China's Crisis
| Published date | 01 September 1947 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070204700200303 |
| Date | 01 September 1947 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
China's
Crisis
"Sinicus"
In
a
world
of
apparently
hopeless
situations,
few
places
can
be
more
profoundly
depressing
than
China
in
its
second
year
of
what
used
to be
called
"peace."
It
is
especially discouraging
to
those
who
knew
the
plans
and
saw
the
opportunities
which
China
had
for
re-occupying
and
reconstructing
the
key
areas
of
eastern and
northern
China,
Manchuria
with
its
huge
indus-
trial
plants
and
Formosa
with
its
wealth
of
agricultural
and
mineral
production.
Saddest
of
all
is
the
knowledge
that
China's
failure
to
achieve
these objectives,
and
its
failure
thereby
to
assume
the
place
of
economic
and
political
leadership
in
eastern
Asia
which
many
had
wished,
is
not
mainly
the result
of
techni-
cal
backwardness
and
shortage
of
capable
administrators,
serious
though these
deficiencies
have
been,
but
rather
the
outcome
of
the
shortsightedness
and
selfishness of
the
political
leaders
of
both
major
factions.
There
is
no
need
to
elaborate
this
remark.
General
Mar-
shall's
classic
statement
at
the
close
of
his
abortive
mission
in
China
still
describes
the
situation
perfectly,
but
since
he
wrote,
both
factions
have
committed
themselves
more
uncompromis-
ingly
than
ever
to
settle
the
issue
by
open
war.
Apart
from
the
human
misery
it
entails,
this
fateful
decision
has
virtually
doomed
all
major
Chinese
plans
of
economic
rehabilitation,
has
killed all
hope
of
desperately
needed
monetary
and
financial
reform,
and
can
only make
a
mockery
of
the
constitutional reforms
which
are
supposed
to
be
introduced
by
the
end
of
1947.
On
the
Com-
munist
side
there
has
been
a
strong
swing
towards
a
much
more
drastic
and
revolutionary
social
programme,
characterized
by
much
harsher
and
more
widespread
confiscation
and
redistri-
bution
of
land
than
was
customary
during
the
previous
decade.
On
the
Nationalist
side
the
right-wing
extremists
have
been
con-
firmed
in
their
belief
(by
no
means
shared
by outside observers)
that,
thanks
to
American
arms
and
the
Truman
Doctrine,
their
position
is
now
so
secure
that
they
can
safely
disregard
the
pub-
213
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