893.00/5–3044
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Grew) to the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius)
Mr. Stettinius: The attached memorandum70 deals with a movement developing among Chinese groups dissatisfied with the present Kuomintang regime.
Marshal Li Chi-sen, an influential member of the Kwangsi military clique of which Generals Pai Chung-hsi and Li Tsung-jen are the other outstanding representatives, has been working towards consolidating disaffected Chinese elements in a bid for political power in the National Government. He has consistently advocated cooperation with the “Communists” and staffer resistance against Japan.
Marshal Li’s efforts have been assisted by a natural gravitation toward a united front of various dissatisfied groups, including provincial groups generally, democratic minority parties, liberal Kuomintang, national military elements, and Manchurian troops. The divergent interests of these groups renders their sustained solidarity unlikely.
Marshal Li is reported to have recently made some progress in the form of an understanding with southwestern military leaders and minority political factions; but our Embassy at Chungking doubts that this understanding yet constitutes a serious threat to the Central Government. The situation bears close watching, however, in view of the Government’s preoccupation with new Japanese offensives in central China and of the disappointment among liberal elements caused by the failure of the recent Kuomintang Central Executive Committee meeting to adopt popularly demanded reform measures.