Generalissimo's Man

In the mountains near Nanking, amid the wreckage of a transport plane, a charred body lay. A scrap from a woolen sweater, a bodyguard's pistols, the testimony of a grief-stricken aide identified the fire-eaten remains as those of General Tai Li, one of China's most mysterious, most respected and most dreaded men. There was no official announcement of his death. But Lieut. General Cheng Chieh-min, 47, the Government's Moscow-educated G-2 chief, was named to succeed Tai Li as head of China's secret police.

In life, as in death, Tai Li had been a partner of secrecy and violence. He was a legend--to his enemies, an Oriental Himmler, Plehve and Torquemada combined; to his friends, a ruthless but righteous patriot. Even Tai Li's age was unknown; he was "about" 50. His flat brown nose, wide-set black eyes and triangular ebony brows had appeared in few published photos. His birthplace was Chekiang, Chiang Kai-shek's native province. He studied at Whampoa Military Academy, where Chiang was president.

Tai hitched his wagon to the Generalissimo's star, won the rising leader's trust by tireless intelligence work for the Kuomintang Army. In 1934 he organized China's Bureau of Investigation & Statistics. In time it became one of the world's biggest undercover agencies. It planted operatives from Bali to Burma, from Singapore to Sinkiang. It specialized in espionage and counterespionage; it kept watch on Communists, foreigners. Behind the Japanese lines its eyes were flower girls, coolies and ricksha men. In the most lurid Fu Manchu tradition, it reported to Tai Li with invisible ink messages, "eliminated" those on Tai Li's blacklist, and built up the core of an effective guerrilla army.

In World War II the U.S. Navy, seeking weather stations behind Jap lines, joined with BIS in setting up the fabulous SACO (Sino-American Cooperative Organization), with Tai Li as director. U.S. funds and U.S. experts supported Tai Li. taught him new methods, expanded his guerrillas to 70,000 men. U.S. armed forces received, in return, invaluable data: maps of the South China coast, safe passage for downed airmen, tips on Jap movements.

Tai's fabulous reputation was crisscrossed with contradictions. Though he shunned public entertainment, he liked to give lavish drinking parties. In Happy Valley, near Chungking, site of his secret headquarters, he toasted visitors with innumerable kam pels. He could down 18 Chinese wine cups filled with brandy in an evening's bout. He was hard and he was tender. He personally succored victims of Jap atrocities, established orphanages for Chinese waifs. For Communists and fellow travelers, he maintained concentration camps. He was an honest man, scorning the traditional "squeeze." Once he discovered a close friend's malfeasance, invited him to dinner, had police arrest him, testified against him in court, had him shot. Friend and foe said of Tai: "Sha jen pu cha yen citing--He can kill a man without blinking an eye."

He believed in China for the Chinese, in the supremacy of the Kuomintang. He was unflaggingly loyal to Chiang. "I am," he once said, "the Generalissimo's Tai Li and nothing more." When he heard the news of his man's death, the Generalissimo wept.

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