893.00/7–1144
The Consul General at Kunming (Langdon) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 20.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy98 of portions of an English language wall paper prepared by students of the National Southwest Associated University at the time of Vice President Wallace’s visit to Kunming and to report regarding the growing interest among Chinese university students at Kunming in present day conditions in China.
[Page 471]Summary of Enclosure: The wall paper, posted on the bulletin board at National Southwest Associated (“Lienta”) University, was prepared by seven student organizations of that university for the purpose of welcoming Vice President Wallace to Kunming. The paper hails the Vice President as the supporter of democracy and points to the lack of democracy in China. The students express their opposition to fascism and criticize the Central Government for its restriction of democratic movements, for the treatment of Chinese soldiers and for the use of secret police. Foreign criticism of China’s weaknesses is welcomed and it is pointed out that China needs not only western science but western concepts of freedom and democracy. End of Summary.
That Chinese university students should openly criticize the Central Government is generally believed to be evidence both of a change from the students’ former apathy toward internal conditions in China and of increasing dissatisfaction with Central Government policies in an ever widening circle. Informed observers at Kunming state that students of the local universities began to show an increased interest in political and economic questions about six months ago and that that interest has been deepened by the military, economic and political crisis facing China. The Vice President’s visit provided the occasion for a more open expression of student dissatisfaction and apparently no effort was made to prevent the publication of the fairly strongly worded wall paper. In many Chinese universities the San Min Chu I Youth Corps acts as a repressive force to prevent the expression or open evidence of so-called “radical thought”, but the Youth Corps organization at National Southwest Associated University is said to include only about one-tenth of the student body and to exert far less influence here than in universities more effectively controlled by the reactionary Ministry of Education.
Student dissatisfaction is said to have arisen partly from the economic situation, which directly affects the students’ living conditions, from growing awareness of the weaknesses of the Central Government and from the unjust treatment given student interpreter graduates of the University now serving with the Chinese and American armed forces. Feeling among the students is believed to be much stronger at the National Southwest Associated University than at the National Yunnan University, a situation which may logically be attributed to the difference in the standards of the two institutions. The students point out in their wall paper that the former university is “said to be the last bulwark of democracy in China”, a statement which is more or less accurate insofar as Chinese national universities are concerned. Members of the faculty state that the Ministry of Education endeavors to prescribe the context of their courses but that [Page 472] orders to that effect are quietly ignored. Chinese observers do not feel that there is any present danger of a student movement comparable to that in Peking in the years preceding the outbreak of Sino-Japanese hostilities but point out that the emergence of students from their former apathy is at least an encouraging note in present day China.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩