893.00/12–2045
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 4, 1946.]
The Chargé d’Affaires ad interim has the honor to enclose a report40a on a lecture entitled “China After the War” made on December 18, 1945 by A. S. Perevertailo, a candidate of Historical Sciences. This lecture, like all other public lectures in the Soviet Union, is officially inspired and officially supported. Perevertailo’s opinions expressed therein therefore do not represent only his personal views but may be said to set forth the official line now current regarding China.
The enclosed Report is summarized below by subjects:
Democracy in China has not been achieved. China has a constitution but no democratic rights.
The Chinese Communists are the main democratic force in China. They led 100,000,000 Chinese through the school for democracy. The success of the Chinese Communists has stimulated reactionary provocation. There are 1,000,000 Chinese Communist troops.
The Kuomintang is a one-party dictatorship. There are, however, [Page 489] progressive elements in the Kuomintang. Sun Fo is among them.
Reactionaries in China are fascist minded and helped the Japanese during the war. The big landlords are the chief reactionaries. Allied with them are reactionary bourgeois and officials. Reactionary military leaders long ago stated that they would have attacked the Chinese Communists, but they were restrained by Chiang Kai-shek. A certain book (presumably China’s Destiny) falsely maintained that China was always democratic, rejected the western concept of democracy and idealized “feudal social relations”.
The U. S. S. R. together with China would embrace one quarter of the world’s surface and one half of the world’s population. If they were to unite in the struggle for peace, they would make a great contribution. The U. S. S. R. was the first power to relinquish its rights under the unequal treaties and has always supported the struggle of the Chinese people for liberation. From the onset of Japanese aggression, while others encouraged aggression, the U. S. S. R. opposed it. The defeat of Germany laid the groundwork for the defeat of Japan and the Red Army’s Manchurian campaign played a decisive role in Japan’s final downfall. Despite this, some people attempt to minimize the U. S. S. R.’s contribution to the defeat of Japan. Japanese imperialists are still active and seek to drive a wedge between the U. S. S. R. and China. In implied contrast to the policy of the United States toward China, that of the Soviet Union in China is based on non-intervention toward Chinese internal affairs.
The United States gained great influence in China during the war. Chinese Government circles were orientated toward the United States. General Wedemeyer and others admitted that the United States had strengthened the position of the Central Government, It was implied that, as a result, reactionaries were able to seize areas which the Communists had captured from the Japanese. In contrast to the Central Government’s aggressive attitude, the Communists had withdrawn their forces from Central China as a contribution toward domestic agreement. Concern is being felt in China over the influx of foreign capital. American commercial interests want to take Japan’s place in the China market, supply two-thirds of China’s imports and play a large part in reconstruction. American imperialists want to extend the economic borders of the United States to the Ganges and make China an American economic sphere. The progressive press in the United States and China hope that General Marshall will help bring about an agreement among the various factions in China.
Questions asked by the audience are covered on pages 4 and 5 of the enclosed report. They indicate that at least a few in the audience were skeptical of some of the lecturer’s statements, particularly his contention that the Communist troops were equipped only with arms which they had captured from the Japanese. That the Soviet propoganda line toward Chiang Kai-shek is a deliberately blurred one (presumably designed to leave a way open for either approbation or denunciation) is clearly revealed in the final paragraphs of the report.
- Not printed.↩