CHINA UNDER COMMUNISM

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26394, 12 April 1951, Page 3

CHINA UNDER COMMUNISM

CONTROL BECOMING MORE SEVERE MASSES BEING STRICTLY REGIMENTED (By WILLIAM PARROTT, Reuter’* Correspondent in Hong Kong.) The screws of Communist control are being tightened upon China’s patient, long-suffering millions. Since the international situation deteriorated after the entry of the Chinese “volunteer” armies into the Korean war, Peiping has hastened to regiment the country into a disciplined mass entirely subservient to its will. Earlier, the Communist authorities were taking their time to spread the tentacles oi power across the ’ country, especially in the south, for they preferred to win the people over by popular action rather than by pressure. But apparent fears of invasion resulting in a decision to prepare rapidly for any emergency changed all that. Now, the kid gloves are off, and the mailed fist is beating the country into unquestioning submission. In traditionally efficient Communist style, the authorities are attempting to check and index the lives of every member of this, the world’s most numerous race. Details about every citizen reaching back for three generations are being tabulated. His almost every movement is written down. Such close checking demands close watching, and the Communists are introducing more and more methods to assist them.

In Canton, for instance, as in any other Chinese city, a resident may not absent himself from his registered home even for one night without informing the authorities. Apparently the oroer is not often disobeyed. It is not worth it. There are a lot of informers about, and police may enter a house or any other premises at any time without a warrant. They may arrive at 11 p.m. or at 4 a.m., and subject the entire household to interrogation for as long as it pleases them. No one dares gainsay them. To many people, the rule of the Communists has become a rule of terror for they know not when they may be examined for imagined or suspected crimes. Now the Communists in Kwangtung Province have ordered that everyone entering the province from, or leaving for, abroad, must first obtain permits. New Development

Never in modern times have the Chinese been subject to such strict control over their movements. The Communists explain that they have taken this action to prevent “the secret agents of the imperialists and the Kuomintang gang from boring their way into the territory to carry out their plots against the new regime.” In other words, it is part of the present hasty preparations against an emergency.

The Communists watch their subjects in other ways. There is an effective censorship. It appears that the contents of only occasional bags of mail are scrutinised. But it is done often enough to make most people extremely careful what they write. Telephones are tapped. People speaking on long distance telephones from British Hong Kong to either Canton or Shanghai choose their words carefully lest they involve . the person at the other end in trouble. As Communist control is tightened, heavier penalties are imposed on offenders. There have been an increasing number of executions recently for a variety of crimes, mainly political. An increasing number of persons who have been swept up by the public security officials have not been heard of again. The Communists have recently ordered the confiscation of assets belonging to “Chinese traitors, bureaucratic capitalists, and counter-revo-lutionary elements.” These assets, the order says, must be registered immediately. As the Communists have already seized the houses and other property of many former political enemies, it is thought that this may be merely a further effort to discover possible adversaries either through forcing perinfluenced by-’feSTT”tß”deciare themselves within these vaguely defined categories, or through popular denunciation of suspects. Losses of Property Many people in the first year of Communist rule lost properties through forced disposal in order to pay arbitrarily assessed taxes or contributions towards victory bonds. Now, however, taxes, although heavy, are more fairly levied on the basis of ability to pay. And the Communists, with all their personal data about each individual, have a very shrewd idea of what he can afford.

In spite of sporadic guerrilla activity, the mass of Chinese people have accepted the tightening Communist controls without a murmur, for they are in no position to resist. In the traditional Chinese manner, the chief concern of the average person is whether his rice bowl is full or empty. With a good harvest last season and better distribution methods, most people at present have enough to eat at prices they can afford to pay. But the picture is not drawn quite evenly all over China. The Communists have been careful to keep the workers in the great industrial centres contented. So, among other things, they have drawn heavily on food stocks in neighbouring farm areas where resentment among peasants would cause much less embarrassment. In the city of Shanghai, even the unemployed may draw a regular supply of rice from some relief centre. Then the ironical position arises under which the farmer who grew the rice and lost it through heavy taxation, must travel by bicycle or foot into Shanghai to get sufficient for his own domestic needs.