One Goal

"One heart, one soul,

One mind, one goal."

Last week on China's lucky "Double Tenth"--the tenth day of the tenth month--came the 34th anniversary of the Republic. In Shanghai, the populace went wild with joy released, and the city fathers spent $5,000,000 (about $7,000 U.S.) on street decorations. In Chungking, cheering crowds sang the unifying words of the new China's national anthem. For the first time in a decade they were not idle words. Peace had brought back a vision: a reunited China.

Somewhat less elated and carefree were the men who held the fate of nearly a fifth of mankind in their hands. On the eve of the national anniversary they were seated around a banqueting table in Chungking. Guest of honor was Mao Tse-tung, the Communist leader from Yenan, a man with destiny written in his strong face. Opposite him sat one of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's chief negotiators, shrewd General Chang Chih-chung. For 45 seesawing days the two men, backed by their aides, had pitted plan against plan to heal the breach between Communist China and Nationalist China. Now the time had arrived to give the outcome to China and the world.

Never had Chiang Kai-shek's Republic been closer to his goal of unity. Never, too, had the danger of national disunity been more real. And never, in all the long history of U.S. interest in China, had the U.S. been more deeply committed to China's future.

Then came the announcement. On many of the secondary issues, the Generalissimo and Communist Mao were hearteningly close. But on the primary issues, the issues basic to China's national weal, they were still far apart.

Hope & Reality. Chiang and Mao put the maximum emphasis upon their area of agreement--in principle:

P: Under Generalissimo Chiang's leadership both the Kuomintang and the Communists will do their utmost to avoid civil war and build a free, prosperous China.

P: An all-party political consultative council will be formed to discuss the end of the one-party rule of the Kuomintang. The Government will recognize that all political parties are equal before the law.

P: China will have freedom of person, speech, conscience, press and assembly. Antifreedom laws will be annulled. Postponed, as a concession to the Communists, so that its composition could be broadened, was the National Assembly originally called for Nov. 12 to draft a new constitution.

P: Special service organizations (e.g., secret police) will be abolished; only the judicial branch will have the right to arrest, try, punish.

P: Political prisoners, except those convicted of treason, will be released. Communists have been invited to submit their list of candidates for release.

P: Local self-government will be encouraged. But no amount of well-meant gloss could conceal the remaining, fundamental area of disagreement:

P: Communists insisted on keeping control--through governors and mayors--of vital areas, mostly in North China. Chiang flatly rejected this concept of a dynamic, hostile state-within-a-state.

P: Communists had insisted on keeping practical control of 48 divisions of their armies. The Government succeeded in arguing the total down to 20 divisions. Both sides agreed in principle that all armies should be "nationalized," but the vital question of control had still to be thrashed out.

Credit & Debit. On the credit side were the intangible Communist pledges to avoid civil war, recognize Chiang's leadership, help frame the constitution and reconstruct the Government. On the debit side was the tangible Communist adherence to its bedrock position: military and political autonomy in the four key provinces of North China (Jehol, Hopeh, Chahar, Shantung) plus a guaranteed secondary position in half-a-dozen other contiguous provinces where Communist governments and armies are now entrenched in the heart of Chiang's China.

Under Mao's minimum demands, Communist China would remain essentially intact north of the Yellow River and parallel to China's great Yangtze Valley. Such a settlement would effectively separate Nationalist China from Manchuria, over which Chinese sovereignty had just been recognized by Russia. Geographically as well as politically, China would be fatally partitioned.

At an official dinner, the negotiators were doing their best to be cheerful when an excited messenger burst into the hall: Mao's colleague, Li Shao-shih, zealous secretary to the Communist Eighteenth Army Group, had just been shot dead in a Chungking street by a Chinese Army corporal. Official explanations were made. Li's car had run down a private, and the corporal had fired in anger, supposing that he was shooting someone of no account. The corporal had been arrested and would be expeditiously tried. The fact that Li somewhat resembled Mao's negotiator, General Chou Enlai, was a totally unrelated coincidence.

The coincidence visibly disturbed General Chou, however, and he left the banquet table to visit Li. Said General Chou: "This fellow died for me." Mao stayed on, secure in the knowledge that no less a personage than U.S. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley, now in Washington, had personally escorted him to Chungking and guaranteed his safety.

Next day, escorted by General Chang, Mao flew off safely to Communist headquarters in Yenan.

Infiltration v. Infiltration. Time and the full might of the U.S. in China were working against Mao and for the unification of Chiang's China.

The collapse of Japan had opened dazzling vistas of new areas the Communists could occupy in the north and east while Chiang was grappling with the surrender in the south. But U.S. diplomacy and U.S. fighting forces had killed off the Communist plan.

In the heart of Communist China, the ancient Manchu capital, Peiping, was smartly seized by Chiang's Ninety-Second and Ninety-Fifth Armies, flown from Hankow and Shanghai by the U.S. Tenth Air Force. Into Shanghai itself, surrounded by the chagrined Communist New Fourth Army. U.S. planes had borne Chiang's Ninety-Fourth Army. Later the U.S. Forces transferred its China Theater headquarters into the city. Nanking was firmly held by Chiang's airborne New Sixth Army, Canton by his foot-slugging, U.S.-trained New First Army.

On the China coast the Communist Eighth Route Army held a solitary port, Chefoo. But a strong U.S. naval force cruised offshore. At strategic Tientsin and Tsingtao, U.S. marines landed and nonchalantly took over. Later they would hand the cities to the Nationalist Government. Other Marine contingents had raised their standards in Peiping and Chinwangtao.

The U.S. was underpinning its energetic diplomacy with the sword, and the Communists were powerless to prevent it.

The Vision. Mao and General Chou had chafed under Chiang's simultaneous airborne seizures and roundtable amenities. Moscow had signed a broad treaty with Chiang's China at a time when China's Communists were hardest pressed. At least for the present, Mao could not count on outside support.

Chiang had the U.S. emphatically behind him, backing, building, buttressing. Now, if ever, Mao had to agree--or fight. Would he come back to Chungking and try again? Last week Washington unexpectedly announced that dynamic Ambassador Hurley, who had brought Mao and Chiang together once, would soon return to China.

For 20 years, through hope and despair, Chiang had led China's national revolution. For him, and for China, it had not been an easy revolution, nor a polite one. Now again the vision was bright. Chiang's China stood within sight of its destiny: one mind, one goal.

For that destiny, if need be, Chiang Kai-shek would fight again, with every wile and gun at his command.

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