DEPARTMENT OF STATE FACILITIES FOR CHINESE TRANSLATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03130A000100010006-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2001
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 30, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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SECRET SECURITY INFOR .TION
DEPARTMENT OF STATE FACILITIES
R CHINESE TRANSLATION
Three channels for the translation of Chinese documentary materials
cone under the direction of the Department of State. One is here in
Washington, the other two in Taipei and Hong Kong.
1, DIVISION OF LANGUAGE SERVICES (TC)
Within the Department here in Washington, the Division of Language
Services (TC) is organized primarily to provide the Department with
interpreters and to handle diplomatic documents, letters, and White House
nail, It has two Chinese language translators. Translations are nude
by TC only in response to specific requests. Translations are typed in
a limited number of copies and ordinarily do not circulate beyond interest-
ed offices in the Department. TC is not equipped or designed for the
systematic coverage and translation of published Chinese materials. On
occasion, TC has been able to handle translation requests of the Division
of Research for Far East (DRF) but only on a limited scale and when the
pressure of work is slack. Through TO, DRF also has boon able to contact
local Chinese for the contract translation of unclassified material, but
this procedure has not proved satisfactory. In most cases such contract
translations exist as unique copies in our files alone. There are no
current plans for an expansion of TC's activities.
2. U. S. Ei~BASSY, TAIPEI
The second translation service is maintained in Taipei as an adjunct
to the operations of the Embassy. TwoChinese,there act as a combined
research and translation unit, koepirng a b5ho-oi on local editorial comment
and digging out biographic and organizational data on an ad hoc basis.
Whenever pertinent, this material is made available to the Department and
other IAC agencies in the form of enclosures to dispatches from the Embassy.
Otherwise these translations have received only local circulation until
mid-1952 when arrangements were nude to have one copy of all those trans-
lations of intelligence interest mailed directly to DRF /C,.
3. HONG KONG PRESS UNIT
Of a different order is the service from the Hong Kong American
Consulate General, which regularly publishes three series of unclassified
translations useful for intelligence analysis. This service originated in
1950 as an outgrowth of standard foreign post practice, like that 'Taipei.
By mid-1950 all US consular posts on mainland China had boon closed and
Hong Kong became the primary listening post for dovelopnonts in Cormunist
China. The needs of the post itself led to the creation of what is now
known as the Hong Kong Press Monitoring Unit. As presently constituted, the
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Press Unit consists of five translators and one Chinese editor, plus
some clerical help, under the supervision of a foreign service officer
in the political section of the Consulate General,
The Press Unit systematically processes about twenty newspapers
and news agency releases. To date it does not handle periodical literature,
although the possibility of its doing so is under consideration, as
indicated below. The product of the unit appears in three mincographed
series for general circulation -- two series being devoted to the China
mainland and the third, and less important, to Hong Kong itself,
(a) Current Background
The oldest of the Press Unit's publications is the Current
Background series, devoted entirely to Communist China, The series was
initiated in Juno 1950 with a view to facilitating general distribution
of materials of a documentary nature often not readily or immediately
available elsewhere. The series, which now comprises over 260 issuesj
has dealt with a broad range of political, economic, and social problems.
Its coverage has ranged from the reproduction of a single speech or report
released by the official Now China News Agency (NCNA) in an issue of a
few mimeographed pages to a complete assembling of the documentary data
dealing with a particular subject or area in an issue running to 60 or
70 pages. Topics of major importance arc sometimes brought up to date
in a second or third issue devoted to a particular subject. Topics are
well selected and reflect the acumen of the Hong Kong mission. In most
cases, the topic is introduced by a page or two of comment, setting the
scene for the translations which follow. With few exceptions, trans-
lations are complete, sources are cited, and editorial comment carefully
distinguished from the text. Over half of the material in the Current
Background series is locally translated by the Press Unit, the remainder
being reproduced from NCNA English releases.
(b) Survey,of the China Mainland Press
Closely related with the Current Background series is the
bulkier Survey of the China Painland Press which reproduces Communist
news items and editorials from a dozen or more mainland newspapers and
the NCNA news service. Issues run to 25 or more legal size pages, are
published every other day, and the 635 numbers that have appeared by
August 1953 make a stack over five feet high. Items are usually grouped
topically to cover Foreign Relations, National Affairs, Regional Affairs,
and Special Topics, Since 1951 each issue has had a table of contents.
The source of each item is given and translations by NCNA so indicated
at the and of the item. For fuller coverage, the headlines of items of
lesser import are listed but not translated. In the interests of greater
accuracy, names of less well known parsons are often given in Chinese
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SECRET SECURITY INFORTZATION 3
characters as well as transcription. Items already reproduced in the
Current Background series are ref erred to but not ordinarily included
in the Survey of the Mainland Press, In gross terms, the Survey duplicates
a large number of the news items contained in The Far East Daily Report
of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). The Survey, however,
has wider coverage, it often gives a domestic and hence different version
of broadcast news, and its items are generally more accurately translated.
Both the Current Background series and the SCHP are edited and the
stencils cut in Hong Kong. Copies arc pulled there and the stencils sent
to Washington for reproduction and distribution by the Department. Approxi-
natoly 45 copies go to government agencies and another 100 copies are
mailed on request to universities and scholars throughout the country.
(c) Review of the Hon Kong Chinese Press
The third publication of the Hong Kong Press Unit is its Review
of the Hong Kong Chinese Press. The average issue of 5-6 legal size pages
has appeared 250 tines each year since the beginning of January 1951.
Tho Review of the Hong Kong Chinese Press consists of two sections
-- an Editorial Digest and a News Summary. The Editorial Digest reproduces
the more significant editorials appearing in local papers, usually sampling
the Communist, pro-Kuomintang, and, sometimes, the independent papers. The
News Summaries from all the papers give items of local economic interest
as well as some coverage of mainland events, the movement of personages
through Hong Fong, and information about overseas Chinese in Southeast
Asia, In response to Washington requests, the Review has increased its
coverage of local politics and is treating Macao in fuller fashion. For
other intelligence purposes, the Review of the Hong Kong Chinese Press has
proven far loss valuable than the other two publications of the Press Unit
because of the unreliability of the local newspapers in their mainland
reporting.
Guidance for the Press Unit's coverage is provided by sections of
the standard Foreign Service Manual and by a Comprehensive Economic Report-
ing Program, which was coordinated with other IN agencies before it was
issued in early 1953. In addition, the Unit has been responsive to spot
requests from the Department. The unit has been keenly aware of the need
for full coverage for all conceiveable purposes and its policy has boon to
give as representative a selection of topics as available materials permit.
The chief problems encountered by the Hong Kong Press Unit have been
in connection with procurement aN striff g. The procurement of mainland
newspapers has boon a constant problem because of Chinese Communist controls
over their circulation. The Press Unit attempts by direct as well as
devious means to acquire about a dozen newspapers, ranging from such
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official mouthpieces as the Peking Jonnin Jihpao (People's Daily) to
representative regional papers like the Hankow Ch'angchiang Jih-pao
(Yangtze Daily). Receipt of papers from such sensitive areas as
Northeast China arc, of course, intermittent and stoppage nay occur
at any tine, Such was the case with Shanghai papers early this summer
when the regime was running a localized purge campaign. Papers from
Shanghai did not cone through for a acriod of two months. In consequence
of the rarity with which some papers cone to hand, the Press Unit has
felt it advisable to forward translated items therefrom by dispatch
rather than in its mimeographed publications lost such "leaks" be more
offoctivcly stopped by the Communist authorities.
The present staff of five translators has been cut from the eight
they had last year and the unit has had to abandon maintenance of its
local file of biographic information. Reference materials are adequate.
Clerical assistance and space have both boon short. For budgetary reasons,
the local USIS program has been forced to abandon its present exploitation
of Communist periodicals for propaganda purposes. The Press Unit is
presently suggesting that this exploitation extend to other than propa-
ganda coverage of Communist periodicals. The Press Unit recommends that
the two experienced USIS translators be hired to monitor Mainland
periodicals as a supplement to the unit's work on newspapers. In view
of the above-mentioned Communist restrictions on newspaper circulation
plus the lessening flow of reliable foreign inforriants coming from the
mainland, US intelligence needs would seem to justify such a contemplated
expansion. The annual cost is estimated at `;,5000 for salaries and
another 500 for subscriptions, supplies, reproduction. and distribution.
State - PB, 11. Tach., D.C.
10/30/53
SECRET SECURITY INFOR1'L'1ION
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