Beyond China's Sorrow

Communist China now claims 80,000,000 people and 1,000,000 square miles of territory. For five years it has been a land of mystery to the outside world. Last May Chungking lifted its blockade, let foreign correspondents enter the Border Region, the Communist area in Shensi, Kansu and Ninghsia.

Only last week did reports from Yenan, the Communist capital, tell what life is now like over there.

The Land. The Border Region, a wilderness of loess cut into wild shapes by streams, broken by valleys and woodland, is generally fertile, but there is little rainfall. The Communists are slowly changing the face of this churlish land. Where the soil is cultivable, they have planted crops. Villages have plenty of pigs and chickens. Generally the inhabitants look sturdy, well-fed, well-clothed. The typical village home is an arched loess cave, whitewashed and faced with wood.

Yenan, the capital (pop. 25,000), is a city of caves cut in tiers in the loess slopes. One of its cave hospitals has eight stories. Its university (enrollment: 2,000) is a labyrinth of classrooms and dormitories.

Erh-Lue-Tze. Everywhere on stone walls and cliffsides appears the four-syllable slogan coined by the government's able chief, Mao Tze-tung: "Move your own hands!" Meaning: "He who does not work shall not eat." A Border Region epithet is the term erh-lu-tze -- loafer (literally, "she-donkey"). Communists say they once counted 70,000 loafers, that now there are only a few hundred. These diehards must wear a big white erh-lue-tze badge, are fair game for anyone's hoots and jeers. But this year an official thought up a subtler approach.

Sixty-three Yenan loafers were coaxed to an erh-lue-tze convention. Wine and cakes were served. Then Communist leaders lectured them.

A reformed loafer named Liu confessed that he had once been the district's champion erh-lue-tze. His wife & children left him for shame. Then reform seized him. Now he had ample livestock, 21 acres under cultivation. His family was home again. His village had elected him the local "hero of labor." Overwhelmed, the 63 erh-lue-tze hit the sawdust trail.

Co-ops and Smugglers. The Communists claim an army of 470,000 regular troops, 2,300,000 people's militia. It is a guerrilla army, well trained in hit & run, sabotage, infiltration.

Each of the 10,000 men of the 359th Brigade cultivates five acres of land. There is one cow per ten soldiers, one pig per two soldiers, one sheep or goat per soldier.This arrangement gives each a daily ration of 2 Ibs. of grain, 2 Ibs.of vegetables, and each gets 6 lbs. of meat per month. The rations of most of Chiang Kai-shek's troops are not so good.

The government cultivates the masses as diligently as they cultivate the soil.For outstanding production, farmers and workers win citations, newspaper publicity, awards. Industry (oil, pig iron, light machinery, light arms, paper, textiles) is primitive and small-scale. But all labor is unionized, guaranteed decent wages, penalized for absenteeism, tardiness.

Considerable private trade goes on, especially risky, lucrative smuggling. Most legitimate marketing is handled by consumer-producer cooperatives. In parts of the Border Region, the old landlord-tenant system is preserved with modifications. Rent and interest have been cut an average 25%. Landlords may not evict tenants.Tenants must pay their rent on time except in cases of crop failure when both sides share the loss.

Why doesn't the Communist government get rid of the landlords and divide the land? The Communists say: In war time, civil peace is necessary; otherwise whole classes will be pushed into the enemy camp. The first goal now is the defeat of Japan. Next, China's feudalism must be uprooted. For the present China's Communists believe that China is too low in the scale of economic evolution for socialism. They encourage capitalist enterprise as a comparatively progressive stage.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.