CHINESE COMMUNIST REGIME SAID TO BE UNPOPULAR

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 June 1950, Page 2

CHINESE COMMUNIST REGIME SAID TO BE UNPOPULAR

But Reds' Control Is Unimpaired

(By William Parrott, N.Z.P.A. Reuter Correspondent)

HONGKONG.—The Chinese communist regime is fast losing popular support in central and southern China, according to many repels reaching Hongkong. A similar but le§s violent change in public sentiment is believed, to be taking place in North China and Manchuria. The position there is obscure, however, through the lack of reliable information. On the other hand, control by the communists over China’s destiny remains for the moment almost, if at all, unimpaired. Loss of support for the communists has developed in the southern and central provinces during the past three months. The trend has been accelerated since the beginning of March. The causes of this revulsion in feeling have been many. It has been expressed in diverse ways and its effects, although immediately unimportant, may ultimately range among the imponderable of China. Heavy food requisitioning, high taxation, compulsory loans, restrictive trading regulations and a host of other measures have turned peoples’ hearts against the communists. These measures have been imposed on a population which, in many areas, is already fighting such natural calamities as famine and disease. As a result there have been murmurings of dissent among millions. Thousands have already translated dissent into action against the communists and their numbers are daily growing. Guerilla activity is widespread in many provinces. Hongkong, although British territory, provides a notable example of the change of feeling that has accurred among the average Chinese. SENTIMENT AT ITS HEIGHT Sentiment for the communists was probably at its height among the colony’s 2,000,000 Chinese about the end of 194 . That sentiment has rapidly melted as thousands of Chinese have poured in from Canton and Shanghai bringing stories of hardship and hunger under the new regime. Industrial disputes sponsored by communist-led trade unions threatened to create an ugly situation three months ago but many workers, under risk of deportation to China for ritous behaviour, lost their ardour as conditions across the border became more widely known and they quietly accepted one-third of their original demand for higher pay. I At a local cinema, newreels showing General Issimo and Madame Chiang

Kai-Shek as well as nationalist soldiers are drawing spontaneous and long applause from Chinese audiences at every screening. Travellers have brought from Nanking the words of a new folksong which, they say, has become widely popular because of its true reflection of the current scene. The words are:—“The nationalists fled quickly, the communists came quickly, the rich became poor quickly, the poor die quickly.” In Shanghai, according to others, many people would prefer to have the nationalists I back, much as that administration I was hated. A man just arrived from Peking said many people there j thought conditions were better under j the Japanese. But others, it is said, [are thinking in terms of a third parly although it is generally realised that such thoughts, at present, go far be,'yond the bounds of practical possibility. It is because there is no organj ised opposition that the communists ! remain firmly in control. The mountiing guerilla activity and peasant un--1 rest throughout the provinces lack unity and for that reason cannot achieve more than nuisance effect in ! particular areas in which they occur. I These restless elements lack arms, ! supplies, cohesion and overall control. Should the nationalists, by some mirI acle, follow recent mainland raids by a landing in force, it is doubtful whether many people would immediately rush to their banner. It is more likely that native caution would exert itself and most people would await developments before committing themselves. Meanwhile the communists hold power principally by virtue of an enormous army which, by their own admissions, they have no immediate intention of reducing. Although the peasant or townsman may wail about the hard times, the communists are deliberately seeing to it that the army remains contented and Joyal through good food, good clothing and good pay. I Some Chinese observers think, per- ' haps wishfully, that army morale and effectiveness may slump as the sold- ' iers learn of the dlffllTicult conditions 1 under which their civilian kinsmen 1 are living. Others believe that China’s ( chaotic economy cannot continue in- ■' definitely to support a fighting force ' variously estimated in strength up to 1 5 million men. These theories may I hold weight but for the present and ithe predictable future—which is not ! distant in present-day China—the communists stand, and will continue to stand, unchallenged on the mainI land.