Why Now?

Cried Radio Yenan: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops, "corrupt and rabble-like" (but armed with "large numbers of field guns, trench mortars and American-supplied bazookas") had attacked Communist troops in the Shensi border region. It was "fullscale civil war. . . . Chiang's divisions declared that fighting the Communists comes first and fighting the Japanese comes second."

Said Chungking: "Militarily speaking . . . nothing serious. . . . The Communists are in the habit of ... occupying districts not strongly held by Government troops. So long as Government troops leave Communists in occupation . . . the Communists are silent. As soon as Government troops recover the lost districts, the Communists start accusing the Government of attacking. . . . The Government does not contemplate any change in its policy of seeking a settlement of the Communist problem by political means."

A Tactic? In six years of undeclared civil war, the armies of China's two factions have had many more serious clashes (in 1941, a battle between the Communist New Fourth Army and Central Government troops lasted nine days, cost more than 10,000 casualties). Then what did Yenan's shrill charges mean at this time?

Perhaps the Communist regime had resolved that there should be no peace and unity with Chungking. More probably, Yenan might be exerting pressure to make Chungking more receptive to Russian plans for East Asia. Those plans, presumably, had been the subject of last month's "suspended" talks between Generalissimo Joseph Stalin and Premier T. V. Soong, which would soon be resumed.

Radio Yenan also had a bad word for Chungking's No. 1 ally, the U.S. American policy toward China (said Yenan) has become "definitely imperialistic"; it seeks to reduce China to a "colony or semi-colony" ; U.S. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley (who tried valiantly to bring Chungking and Yenan together) is responsible for an anti-Communist shift in U.S. policy; he had misrepresented the situation to Washington; China must now choose between the "false democracy supported by the U.S. and the real democracy sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party."

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