DISORDER IN CHINA

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3238, 4 December 1930, Page 3

DISORDER IN CHINA

WHITHER WILL IT LEAD? Although, for want of a better name, that of Communist will pi'obably continue to be applied to the agents of disorder in China, nowhere in China is there anything that corresponds to what is known as Communism in any part of the world, states Mr. J. 0. Bland, in the English Review for August. Mr. Bland states that General Chiang Kai-sheek, the Kuomintang Government leader, now finds it convenient to brand as Communists all those who oppose his authority, trusting that it will be forgotten that four years- ago his chief supporters were of the “reddest” Moscow type. Having won his way to power through Soviet assistance, it is in accordance with the elementary principles of Chinese politics to declare a war of extermination against the Reds. General Chiang Kai-sheek merely called himself a Communist for political purposes. Such a policy is an orthodox expedient in China, and it is thoroughly understood by the Chinese, but frequently it is misinterpreted abroad. Chiang Kaisheek has won power, money and munitions, has become a capitalist in the process, and is acting as a capitalist. For the last ten years three-quar-ters of the population of China has lived on the verge of starvation. The peasantry has been made desperate by corruption and exactions. Even in times of peace malcontent leaders hold out to their followers promises of dividing property, but their methods ancl their objectives have no relation to the accepted principles of Communism. The benefits which they seek are frankly individualistic. In fact, there is no place for Communism in the Chinese social system. These so-called Red armies have been growing rapidly in numbers and armament. The most reliable reports from the interior state that conditions resemble closely those that preceded the Taiping rebellion. The rapidity of the spread of the upheaval is due to the fact that the military forces of the Government have been concentrated against war lords of the north. It is no more than an indication that the masses have found conditions so intolerable that they believe that any change must be for the better. It is true that the organisation and slogans of these armies bear unmistakable' evidence of Russian origin and inspiration, but Moscow is not uncjer the delusion that they are Communist in spirit. The agents of the Soviet are stirring up trouble with the knowledg that upheavals of any kind must injure British trade in China and British influence in Asia.

The spectacle of large numbers of peasants enrolling themselves under any insurgent leader is nothing new in China. It is the alternative to starvation. Every leader of an armed force regai’ds himself as a potential founder of a dynasty. History justifies that belief and .hope. Failing foreign intervention, history is likely to repeat itself, and to bring out of the chaos a new Government for China. The way may be in a definite separation of north and south, or in a revival of the “Three Kingdoms” or the “Five Dynasties of the remote past. The existing Government has failed to prove itself fitted for its task, and China is followng its usual method of reaching for stable government though a national upheaval.