China on the Eve of Communist Takeover

Description

This book attempts to illuminate some of the trends and conditions in China just prior to, and at the time of, Communist takeover. It is not, and does not purport to be, either a history or an exhaustive analysis of those years. It is composed, in fact, of reports I wrote in China during that period, and, like all current reporting in times of rapid change, these reports have certain unavoidable limitations; they inevitably tend to be fragmentary and lack the kind of perspective only time can provide. Nevertheless, I believe that they do contain information unavailable elsewhere, and that they may convey a "feel" for many of the complex problems involved in the revolutionary upheaval in China which could not be obtained except from on-the-spot observation and study. China on the Eve of Communist Takeover......Page 3 Copyright......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 7 Dedicated to Walter S. Rogers......Page 12 CONTENTS......Page 13 Route of the Author's Travels,1947-49......Page 16 INTRODUCTION......Page 19 PART I DISINTEGRATION: NATIONALIST CHINA'S URBAN BASE......Page 29 1. Riding High for a Fall (Shanghai, November, 1947)......Page 31 2. Uneasy Isolation (Peiping, January, 1948)......Page 39 3. "War" in the Suburbs (Peiping, February, 1948)......Page 50 4. Student Disaffection (Peiping, March, 1948)......Page 54 5. Business Depression (Tientsin, April, 1948)......Page 66 6. Clique Politics (Nanking, May, 1948)......Page 74 7. Pressures on Labor (Shanghai, October, 1948)......Page 85 8. Minor Parties in Opposition ( Hong Kong, December, 1948)......Page 97 9. Collapse of Public Morale (Hong Kong, December, 1948)......Page 110 PART II STAGNATION: NATIONALIST CHINA'S RURAL HINTERLAND......Page 115 10. The Status Quo in the Countryside (Hsiehmahsiang [Szechwan], June, 1948)......Page 117 PART III. FRAGMENTATION: WARLORDS, BORDERLANDS, AND POLITICAL DISUNITY......Page 169 11. Old-Style Warlordism (Taiyuan [Shansi, March, 1948)......Page 171 12. Muslim Authoritarianism (Lanchow [Kansu], October, 1948)......Page 195 13. Chinese in Inner Mongolia (Paotow [Suiyuan], January, 1948)......Page 209 14. Mongol Autonomy (Alashan [Ninghsia], September,1948)......Page 219 15. Tibetan Border Region (Kangting [Sikang], July, 1948)......Page 229 16. The Panchen Lama (Kumbum [Chinghai], September, 1948)......Page 244 17. Chinese Turkestan (Tihwa [Sinkiang], September, 1948)......Page 250 18. Disunity in the Southwest (Kunming [Yunnan], October, 1949)......Page 296 19. End of the Line (Haikow [Hainan], November, 1949)......Page 310 20. Island Refuge (Taipeh [Taiwan], November, 1949)......Page 318 PART IV. COMMUNIST TAKEOVER......Page 327 21. Siege and Turnover (Peiping, February, 1949)......Page 329 22. Takeover and Consolidation (Peiping, February, 1949)......Page 352 23. Fan Shen (Peiping, August, 1949)......Page 372 INDEX......Page 379