893.00/6–2845
Extracts of Broadcast from Yenan, June 26
Source: Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, Federal Communications Commission, Yenan (New China News Agency) in English at 9:30 A.M., June 26, 1945, North America.
(Text Excerpts) “Yenan, June 26—On June 25, the Yenan Emancipation Daily commented on the arrest of six persons78 by the FBI78a saying that it characterizes the bitter contention between the two lines of contrasting American policies toward China. The full text of the comment reads:79
[‘]On June 6, a noteworthy incident occurred in the United States. Six Americans, sympathizing with Chinese armed resistance and democracy, including the editor of Amerasia, members of the State Department and the Navy, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the charge of revealing a secret. Afterwards Undersecretary of State Grew made a statement saying that this case is the “Fruits of an elaborate security plan” (Retranslated from the Chinese).
What is the inside story of this arrest of …? The editors of P.M.79a “The Government is in the midst of a terrific behind-the-scenes controversy over our policy towards the Far East. There are trends towards the appeasement of Japan and towards a new policy in regard to China.
There are officials who think that we ought to help Chiang Kai-shek to crush the Chinese Reds … Everyone of the six arrested has been critical of the dominant State Department officials symbolized in Undersecretary Grew. Three of them have books scheduled for publication criticizing the State Department and the Kuomintang.”
This is to say that the real cause for the arrest of the six persons lies not in the so-called revealing of a “secret” but in the fact that these six friends of China have bitterly opposed the policy of supporting the Chinese reactionaries, pursued by a section of leading persons in the State Department.
No doubt the arrest of the six persons is nothing accidental but is closely related to the American policy towards China.
The American people have always been warmly sympathetic towards the heroic armed resistance of the Chinese people.
As early as October 12, 1942, Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, in a memorandum replying to Earl Browder, leader of the American Communist Party charging certain officials with “war [Page 419] against the Communists in China”, said, “This Government has no such policy either old or new.”80
[“]The policy of the American Government for promoting internal Democratic unity in China is also expressed in the concrete action of its representatives in China. According to remarks in American papers and magazines, what Stilwell and Gauss wanted to achieve was to make the Generalissimo (compromise?) with the Communist Party[”]—Drew Pearson.
“General Stilwell has also tried to see that Lend-Lease supplies are guaranteed not to be used by the Central Government for opposing the Communist Party”—New York Times.
“General Stilwell continued to urge that all China’s fighting forces be united in a single striking force against the Japanese, that the blockade against the guerrilla areas be lifted, and that the United States be permitted to supply the guerrillas with the minimum of equipment”—Amerasia.
However, through concerted activities of the Chinese reactionaries and appeasement elements in America, the American policy toward China has recently undergone certain changes. According to the comment of Brooks Atkinson published in the New York Times after General Stilwell has [was] ousted from China by the political system which has always (hampered) … America tacitly recognized the system which is anti-democratic both morally and factually and is also unrepresentative of the Chinese people. The development of events has proved that Atkinson’s judgment is not without grounds.
(Extensive quotation from General Hurley’s April 2 press conference follows—Editor).
Just because of this, reactionary elements in the Kuomintang feel that they have support and need not worry and consequently then strengthen their determination to persist in dictatorship, to trample democracy and prepare for civil war. One of the proofs is the public statement by General Chen Cheng, Minister of War of the Kuomintang Government to the effect that Allied Lend-Lease armament will be used for civil war.
The case of the arrested six is an open (indication?) of the fierce struggle between two different American policies towards China. One policy is willing to use American influence to promote Chinese democracy and unity so as to accelerate the victory of the anti-Japanese war and improve the friendship between the two great countries, America and China in a common cause against Fascism. The supporters of this policy are the broad masses of the American people who are richly imbued with Democratic traditions and far-sighted Democratic people inside and outside the Government.
[Page 420]In contradiction to this is another policy which does not recognize the great strength of the Chinese people and only recognizes the Kuomintang Government and their reactionary leaders and the despot, Chiang Kai-shek, who is against democracy and are [is?] not representative of the people and believes that “He is China”.
Supporters of this policy are reactionary forces in America—Appeasers and Isolationists who are represented by Hurley, etc. They not only own a ring of reactionary newspapers but also occupy some important posts in the American Government through which their machinations are able to influence the policies of the American Government.
They subordinate the American war effort to their aim of maintaining a reactionary regime in China, even though it is obvious that thousands of Americans as well as Chinese lives will be needlessly sacrificed by the refusal to cooperate with the forces of the Chinese people which are opposing the majority of the Japanese in China in areas where decisive battles on the Asiatic mainland will probably be fought.
What then will be the future policy of the American Government towards China? Will it support Dictator Chiang Kai-shek against the Chinese people, or will it aid the Chinese people to attain liberation? We hope the American Government will give this careful consideration.
America must understand the following question: To whom does China belong? We can definitely inform the Americans: China belongs to the Chinese people and not to a few despots. The struggle of the Chinese people in the great movement for independence, freedom, democracy, unification and prosperity cannot be halted by any force in this world.
The aid rendered by the American people toward (the war—Editor) of resistance is deserving of thanks.
In fact, we Chinese people welcome more effective aid from the American people. We are prepared to struggle together with the Allies and collaborate with them in fighting to realize the great cause of defeating Japan and reconstructing a peaceful Far East. But we wish to reiterate the warning of Mao Tze-Tung in his report, “On the Coalition Government.”81
“We hope the American Government will pay serious attention to the voice of the broadest masses of the Chinese people and not let their diplomatic policy go against the will of the Chinese people and thereby injure and lose the friendship of the Chinese people. If any foreign government helps China’s reactionary clique to oppose the [Page 421] democratic cause of the Chinese people, a gross mistake will have been committed.”
We, first, are not against the American people and, second, are not against the friends in the American Government who are willing to aid the cause of the Chinese people, but we are resolutely against American imperialists—people like Hurley—because the goal of these gentlemen is entirely in line with the goal of China’s despots and peoples’ betrayers.
If these imperialists do not withdraw their hands early and dare to touch the Chinese people, then the Chinese people will teach them a lesson they deserve. [’”]
- See press release June 6, Department of State Bulletin, June 10, 1945, p. 1088.↩
- Federal Bureau of Investigation.↩
- Omissions indicated in the original.↩
- Newspaper published in New York, 1940–48.↩
- See memorandum prepared in the Department of State, October 12, Foreign Relations, 1942, China, p. 248.↩
- For Mao Tze-tung’s speech of May 1, see digest of Yenan radio broadcast as monitored by the Federal Communications Commission, p. 362.↩