing Committee.
What Messrs. Wang Ko-min and Liang Hung-chih told the press representatives after the inauguration is to be particularly noted as indicating an important line of policy to be followed. They said :
In organizing the Federal Committee we have laid the foundation for the establishment of the central régime of China. This Committee will naturally be expanded in the event of participation by other new régimes which will be established hereafter in other parts of the country.
The establishment of the Committee has an important significance in that the two new régimes having a community of purpose and ideal have pledged themselves in concrete terms for future union. It also means the unification of régimes within the areas under Japanese occupation. By this step the objective of organization of the highest political organ for the whole of China in collaboration with new régimes which may come into being with the extension of occupied areas has been clearly and definitely made known. Furthermore, the principles adopted in organizing the new Committee shows the attitude of fairness and open-mindedness on the part of the leaders of the Governments of Peking and Nanking in that they are not planning to place other régimes to be created hereafter under their domination but to unite with them on the basis of equality in establishing the Central Government. Doubtless, such an attitude will receive general acceptance and welcome throughout the country.
The activities of the Peking and Nanking Régimes during these months since their establishment have been mainly in the nature of laying the foundation, as have been explained by their leaders. Their achievements along this line have been reassuring. Under the rule of the Government at Peking such activities as establishment and adjustment of administrative organs, readjustment of currency, and maintenance of peace and order have successfully been carried out, and the work of developing natural resources has been started with Japanese aid. Simultaneously, in increasingly large areas under the rule of the Government, at Nanking various enterprises have been rehabilitated and reconstructed, keeping pace with the advancing of the Japanese front line. Thus, steps for the reopening of customs at Central China ports have been taken and those for the revival of navigation enterprises and trade activities on the Yangtze River are being contemplated. Such being the case, in the event of the fall of Hankow, export and import trade conducted by way of the Yueh Han Railway will be done thereafter by way of the Yangtze River, a situation which is favourable for business enterprises reconstructed under the rule of the new régime.
Another factor favourable for the advance of the two new Governments is the present mentality of the masses in the areas under their rule. Tired of their hard lots caused by the prolonged hostilities, they long for peace. What they want above everything else is to work and sleep in peace. If, therefore, they understand the real intentions of Japan and realize that they have been induced to participate in futile and irrational action against Japan, they will no doubt come back to their former peaceful occupations as good citizens.
Which Way the Chekiang Financial Clique ?
In connection particularly with reconstruction of commercial and industrial enterprises, the attitude of the so-called Chekiang financial clique of Kiangsu and Chekiang Provinces toward the new régimes assumes no small importance. They are, in reality, being manipulated by the Nationalist leaders with both sweet and threatening words. Accordingly, they cannot launch reconstruction activities in Central China, nor can they make up their minds, in response to the Nationalist invitation, to move their enterprises to the interior of Szechwan and Yunnan Provinces. Their recent movements in Kowloon appear to be only perfunctory ones, and nothing concrete has come out of them. A turn of tide, therefore, will prove sufficient pressure for them to take definite steps toward reconstructing
their enterprises in Central China. They are basically against the Communists. Funds used by General Chiang Kai-shek for suppressing the Chinese Reds were offered by them. However, intimately related to the Generalissimo as they are, they will not and cannot accompany him beyond the grave, particularly side by side with the Reds whom they abhor. What is in the minds of the Financial Clique appears to be this : in case the Nationalist dictator succeeds in resisting Japan, they will induce him to carry out a purge of the party; but in case he fails completely, they will offer the new Régime their allegiance at a certain material sacrifice.
Revolt in the Nationalist Camp
According to recent news from Chekiang Province, a volunteer army has been organized in an unoccupied area in that Province and started action against the Nationalist forces. As a matter of fact, the greater part of that Province, which covers at the same time the greater part of its plain, has already been occupied by Japanese forces, leaving a part of the plain and the hilly and mountainous districts to the living of the people under the Chiang Régime. Reduced to such straitened circumstances, any people would struggle for their liberation. The revolt of the volunteers must be an inevitable outcome of circumstance. The unoccupied area is noted for its tea industry, which is interfered with to a considerable extent by the present hostilities. This may in part account for the revolt and its support by the masses.
In North China, too, those remnants of the Nationalist forces who have been made responsible for guerrilla warfare in that part of the country have not remained faithful to their duty. Their units are surrendering to the Japanese forces one after another, disillusioned by the failure of their warfare and the growing scarcity of their provisions.
From the Japanese Point of View
The current Chinese situation, though developing favourably to the new régimes which are organized on the principles of anti-Communism and collaboration with Japan, in no way precludes the necessity of preparing the Japanese nation for prolonged hostilities against the Nationalist-Communist, anti-Japanese front. Almost unprecedented extension of the battle front, vastness of territories both occupied and unoccupied, and obdurate resistance of the
anti-Japanese front with the Comintern as its background have to be reckoned with seriously. The approaching fall of the Wuhan area is to be considered, therefore, not as the end but as the beginning of another phase of a prolonged campaign for construction of a new China and of lasting peace in East Asia.