PEOPLE'S CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R007100010006-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 32
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 4, 2001
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 16, 1950
• Content Type: OPEN

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people S
CIiina
December
,_ 1950
The Way of the U. S. Aggressor:
Korea - C. C. Fang
The Press in New China
Liu Tsun-chi
Achievements of the Viet-Namese
People and Their Army
Hong Ha
Supplement:
1) Wu Nsiu-chuan's Speeches at the . U. N.
2) Chou En-lai on Peace Treaty with Japan
RESIRICTED
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People's China
41, Yang Shih Ta Chieh, Peking, China
This journal appears on the 1st and 18th of each
month in both English and Russian. Entered as first-class
printed matter at the General Post Office of North China,
December 20, 1949.
Vol. 2, No. 12 -CONTENTS December 16, 1950
EDITORIALS
Hammer Blows for the Imperialists ........................ 3
U.S. Intrigues on the Japanese Peace Treaty ................. 4
Turning Enemies into Aids ................................ 4
SPECIAL ARTICLES
The Way of the U.S. Aggressor : Korea C. C. Fang ....... 5
The Press in New China Liu Tsun-chi ...... 8
Achievements of the Viet-Namese
People and Their Army Hong Ha ......... 11
Ho Chi Minh - A Short Biography ......................... 14
PICTORIALS
Support Our Volunteers in Korea 15
The Criminal Record of Wall Street and Syngman Rhee ....... 16
Co-ops Help Consumer and Producer ......................... 18
FEATURES
A Village Co-op Kung Ho .......... 19
"Our Machines Are Our Weapons" ......................... 22
Letters from a Volunteer Hwa-chang ...... 24
A New Life for China's Miners ............................ 27
U.S. Atrocities Are No New Things P. T. Wang ....... 30
CURRENT CHINA
November 26-December 10, 1950 ......................... 28
CULTURAL FRONT
The People Dance ........................................ 27
SUPPLEMENT
The Speeches of China's Representative at the U.N. Security Council
Chou En-lai's Statement on the- Peace Treaty with Japan
Index for Volume- Two
To meet the requests of our readers, subscription rates to
People's China, effective from this issue, are reduced as follows:
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the Foreign Languages Press, 26, Kum Hui Chieh Pekin Ch'
ma.
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HAMMER BLOWS FOR
Fighting a just cause, the Korean People's Army
and the Chinese volunteer forces in Korea are driving
the brutalised and cowardly invaders south, en-
circling them, annihilating them. Pyongyang, capital
of the people's Korea, has been freed. The Libera-
tion offensive continues.
Tearing aside the curtain of deceit, Wu Hsiu-
chuan, at the Security Council, with the clear, power-
ful voice of truth, showed black as black and white
as white, teaching the arrogant, imperialist bluffers
some of the new realities of the world we live in.
The hammer blows both at the front and at the
Security Council have caused a devastating reaction
in the camp of the imperialists. Austin, the voice
of Wall Street, could not even attempt to answer the
simple, irrefutable account of U.S. aggression against
China's Taiwan and attacks on China, and instead
resorted to abuse. The hysterical Truman started
raving about spreading the war. He was trying to
'frighten the Chinese people but he only succeeded in
terrifying his European satellites. Attlee, alarmed,
flew poste haste to Washington to urge caution in
the U.S. acts of aggression; while the high powered
salesmen and gangsters that pass for politicians in
the United States began abusing each other in a
search for a scapegoat, one of them admitting frank-
ly, "they have called our bluff and we had better
pull out."
Wu Hsiu-chuan's very presence at the U.N. is a
victory for the world peace forces. Despite all the
moves of the United States, it was world public
opinion with the delegate of the Soviet Union voicing
the sentiments of peace-loving people everywhere,
that resulted in the invitation to People's China to
send its representative; though due to the pernicious
obstruction of the U.S. Government, the People's Re-
public of China has not as yet taken its rightful place
in the U.N.
Despite all the manoeuvrings of Austin and
his use of his foxy Yugoslav puppet to try to turn
the discussion on to the illegal MacArthur "report,"
China's representative put the U.S. Government in the
dock. American imperialism was indicted at the
bar of world public opinion, and the accused had
no answer, to the charges.
.What so. disturbed the warmongers, too, was
that as Wu Hsiu-chuan spoke,, it became clear that
here were the tones of a free people, standing firm.
He listed the crimes of U.S. imperialism, its seizure
of Taiwan, its use of naval forces to hinder the
liberation of the island, its attack on Korea, its
bombing of Northeast China, its refusal to allow
China to take her rightful seat in the council of
world powers, its plans for extending war to China.
His arguments were overwhelming.
TILE IMPERIALISTS
The people of China are today free men who
understand every move of the imperialist, war-
mongering clique. They want. peace and are not
afraid to take steps to secure it. And, as the
response throughout the world to Wu Hsiu-chuan's
speech shows, they have the warm sympathy and
support of the overwhelming majority of mankind.
What did the imperialists imagine? What sort
of people do they think the emancipated masses of
China are? Did they think they could rampage in
Asia, grab territories, bomb and pillage and murder,
and prepare for full-scale invasion of China, with
the Chinese people sitting passively by?
Both in Korea and at the U.N., the imperialists
are having to learn the facts of life. In Korea, the
invaders flee in panic before the people's wrath.
At the U.N., the speech and proposals put for-
ward by Wu Hsiu-chuan, which the aggressors so
hastily voted down, still hold good as the embodi-
ment of justice and truth-sanctions against the
United States Government for its aggression in Tai-
wan and Korea, withdrawal of U.S. forces from Tai
wan, withdrawal of the armed forces of the U.S.
and all other countries from Korea to allow for a
peaceful settlement. These are powerful contribu-
tions to extinguishing the flames of war and main-
taining peace in Asia and the whole world.
U.S. Intrigues on the Japanese
Peace Treaty
The U.S. note on the peace treaty with Japan
handed by Dulles to the Soviet Security Council
delegate, 1Vlalik, on Octooer GU, completely exposes
the U.S. plan of using the Japanese islands as their
main base for aggression against the peoples of
Asia. The U.S. invasion of Korea is the first try-
out of th'ht plan.
As the statement of Chou En-lai, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, on Dec. 4 makes clear, this seven-
point proposal of the U.S. imperialists throws over-
board every major international commitment the
U.S. Government made during World War II. In
particular, disregarding the heavy sacrifices made
by all the fighters against Japanese fascism, the
Washington warmongers propose to destroy the
fundamental principle of the treaty, namely, general
agreement of the Allies.
Further, while seeking to deprive others of their
historic territories, the U.S. imperialists propose to
arrogate to themselves territories, such as the
Ryukyu and Bonin Islands, to which they have no
claim other than expediency and greed. They
bluntly announce their policy of rearming Japan--
a policy they have long been realising in secret
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I Eot'i,E's CI#l1 A
and seek to legalise their post-war occupation of
Japan on the transparent disguise of "joint respon-
sibility for the maintenance of international, peace
and security."
The aggressive war of the U.S. imperialists and
their puppets against Korea which surged up to and
over the frontiers of China, has shown what a
menace the U.S.-dominated Japan is to the whole of
Asia. Japan has provided the bases for the bomber
squadrons which have wreaked destruction in Korea
and in Northeast China. Japan has been turned
into an arsenal and a manpower pool for Mac-
Arthur's criminal campaign. Japanese soldiers and
naval personnel have been ' em ployed in active opera-
tions, A number of major Japanese war criminals
have figured prominently as MacArthur's advisers on
Korea. At the same time, naval vessels of Yoshida's
"Naval Security Department" have engaged not
only in the patrolling of the Korean Sea, but have
participated in the transportation of the U.S. First
Cavalry Division to Korea and in the landings at
Inchun. The Yoshida Government on November 5
admitted that military supply contracts to the value
of US$139,670,000 had been signed for Japanese
supplies to the U.S. Army since the start of the
aggression on Korea. The world has a right to know
how many of these bombs, bullets and shells have
been used against the Korean people. The Toyo
.Keizai Shinpo on Oct. 14 revealed that 143,000
Japanese had been sent to Korea for war service
with the American troops.
The Chinese people did not fight the Japanese
fascists for eight long years to see Japan turned
into a base for new aggressions against the peoples
of Asia and the Japanese people again enslaved by
a union of Japanese and American fascists.
Events in Korea have shown that no major
question in the Far East of primary concern to the
Chinese people can be settled without their par-
ticipation. They stand today for the conclusion of a
jointly agreed Japanese peace treaty on the basis
of the solemn war-time undertakings so that the
resurgence of fascism and militarism may be pre-
vented, the democratisation of Japan may be carried
out and Japan be enabled to contribute to the peace
and security of Asia.
No American attempt to circumvent these prin-
ciples can prevail. The stand of the Chinese people
on this question is one with the mighty camp of the
Soviet Union and all the peace-loving peoples who
opposethe new forces of aggression in Asia.
TURNING ENEMIES INTO AIDS
The Central People's Government are working
out nation-wide plans to end forever within a few
years the age-old menace of floods and, at a later
stage, to turn the raging waters into power for the
factories and sustenance for China's and lands.
The scenes of these mighty efforts in' peaceful
construction - the Yellow and Yangtse Rivers, the
Huai, the Yi . . . have witnessed countless battles
in which the lives and happiness of millions were
the prize of victory. Too often in the past the
waters won. Today, led by the People's Government
and the Chinese Communist Party, aided by the
modern knowledge of skilled workers-and experts
and the experience of the Soviet Union, the heroic
people of China have already achieved a decisive
nation-wide 'victory over their old enemy. In the
coming years, that'victory will be consolidated beyond
all doubt.
The scale of work already completed in this first
year of the People's Republic staggers the imagina-
tion. The earthwork alone total 420,000,000 cubic
metres, equal to excavating six canals the size of
the Suez. Millions of hectares of farmlands have
already been ensured from flood. No floods of any
size. occurred this year except in the Huai Basin.
The National Water
just concluded in Peking
deal with outstanding danger spots. On the treacher-
ous Huai, 30,000,000 people and one-seventh of
China's arable land will be preserved from flood.
The reactionary regimes of the past neglected
these conservancy works, squandered the conservancy
funds, and were not above entrusting these vital
undertakings to the whims of foreign imperialist
"philanthropy." The KMT, in their fury at defeat,
destroyed the dykes wholesale.
Today, the People's Government is able to tackle
and solve these vast problems with the enthusiastic
support of the whole people, thus further consolidat-
ing the victory of New China over imperialism and
poverty. It is to complete these and other yet vaster
works of peaceful construction, that China demands
peace.
Once again the lesson is driven home: In their
advance to freedom and plenty, the oppressed people
must rely only on themselves and their friends in
the international camp of peace headed by the Soviet
Union. Imperialism offers them nought but
destruction.
Freed from imperialist exploitation and feudal
rule, the 475,000,000 people of China are a mi
ht
g
y
Conservancy Conference creative force. They can achieve wonders possible
has now, therefore, dis? only in a land where state ower i
4.1, 1
s
r
n a ands
cussed a comprehensive three-year plan that will of th a le p
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THE WAY OF THE U.S.
AGGRESSOR : KOREA
C. C. Fang
In the U.N. Secretariat, there is a file marked rising, the guerrilla resistance movement was spread-
"Secret Documents of Syngman Rhee" that anyone ing. The puppets were only too anxious to seek
can consult today. Captured in his "presidential" a solution of their difficulties in a war adventure
palace when Rhee fled from Seoul, they provide do- that would put the flourishing' economy of North
cumentary evidence that -he plotted and. launched Korea into their hands and pour more.U.S. dollars
the treacherous June 25th attack across the 38th into their depleted treasury.
Parallel under the instigation and with the active
support of the U.S. government.
It is small wonder, therefore, that since they
were laid before the U.N., these documents have
been sedulously ignored by the imperialist press.
Mostly in the form of correspondence between the
head of the South Korean puppet regime and his
agents in the United States (a facsimile of one docu-
ment is reproduced in our pictorial section-Ed),
they prove that the plan for the armed conquest of
the-whole of Korea was being prepared as early as
the winter of 1948.
From that time onward, as the plot took shape,
the arming and training of Syngman Rhee's troops
-,by the Americans was intensified. Preparations
developed into action. From January, 1949, to April,
1950, the Syngman Rhee troops made 1,274 raids
across the 38th Parallel. His naval vessels shelled
areas north of the Parallel 42 times and his air-
craft bombed targets there in 71 sorties. These
provocative. attacks made from South Korea by
forces controlled by the U.S. military mission were,
of course, seldom mentioned in the capitalist press.
Those that were reported were lightly" dismissed
as "border incidents." They were, in fact, part of
the plan to whip up war hysteria in South Korea
as well as armed patrols to test out the strength and
dispositions of the Korean People's Army.
By September, 1949, Syngman Rhee thought he
had the answer to the key question of the strength
of the KPA. He began to press for decisive action.
"I feel strongly," he wrote on Sept. 30, 1949, to
Dr. Robert T. Oliver, his paid agent in the United
States, "that now is the most psychological moment
when we should take an aggressive measure . . .
to clean up the rest of them in Pyongyang. We .will
drive some of Kim II Sung's men to the mountain
region and where we will gradually starve them
out.
A week later, on October 7, he assured an Ameri-
can UP correspondent that the South Korean army
was in battle trim and "could seize Pyongyang in
three days." On October 31, his Defence Minister
..: Sin Sen Mo made a similar statement to the press.
A rabid war-like atmosphere was built .up in Seoul.
Syngman Rhee was faced 'with a growing economic
crisis. In South Korea, the people's discontent was
U.S. Brigadier General Roberts, who was respon-
sible for the training of the Syngman Rhee army,
was, however, not convinced. The. moment might
well be "psychological" for the Rhee puppets, but
the U.S. was not yet ready for the adventure.
The tempo of the plot was,-however, quickened.
In early 1950, Syngman Rhee was summoned to
Tokyo to confer with MacArthur, who had now
emerged as the leading agent of American imperial-
ism in Asia. In June, the chief war-makers of the
Pentagon and State Department, the then Defence
Secretary Johnson, Bradley, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and John Foster Dulles, the leading
U.S. strategist of the global "cold war," arrived in
Japan for a series of special conferences with Mac-
Arthur. Dulles went on to South Korea in Junet
where in a "pep talk" to the puppet "assembly" in
Seoul, he promised "all necessary moral and material
support" to the Syngman Rhee regime in its "fight
against Communism." This was the green light for
action. Syngman Rhee bellicosely declared: "If
we cannot defend democracy in a cold war, we will
win victory in a hot war." On June 25, with U.S.
advisers directing operations, the long premeditated
attack was launched against North Korea.
Intrigue at U.N. -
Like racers at the sound of the starting gun,
the State. Department diplomats sprang into action
to concoct measures at the U.N. in support of the
American and puppet armies. At the U.S. request,
the Security Council was convened on June 25, on
the very day of the start of the fighting and, in the
absence of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Peo-
ple's Republic, adopted a resolution declaring that
the North Korean forces had committed a breach
of the peace and calling upon all members of the
United Nations to refrain from giving assistance to
the North Korean authorities. This cynical resolu-
tion in effect demanded that the U.S. and its puppet
forces should be allowed without interference to
bludgeon Korea into submission.
The imperialists, however, grossly miscalculated.
The heroic Korean people "fought `backcourageous-
ly. They stopped and routed the invaders in a
counter-offensive developed, in the very first- days of
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the struggle. The U.S. and puppet troops were
pursued across the 38th Parallel, and Rhee himself
had to 'flee from the wrath of the . people. The
puppet army and government began to melt away.
As soon as it thus became clear that the whole
puppet regime was collapsing, the United States
resorted to direct action with its full power against
the Korean people.
"In these circumstances," declared President
Truman in his war manifesto of June 27, "I have
ordered United States air and land forces to give the
Korean government troops cover and support."
American land, naval and air force units were
concentrated and hurled against Korea from Japan
and other American bases in the Pacific. This was
so patent an act of armed aggression that the diplo-
mats were again called in. And they once again
resorted to a Security Council "resolution" to give
some guise of legality to the U.S. actions. Domin-
ated by the U.S. and again in the absence of the
two permanent members-the Chinese People's Re-
public and" the U.S.S.R.-the Security Council met
on June 27, after the U.S. aggression had already
commenced, and was coerced into rubber-stamping
the U.S. proposed resolution which approved its own
act of aggression.
In passing this illegal resolution, the states that
attended that Security Council "meeting" not only
approved a criminal act of aggression, but also aided
the United States in grossly violating the U.N.
Charter.
The Charter stipulates that decisions of the
Security Council on all important matters shall be
by the affirmative votes of seven membersincluding
the concurring votes of the five permanent members,
viz., the Chinese People's Republic, the Soviet Union,
the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
But the Security Council met and decided on the
Korean situation without China and the U.S.S.R.
Secondly, the U.N. Charter expressly forbids
intervention by the United Nations in the domestic
affaiys of any state, regardless of whether that
state is a member- of the United Nations or not.
By their" illegal resolution, the American bloc
of U.N. states condoned the U.S. armed intervention
in Korea, the savage bombing and shellings of
Korean towns and villages by American bombers
and' naval vessels, the unspeakable atrocities com-
mitted by the invading troops against the people,
said all the other inhuman ' and illegal acts of the
aggressors, including the use of Japanese bases, re-
-sources, armed forces and manpower, to support the
U.S. aggression.
Of a piece with these illegal acts was the ".ap-
pointment" of MacArthur, the criminal U.S. war-
monger in Asia, to command the so-called U.N.
forces in Korea which are wholly American with a
mere flavouring of cannon fodder squeezed out of the
American satellites and accomplices.
Under the pretext of "police action" and illegal-
ly flying the United Nations flag, the U.S. forces
threw all their modern weapons of destruction
against the Korean people over 5,000 miles from the
shores of America. The civilian population, cities
and villages were so wantonly destroyed that even
the reactionary commentator- Walter Lippmann of the
New York Herald Tribune opined that "after our
bombing of the Korean cities, we cannot count on
the friendliness of the population of North Korea."
The devastation throughout the Korean peninsula
is a grim testimony to the ruthlessness of the
American imperialists in their bid for Asian
domination.
Part of a Vaster Plan
From the very outset, it was clear that the Ameri-
can aggression in Korea was merely a part of a vast-
er plan. At the same time that Truman ordered the
armed forces of the U.S. to Korea, he ordered the
U.S. 7th Fleet "to prevent any attack on Formosa
(Taiwan-Ed)." Despite the warning of Chou En-
Jai, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People's Re-
public of China, that this constituted a ,direct armed
aggression against the territory of China, for the
consequences of which the U.S. would be held
answerable, Washington expanded its aggressive
action by increasing the number of its military
advisers, stationing the U.S. 13th Air Force and
increasing its aid to the KMT remnants on the island.
In addition to this, as the United States forces
in Korea advanced north again towards the Chinese
border, the number of reconnaissance and bombing
raids on Northeast China increased. Between Aug.
27 and Nov. 30, no less than 268 raids were made
over the frontier areas and as far as 100 miles into
the hinterland. .
In the same notorious June 27th statement,
Truman announced U.S. measures to accelerate the
"furnishing of military assistance" to the reaction-
ary French forces invading Viet-Nam and also to
the Quirino regime that was vainly trying to crush
the people's forces in the Philippines.
The U.S. aggression in Korea emerged clearly
as the most advanced front of the American offen-
sive against the Asian peoples and, in particular,
against the Chinese People's Republic.
. As the dust left behind by Chiang Kai-shek's
routed armies settled, Acheson had evidently seen
that there was no hope of an internal overthrow of
the People's rule in China and that the only possibility
left of stopping the rapid progress of peaceful con-
struction in People's China was by direct armed U.S.
aggression. The courageous resistance of the Korean
people to the U.S. attack was, indeed, a battle not
only for their own existence as a free and united
nation, but for all Asia, against the aggressor.
Violating the U.N. Charter and the accepted
standards of civilised conduct and international law,
the U.S. invasion of Korea and its related aggressive
acts menaced the peace of the whole world.
The Soviet Union, spokesman for the camp of
peace at the United Nations, made proposals at an
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early stage for a peaceful settlement of the ques-
tion of Korea by the withdrawal of foreign armed
forces, to enable the Korean people to settle their
own domestic affairs. These proposals were fully
supported by China and all other peace-loving peo-
ples. The U.S., however, rejected these proposals
and intensified its attacks on Korea in the vain
hope of getting a quick decision by force. At the
same time, they tried to frighten the Chinese people
by intensified bombings of the Northeast and by
wild talk about the Yalu River not being the natural
boundary between Korea and China. After being
reduced to the Pusan beachhead, the U.S. piustered
40,000 troops, 300 vessels and 500 aircraft from all
over Asia and after landing near 'Inchun at. great
cost, made straight for the Chinese border on the
Yalu.
In this situation the Chinese people showed their
awarednessof the true interests of their country
Truman's Dream and the Reality
and of world peace and security by volunteering in
their thousands for service with the Korean People's
Army, to preserve the Korean people's democracy
and to protect their own homes.
They realised that the American invasion of
Korea was merely the prelude to the invasion of
China, that the reconstruction of their country could
not be completed unless the flames of war started
by the American imperialists in neighbouring Korea
were quenched.
There can be no question of the right and justice
of such aid. The Chinese people have followed the
great democratic tradition of the past, of the volun-
teers for the Spanish Republic and of Lafayette in
his fight on, the side of the American people in their
just War of Independence. If, at the "dawn of
American democracy, Canada had been attacked by
a ruthless invader who, repeatedly bombarded the
State of Michigan and declared that
the St. Lawrence was not the real na-
tional boundary between Canada and
the U.S.A. and had given repeated
proofs of its hostility to the latter,
would the democratic American people
not have risen in defence of their
neighbour and their own hearths and
homes?
The aid of the volunteers has suc-
ceeded in bringing about a new situa-
tion in Korea whereby the KPA has
been able to launch a second shattering
counter-offensive. For a second time
in six months, -the invaders have been
sent reeling in panic to the south.
The State Department has already
declared the KPA "aggressors" in their
own country. Now, it is attempting
to get the U.N. to slander the Chinese
volunteers by calling them "interven-
tionists." But these manoeuvres will
certainly not deter the KPA and its
allies in their drive to run the invaders
out of the country.
The only way in which the American
imperialists can extricate themselves
and their- satellites from the quagmire
in which they have landed themselves,
is to withdraw and accept a truly
peaceful settlement in Korea as de-
manded by the Korean people, support-
ed by China, the Soviet Union. and all
the peace-loving forces the world over.
This demand was reaffirmed by the re-
presentative of the People's Republic
of China at the U.N. Only such a
solution can reverse the dangerous
World Culture) course onto which the American aggres-
Cartoon by Fang Cheng and Chung Lin
sion in Korea has plunged the world.
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THE PRESS IN NEW CHINA
Liu Tsun-chi
The role of the press has been a particularly'
distinguished one in the victorious revolutionary
advance ,of the Chinese people to complete national
independence and the establishment of a people's
democracy. The people have taken the management
and operation of newspapers away from the KMT
counter-revolutionaries and into their own hands..-
Building on the experience of the revolutionary press
in the days before the nation-wide victory, the peo-
ple's press, by propaganda, raising the people's poli-
tical consciousness and organising the broad masses,
has powerfully assisted the advance of social pro-
gress and national construction in New China.
Before the collapse of the reactionary KMT
regime, the people of China had their own news-
papers only in the old Liberated Areas. In all KMT-
controlled cities, the press generally played the role
of mouthpiece of imperialism. Most of its daily news
was taken from the releases of such foreign news
agencies as AP, UP, AFP (Agence France Presse)
or Reuter. Its columns and special features were
filled with corrupting articles translated from the
American press.
Even for news on China's own military, political
and economic affairs, newspapers in KMT China
depended on foreign news agency releases which
were usually slanted to suit imperialist policies by
the various foreign correspondents. These pressmen,
who were assigned more or less permanently to
China, enjoyed special rights and crews collecting
facilities which the Chinese newspapermen were
denied. Indeed, the KMT did all it could for the
capitalists of the United States, Britain, France and,
at one time, Japan, who were subjected to no restric-
tions whatever and were free even to run, either
in foreign languages or in Chinese, their own news-
papers-an effective medium for keeping the props
under long-term colonialism in China.
,With very few exceptions, Chinese newspapers
became little more than monopoly enterprises of the
KMT reactionaries. Some of them were its open
organs. Others, while nominally privately-owned
papers of a commercial character, in fact depended
On the KMT for subsidies, in return for which the
newspapers propagandised on behalf of the corrupt
regime.
The victory of the Liberation War brought a
fundamental. change to the press. In place of the
newspapers of the KMT and the bureaucratic
capitalists, publicly-run newspapers owned by the
people themselves appeared. These have been, in-
creasing both in number and circulation. Except for
Taiwan and Tibet, each of the 28 provinces of China
has its own publicly-run newspapers. Fifteen such
papers were established over the past year alone.
,Together with the newspapers of various cities and
localities, these newspapers have laid a sound basis
for the development
national scale.
Workers and peasants have their own special
newspapers which are developing large circulations.
According to incomplete data in August, 1950, local
trade unions throughout the country have 32 news-
papers, 20 of which were established during the past
year. In addition, there are the newspapers of the
national industrial trade unions-the number of
trade union papers totalling over 80. In developing
production, sharing experiences, organising the peo-
ple and raising the cultural level of workers, these
newspapers have done a magnificent job. ,
There are special newspapers, too, for the na-
tional minorities published in their own native
languages which have done much to raise the cul-
tural and political level of the minority peoples.
Already more than 16 newspapers are published in
the languages of the various national minorities.
Important Decisions
Following the liberation of many urban centres
during 19-19, the people's press faced an entirely new
situation. In the past, in the old Liberated Areas,
the bulk of newspaper readers had been the revolu-
tionary cadres working in the countryside. During
those years, production was relatively low and com-
munication and transportation facilities were re-
stricted, for the background was war, often guerrilla
warfare. Nevertheless, in spite of 'these obstacles,
by utilising the then existing conditions to the best
advantage, the newspapers achieved some success
in establishing direct contact with the masses.
But the victory in the Liberation War made new
demands on the press. The reading public was now
the broad urban population, including large numbers
of workers and intellectuals. The main features of
national ,life were changing. In place of war, there
was economic rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Besides, it was more than ever imperative to enligh-
ten the people so that they could actively promote
New Democracy in the vast newly Liberated Areas,
thus strengthening the relationship between the
people and the government.
With these tasks in mind, the Press Adminis-
LIU TsuN-cHI is Vice-Director of China Information tration of the Central People's Government convened
Bttreaq. the National Press Work Conference from March
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 Approved For Release 20'SCCX82-00457R007100010006-0
29 to April 16, 1950. In summarising the ex-
periences of the press, as a result of the new cir-
cumstances brought about with liberation, the meet-
ing reached certain conclusions embodied in the
Decisions Regarding the Promotion of Press Work,
lately promulgated by the Administration on April
22, 1950.
The Decisions calls upon all newspapers "to
devote prominent space for reporting on the condi-
tions of the-people's labour and in production, pub-
licising the experiences of success as well as the
lessons of error derived in the work of production,
and of financial and economic management."
. Editors, reporters and commentators of news-
papers are required "to foster an honest and prac-
tical working style of investigation and research,"
and "to try to maintain close links with the masses
of,the people, organisations and cadres."
Link with the Masses
On the basis of these decisions, the press of
China has taken a great step forward, actually re-
flecting daily life and further consolidating its ties
with the broad masses of working people.
The press has replaced tedious reports on meet-
ings, trifling items about personal activities and
ae'demic discussions which have no bearing on
actual conditions- with a new type of news, Novi
there are stories on new records set by workers in
factories, on how railways and bridges demolished
by the KMT have been rebuilt ahead of schedule, on
the new measures taken by peasants to exterminate
pests in the cotton fields, on how the peasants have
carried out a dramatic water conservancy plan to
control the Yi River, how illiteracy has been wiped
out in a village after land reform, what methods
the mother of a PLA fighter used to collect 3,000
signatures for the Stockholm Peace Appeal within
a single week, the increasing anger of workers and
students towards the atrocities of the American
invaders in Korea, and how these people seek the
opportunity to fight in Korea so as to stop the im-
perialist troops' advance towards China's border.
Once publicised in the newspapers, an achieve-
ment in any branch of production serves to educate
all those working in the same field in similar enter-
prises. Rationalisation proposals for production and
the experiences of model workers when written up
as newspaper stories serve as subjects for national
study. For instance, the press gave wide publicity
to the achievement of the now famous machine
worker Chao Kuo-yu, as he worked to improve
machine making methods. When he first reduced the
time for making a cone pulley from 16 hours-till
then the usual time in the best machine making fac-
tories in China - to 2 hours 20 minutes, ' a country-
wide emulation movement was set off, with the press
playing an important part in stimulating and ?deve-
loping the movement. And as he further reduced
the time for his operations, the whole country was
kept informed step by step.
Among the press workers themselves, the old
division of labour has been changed. The old
method of distinguishing news editing from news
gathering, and writing from editing no longer holds.
Editors, commentators, reporters and correspondents
have been classified according to the various fields
of social activities which they cover-economy and
finance, political affairs, culture, etc. Those respon-
sible for reporting on agricultural developments have
Reading Newspapers by Shih Ke
close contact with the agricultural departments of
the government, with agricultural specialists, with
peasants' associations and with the Party's organisa-
tions in the countryside. They are popular inter-
preters of the government's new taws and directives
regarding agriculture. They are reporters of the
peasants' activities both in productive and political
fields.
Peasants from far and near are beginning to
drop into newspaper offices to see those responsible
for reporting on agricultural developments. Some
have even used their newspaper connections to
transmit letters to Chairman Mao. Some come with
their complaints against the actions of such and
such a rural cadre. Others even come for'help in
solving marital troubles.
The ties between the
offices of the press are growing closer and closer.
Letters from workers and peasants receive consider-
able space in the newspapers. The People's Daily,
the organ of the Central Committee of the Com-
munist Party of China, for example, receives about
400 letters a' day of - this type. Letters of special
significance are published as important news items
and given the most prominent space on the front
page. Those which are not published are either
answered directly by the editorial office or are passed
on to the government branch concerned'for treat-
ment and reply., It is a new practice for people to
"appeal to their newspaper" whenever they find
themselves in need of help.
Another successful way to consolidate the ties
between the newspapers and the people is the direct
appointing of a large number of correspondents from
amgpg workers, peasants, students, PLA units sad
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 Approved For Release 20tWE:SCj?(82-00457R007100010006-0
government branches, The Hopei Daily, for exam-
ple, has more than 1,600 such correspondents, the
North Kiazgsu Daily, more than 1,200 and the
Fukien Daily in Foochow, more than 5,000 regulate
correspondents. Workers' newspapers are especially
enthusiastic about this practice. Labour in
Shanghai has more than 7,000 correspondents spread
through shops and factories of various sizes. Pene-
trating as they do all branches of production and
reporting fully on cultural activities, these news-
papers are close to the life of the workers and are
thus able to publish lively reports on subjects which
interest the readers deeply.
Criticism and Self-Criticism
Still another task is required of the press - the
development of criticism and self-criticism. With
liberation of the mainland virtually completed and
the Communist Party of China taking the leadership
in government, any defect or error in the'work of
Party members and government cadres can be detri-
mental to the interest of large numbers of the people.
There are individuals who may be conceited. Others
may reject criticism either from within or outside
the Party. Stitt others may attempt to suppress
criticism. Such cases must, be brought to public
attention by the press. It is the duty of the press
to consolidate the relationship -between the Party
and the people, to safeguard the democratisation of
the Party and the state, and. to strive constantly to
expedite social progress in every way.
With these tasks for the press in mind, the
Central Committee of the Communist Party pro-
mulgated the Decisions Regarding the Development
of Criticism and Self-Criticism Through the Press
on April 19, 1950. These decisions call on all Party
organisations and cadres of all levels to adopt a
genuinely revolutionary attitude by welcoming and
supporting criticism which reflects the opinions of
the masses. Any indifference to such criticism is
strongly condemned. Bureaucratic attitudes which
restrict the publication of such criticism or receive
it in a hostile way by counter-attack, revenge or
ridicule are also firmly opposed.
In connection with these decisions, the Press
Administration also promulgated a resolution in
April. This resolution calls on the newspapers to
assume responsibility for making constructive cri-
ticism of the various government organisations,
economic enterprises, and staff members. The re-
solution also provides that the newspapers should
make it their responsibility to secure replies to all
the criticisms published and'to undertake to publish
these replies so that the full facts are put before
the people who can thus see the results of their
criticisms.
These decisions have enhanced the role of the
press in democratising all aspects of political life.
Criticisms of various government departments, or -
regarding the management of factories, of Party
cadres, are fully published in the press. Then the
process of educating the individuals or groups who
Approved For Release 2001112/04
have erred begins in public before the people. In
this way, the press is able to expose and quickly
correct defects which impede progress.
As these criticisms made by the people are made
public, the people steadily assume more power in
their- supervision of the government. In this very
way, improvements have already been effected both
in the work of various- government departments and
in the working style of cadres. - -
Examples of this type of criticism are now com-
mon in the press. To give one example, the North
China Pgopie's Hospital, one of the largest hospitals -
in Peking, was criticised on several occasions for
the inadequate treatment it gave to patients. The
People's Daily gave considerable space to criticisms
concerned with the hospital administration. The
result was that the hospital reviewed its over-all
administration and instituted immediate reforms.
Artother example was the accusation of peasants
in Hopei that certain rural cadres were illegally
readjusting land already distributed to the peasants.
The Hopei Daily exposed the incident. An on-the-
spot investigation followed. A full page in the paper
was devoted to the case. In this way, not only were
the cadres -and peasants involved in this case
educated as to the proper steps which should have
been taken, but the attention of rural cadres elge
where was drawn to this case, which made clear the
legal rights of peasants to their land acquired during
land reform.
More Readers -
Because of its close connections with the prac-
tical day-to-day situation, through its links with the
masses, through its development of criticism and
self-criticism, the press of New China is enjoying
the support of the masses of readers. Circulation is
rising everywhere. In Mukden, the Northeast Daily
has increased its circulation from 150,000 copies in
the spring of 1950 to 200,000 copies this autumn.
The Southern Daily in Canton has increased its
circulation from 30,000 to over 50,000. The circula-
tion of Labour in Shanghai has jumped from
50,000 to 80,000. The Masses, a ,peasants' newspaper
published in Tsinan, has increased its circulation
from 30,000 to 90,000. Newspapers of a more gen-
eral character have also experienced a corresponding
increase in circulation.
But the circulation figures do not reflect the
actual number of readers. On the average, a single
issue is read -by at least ten people. - Students in the
same class, workers in the same shop, subscribe to -
one copy which is sometimes read by scores of peo-
ple. News items and articles are publicised even
further through the stencilling of selected stories,
their publication in wall papers, by writing them
out on blackboards and in other ways.
The system of newspaper reading groups which
was adopted in the old Liberated Areas has been
(Continued on page 31)
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Achievements of the Viet - Namese
People
and Their Army
Hong Ha
Four years have passed- since the French
colonialists, aided by the British and particularly
the U.S. imperialists, trampled on the 'French and
Viet-Namese people's desire for peace and started
their war of aggression against the whole territory
of Viet-Nam. On Dec. 19, 1946, the French attacked
Viet-Nam's capital, Hanoi, in North Viet-Nam, thus
expanding to the whole country the assault which
they had launched against South Viet-Nam ever
since Sept. 23, 1945. During these four.years, the
Viet-Namese people, under the clear-sighted leader-
ship of President Ho Chi Minh, have grown in
strength and achieved great successes in all fields.
Military Victories
In the military field, the Viet-Namese people
have succeeded in building up their own armed
forces and dealing shattering blows to the invaders.
The first plan conceived by the French- a
blitzkrieg aimed at smashing the backbone of the
Viet-Namese People's Army and the brain of the
Viet-Namese resistance movement, which they
thought to be in the extreme .north of the country -
ended in the utter failure of their large-scale opera-
tions against the northern area in the autumn and
winter of 1947. With the destruction of a great part
of the best French troops in this campaign, the Viet-
Namese war of resistance entered a new stage in
which the opposing forces were more or less equal
in strength. ,
After this- failure, the French resorted to
a long-term
plan, according to
which the already
occupied area s
would first be
"pacified" a n d
t h e n offensives
would be launch-
ed to conquer new
territory. * T he
years 1948 and
1949 witnessed
the breakdown of
the second French
plan. During the
same time, par-
ticularly in 1949,
the people's war
of resistance
developed rapidly.
Units of the People's Army and people's militia
operated in the enemy rear, teaching and organ-
ising the masses, dispersing puppet `authorities,
destroying enemy communications and supplies, at-
tacking enemy garrisons and property in the cities,
wiping out isolated. enemy posts and realising the
slogan "Reduce the enemy occupied zone and trans-
form the enemy year into our bases." Scores of
enemy posts were captured and tens of thousand`s
of square kilometres were liberated between -the end
of 1948 and the beginning of 1949.
By the end of 1949, in view of the Viet-Namese
successes and the Chinese people's victory in their
war of liberation, the French adopted still another
plan proposed by General Revers. According to
this, they would ask for more help from the United
States and, meanwhile, they would concentrate their
troops in North Viet-Nam, tightly close the Sino-
Viet-Namese border and hold on to North Viet-Nam.
The recent victories of Viet-Nana along the Sino-
Viet-Namese border and in the central part of Bac-
Bo (North Viet-Nam) are evidence of the failure
of this third French plan. In one month, the whole
French defence system along the border was smashed
to pieces; nine crack French battalions were wiped
out and seven big French-occupied townships recap-
tured by the Viet-Namese People's, Army. Even
before this catastrophe, the French had already suf-
fered heavy losses, including about 90,000 killed, from
the day they started their aggression against Nam-
Bo (South Viet-Nam) in September, 1945, to the
d
end of 1949. An
needless to say,
the morale of the
survivors has
steadily declined.
The Viet-
Namese armed
forces, built up
during this long
and mortal
struggle against
t h e aggressors,
have grown in co-
hesion, strength,
ability and arma-
ment.
During t h e
first period of the
resistance, two-
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thirds of the people's regular troops were divided
into small units which operated in the enemy rear
to organise and arm the people, and develop guer-
rilla warfare. As a second step, enemy convoys and
isolated posts we're attacked by several small units
grouped into a regiment. Then gradually, two or
three regiments were concentrated to carry out a
whole campaign. Now, larger concentrations of
troops can be deployed to fight on a wide front.
Guerrilla forces, operating with the whole
population, provide the National Army with inex-
haustible reserves. The guerrilla movement has
developed on a wide scale in the countryside and in
the cities throughout the land. Striking from the
liberated areas and within the French controlled
districts, they harass and undermine the enemy's
forces. In the first ten months of 1.949, for example,
the guerrillas of the third zone alone fought 3.361
engagements, killed 6,023 enemy troops and captured
3,962 others, destroyed 1 fieldgun, 2 mortars, t plane,
6 warships, 17 motors, 5 amphibious cars, 129
lorries, 7 jeeps, 117 kilometres of road and 65.580
metres of telephone wire. The people's patriotic
efforts are unstinting. At the close of 1949, the
province of Ha Tinh contributed 300 million piastres
to the fund for the support of the people's militia
while within the first four months of 1950, rthe
population of Thanh Hoa Province (Central Viet-
Nam) alone donated 20 million piastres to the same
fund. From the technical and tactical points of
view, commanders and men of the people's army
have made tremendous progress. Starting from
small attacks in which obsolete rifles and even jungle
knives and bafnboo sticks were used, they now know
,how to handle heavy arms and are adepts at mobile
warfare.
These military successes are complemented by
hardly less striking achievements in other spheres.
In spite of the French blockade, the backwardness
of the country, and the lack of cadres and phar-
maceutical products, Viet-Nam has succeeded in
training new medical cadres and making medicines
to meet the greater part of the Army's needs.
Another remarkable achievement is the creation of
a war industry using old-time machines, rudimentary
tools and scrap metal collected from destroyed cities
to produce not only rifles but bazookas, mortars and
other weapons.
Political Victories
In the political field, the Viet-Namese people,
uniting their ranks in the National United Front
(Lien-Viet) and in support of the government of
Ho Chi Minh, have foiled all the French attempts
to `divide-and-rule.', Workers, peasants, businessmen,
intellectuals, youth and women, grouped in their
respective organisations, are straining every nerve to
help the Government and the Army to prepare the
general counter-offensive. As President Ho Chi
Minh has pointed out, the National United Front,
relying upon the solid alliance of the working class
and the peasantry, and including people of all anti-
imperialist classes and parties, constitutes the "steel
wall" of the people.
The French dream of dismembering Viet-Nam
and establishing "autonomous states" among the
national minorities has failed ignominiously. At
the end of 1948, after the Viet-Minh's order for
wiping out the puppet authorities was issued, 95 per
cent of these ceased to exist. The puppet central
government has always been a farce. After several
reshuffles due to its impotency, it has been reformed
with the same traitors, known not only to the Viet-
Namese people but also to the outside world for their
infamous activities.
At the same time, as the Resistance Movement
has developed and advanced, the people's government
has gone from strength to strength. In order to
increase the participation of the workers and pea-
ants in the direction of public affairs, new elections
of village and provincial people's committees have
been held even in the midst of the war. The people,
including those residing in the enemy controlled
areas, enthusiastically participated in the elections.
In the French occupied city of Tourane, 90 per cent
of the population cast their votes in spite of ferocious
French reprisals. The people's power has thus been
strengthened at all levels with the election of new
representatives from among the workers, peasants
and model fighters.
The correct national policy of the Viet-Namese
Government has also succeeded in bringing the peo-
ples of Laos and Cambodia into close co-operation
with the Viet-Namese people in the fight- against
the common enemy. These states were formerly used
by the French as strong bases against the Viet-
Namese independence movement, but now in Laos u4
people's government, and in Cambodia a national
Liberation Committee, rule over vast territories freed
by their own Liberation Armies.
From the international point of view, the re-
cognition of Viet-Nam by the Socialist Soviet Union,
the People's Republic of China and other People's
Democracies "constitutes the greatest achievement in
Viet-Nam's history." Viet-Nam has become an inte-
gral part of the mighty world front of peace and
democracy. It has the sunport of progressive
humanity, including that of the French people who
are fighting against the colonial war in Viet-Nam
and the American policy of enslavement.
In the economic field, the Viet-Namese people,
while destroying and blockading the enemy's
economy, have succeeded in consolidating their own
war economy and, at the same time, are laying the
foundations of a people's democratic economy.
The people's forces, including the guerrillas,
have inflicted heavy damage on factories, rubber
plantations and other enterprises owned by the im-
perialists. Between January and March, 1950, for
example, 22 aeroplanes and 7 transformers were
destroyed in Hanoi by the guerrillas. French-
imported good are piled up in the French occupied
cities owing to the Viet-Namese blockade.
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 Approved For Release 20(I :, 1 NI&82-00457R007100010006-0 13
Having failed in the political and military fields,
the imperialists have pursued a policy of economic
sabotage: demolishing dykes, destroying crops, burn-
ing down storehouses, strafing defenceless peasants,
slaughtering cattle, occupying rice-producing regions
and blockading Viet-Namese bases. Tl ey have
spared no efforts to starve the Viet-Namese people.
But in this, too, they have failed. Viet-Namese
troops, while fighting back to protect the peasants'
crops against the plunderers, compete with each
other to increase production. While two million
people died of hunger under the French domination in
.1945, no famine has been seen since the establishment
of the Democratic Republic, in spite of the criminal
French destructions of dykes, crops and cattle.
Economic Reconstruction
Reconstruction has gone ahead during the past
four years in spite of war conditions. A self-
sufficient economy along the lines of a people's demo-
cracy has been built up with close co-operation be-
tween the government and private capital. In addi-
tion to war industries, consumers and producers co-
operatives and handicrafts are much encouraged by
the government. Articles ranging from office equip-
ment to chemical products and surgical instruments,
which were formerly imported from France, can be
now produced in small quantities in the liberated
areas. The clothing. problem has been solved in the
greater part of the country, thanks to the develop-
ment of cotton growing and weaving handicrafts.
In the financial field, too, a great deal has been
achieved by the Viet-Nam Democratic Republic. In
spite of the big "legacy" of public debts and infla-
tion left by the French and Japanese in 1945, and
in spite of the heavy cost of national defence and
the abolishment of what were for the French the
main sources of revenue, such as the poll tax
and the monopolies of alcohol, salt and opium, the
people's government has succeeded in considerably
improving the state of the public finances,
thanks to the voluntary efforts of the whole people.
The general cost of living in some parts of the
liberated zones is now lower than in the enemy
(Continued on page 32)
???1?