893.00/7–2444
The Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Stevens) to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)13
Sir: I have the honor to enclose,14 as of possible interest in the event that the Embassy has not already received a copy, what is believed to be another version of Dr. Sun Fo’s speech on February 23, 1944 before the “Political and Party Affairs Section” of the Kuomintang “Central Training Institute”. This speech, the publication of which in Lanchow and other Chinese centers has been strictly prohibited, is considered by competent observers to be one of the most outspoken and startling criticisms of Kuomintang policies and practices yet made by such a high-positioned member of that party. This translation of [Page 486] the speech, shown to me in confidence, is believed to have had its origin in official circles in Chungking.
Summary: The Kuomintang is no longer a democratic organization; it has degenerated into a bureaucratic governmental organ which functions absolutely contrary to the spirit of democracy. Its members have failed to adhere to the democratic principles handed down by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in his San-Min-Chu-I chapters on Min-Chuen-Chu-I and Min-Seng-Chu-I. Although they number less than 1 percent of the total population of China and are not the chosen representatives of the Chinese people, they have assumed the attitude and manners of a ruling caste, regarded their Party as a sovereign power within the State, and felt that they are entitled to special privileges, including exemption from criticism whether from without or from within the Party.
As now organized and functioning, Kuomintang power and influence flows from top to bottom instead of from bottom to top as prescribed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s draft constitution of 1923 and as intended by those who reorganized the Party in 1924. Existing restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of election bespeak the fact of this deterioration.
The National Party Congress, the membership of which should be composed of delegates elected by fair majority vote of Party members throughout the country from among representatives of the lower Party organs, is in fact composed of men who, while serving as delegates to the National Party Congress, or as members of the Central Party Headquarters, elect or re-elect themselves.
Local elections of Party leaders, such as provincial and district councilors, who are supposed to be men of the people’s choice, are “mostly bogus, mostly based on the false recording of votes”. Although the Party has spent 16 years in political tutelage, there is not one district councilor or one district administrator in office today who was elected to office by the people of the district.
For thousands of years China has been ruled by tyrants; as a result, the Chinese people know very little about democracy in general and less about parliamentary practice in particular. Although Dr. Sun Yat-sen published a book entitled The First Step to Democracy (a guide to parliamentary practice) the book has been disregarded and Kuomintang members are still ignorant of the proper way of conducting ordinary public meetings. More often than not the Chairmen of Party meetings interfere in the debates or order or acquiesce in the adoption of resolutions without debate.
People in the United States and in Great Britain are criticizing China because they fear that China is taking the road to Fascism. Recently they appear to have been less sympathetic toward the Kuomintang than toward the Chinese Communists, although they by no means urge that China adopt communism. China cannot afford to ignore this criticism lest she be deprived of further material aid from her allies during the war and become isolated after the war from those Powers that will be in a position to assist in her reconstruction.
It is the primary duty of the Party today to change its hybrid structure by effecting a “fundamental readjustment of methods” within the Party itself.
[Page 487]China must adopt a planned economy which will be slightly different from that of the Soviet Union. The State must participate in and direct that economy. It must develop basic industries, control national defense projects, and foster industrial monopolies. The development of light industries and the production of consumers’ goods should be left to private enterprise.
Respectfully yours,