893.00/9–1544
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 30.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to Embassy’s despatch no. 2750 dated July 6, 1944 giving inter alia a description of the electoral system which the Chinese Communists claim is in effect in Communist-controlled areas, and in that connection to enclose a copy of a Central [Page 572] News Agency despatch75 entitled “How Democratic are Chinese Communists?” by C. Y. Hsu, a Chinese Correspondent and member of the press party which recently visited Yenan.
Summary of the Enclosure. The writer’s thesis is stated in the sentence: “The Chinese Communists claim that they adopt the principle of democratic centralization in organization but factually there is more centralization of power in the Party than democracy”. He quotes Mao Tse-tung as stressing in his “On the New Stage” the necessity for the subservience of the individual to the organization, the minority to the majority, of subordinates to superiors, and of all party members to the Central Committee of the Party. Reference is made to a “Resolution for Greater Emphasis on the Power of the Party” which is alleged to have condemned “splitism”, “independence” and “individualism”. The writer alludes to a second resolution supposed to have been passed by the Communist Central Committee in 1942 on unified Party leadership stressing the supremacy of the Party to all other organs; requiring that decisions and instructions of the Central Committee, as well as those of the District and Local Party Committees, should be carried out without reservation by party committees, organs, and corps; stating that lower committees should be designated by the Central Committee; asserting the importance to Party organization of the subservience of subordinates to superiors, and prohibiting party members from publishing manifestos, making talks or broadcasts without authorization. These quotations the writer feels “show the completeness of Party domination in Communist-controlled areas”. The so-called “Three-three principle” whereby offices filled by election in the area are supposed to be divided approximately equally between Communists, Kuomintang members, and persons not members of either party, is examined, it being suggested that given complete Communist Party control of the Government, the Kuomintang or non-party officials would have little opportunity for independent action. The writer then refers to the number of Japanese who have been invited to serve on elected assemblies in Communist-controlled areas. The writer also states that he found a singular similarity of thought in Yenan; that whatever question he asked and of whomever he asked it, he got substantially the same answer. Freedom of movement was also restricted, he claims, and he noted that the Buddhist temples along the roads to Yenan have been destroyed, and that the Catholic Church compound in Yenan is now being used by the Lu Hsun Academy of Arts and Literatures. End of Summary.
This article represents a fairly typical statement of a point of view on the Chinese Communists which is believed to be shared not only by many of the ranking officials of the Central Government but also by some of the more liberal but dissident members of the Kuomintang Party, who are critical alike of the Communists and of the present Government.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩