Neither Too Young Nor Too Old

Liberal folklore regarded Chinese Communists as humanitarians who would rather re-educate criminals than punish them. Reports of purges inside China under the new Red penal code have brushed away most vestiges of this belief. Shih Liang, Red China's woman Minister of Justice, in recent instructions to her courts finally laid it to rest.

Chinese Communist courts, according to Minister Shih, have been too soft on antiCommunists. Punishment must now be meted out quickly and heavily. Under her new codes, courts may order a prisoner shot for his "intentions"--which the courts must judge at their discretion. They can punish "counterrevolutionaries" who are merely "waiting for a chance to commit a crime." The new penalties may be retroactive, Madame Shih continued. Verdicts "should conform to prevailing policy."

In the past, said Madame Shih, Communist courts have released prisoners for varying reasons. Among them: "he was too young or too old," or "in the class composition he was a middle peasant," or "there was nothing much against him." This sort of thing, said the Minister of Justice, must stop.

From Formosa, the Chinese Nationalists punctuated the Communist Minister's remarks. The Nationalist Control Yuan this week told the U.N. that China's Communists, with Russian backing, have plans for killing 150 million Chinese in a deliberate program to reduce China's 450 million population to more manageable proportions. According to the Nationalist Defense Ministry, 1,000,000 Chinese anti-Communists have already been killed.

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