Hainan falls

Six months after he had conquered the South China mainland, Red General Lin Piao was ready for the overwater jump to Hainan. Unlike Nationalist China's other island, Formosa, which lies 100 deep-water miles from the Red-held coast, Hainan has only a narrow channel (15 miles) separating it from the continental shore. Behind a thin shield of gunboats and planes, Nationalist General Hsueh Yueh had tried to pull together Hainan's army of 160,000, mostly remnants of the south China retreat.

Early last week, under cover of night, a fleet of Red junks crossed the channel southwest of Hoihow. A few thousand invaders disembarked. From jungle hideouts in the island's craggy interior, Red guerrillas (30,000 strong) moved down to a junction with their comrades on the beaches.

The Nationalist press claimed a victory after the first four days--6,000 Reds captured, up to 4,000 killed, the invasion assault blocked. In Hoihow, firecrackers popped jubilantly. Next day the celebration fizzled. The Communists had won again. On the sixth day after making their beachhead, the men of Lin Piao's Communist Fourth Field Army marched triumphantly into Hoihow. With what remained of his 160,000 defenders, Hsueh Yueh fell back hopelessly to Hainan's south coast.

It was more than just another chunk of territory (about twice the size of New Jersey, 3,000,000 population) for the vast Red Asiatic domain. In their conquest of Southeast Asia, the Japanese had found Hainan valuable as a base and a staging area for troop movements. The new Red imperialists could put it to similar uses, increasing their threat to Indo-China and other countries touching the South China Sea. However, the immediate significance of Hainan's fall was that it furnished further proof that Nationalist troops still could not or would not fight effectively. More than 400 miles to the northeast, in Formosa, invasion day for Nationalist China's last citadel seemed closer. As a victory fillip, the Peking radio reported that Russian newsreel cameramen were filming Lin Piao's conquest of Hainan.

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