893.00/8–2947: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Davis) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 30—11:08 a.m.]
2077. Following is official Chinese Central News Agency report on Sun Fo statement made at Canton August 27: China is facing a national crisis now more serious in nature with respect to the Soviet [Page 267] Union than the one created by the “Manchurian incident” in relation to Japan, Dr. Sun Fo, Vice President of China, today told Central News.
Japan’s “Manchurian incident”, responsible for the destruction of world peace and the outbreak of World War II, was fanned inside China only by a small number of willing collaborationists for Japan, whereas the present crisis is aggravated by the Chinese Communist Party, an organ as international in nature, echoed by the Democratic League, and worked at the beckoning of Moscow, Dr. Sun charged.
The Vice President in his comments today waved away all doubts that General Wedemeyer’s farewell statement57 on China was the prelude to complete withholding of US help to China.
With 2 years already passed since the war, world peace still has not been established, Dr. Sun pointed out with a note of sadness. The world situation is still very tense, he said, and China is in the midst of a civil war. Differences of opinion on how to secure world peace has accentuated the tenseness.
The Soviet Union, on the one hand, insists on running world affairs, backed by its veto power in the United Nations, while other countries are wing [willing] to compromise, to understand each other’s viewpoints and to work harmoniously. These two forces, Dr. Sun stated, cannot yet be reconciled, thus causing uneasiness and doubts on all sides.
He elaborated on the United States’ stand, which has no imperialistic nor ulterior motives in China. Unfortunately, an anti-US movement was successfully instigated by the Communists, dovetailed by the Democratic League, and perhaps managed by the Soviet, he opined.
This movement, Dr. Sun pointed out, has erroneously conveyed to the US that the Chinese people wanted the US to get out completely. There is no political reason for the presence of American Armed Forces in China. At present, he declared, there is only a small Marine Force guarding North China railways, plus the Military Mission in Nanking and Tsingtao designated for the training of new Chinese Armed Forces.
Dr. Sun avowed that this cannot be said for the Soviet Union. He traced the history of the signing of the Sino-Soviet amity treaty, and the subsequent Soviet actions which failed to observe this treaty in the cases of the withdrawal from the northeast, the naval base of Port Arthur for the combined use of the Soviet and Chinese Navies.
He cited the case of the free port of Dairen, which administratively should be in Chinese hands. He was particularly vehement about closing of Port Arthur to the Chinese and the virtually complete control [Page 268] of Dairen by the Soviet. Dairen is completely under Soviet occupation, even Chinese and American Merchant Marine is refused entry, he pointed out.
“We can see in the case of Dairen that the Soviets are occupying it. They cannot refute this fact,” Dr. Sun emphasized, “but in no way do we see any such move, or other imperialistic action on the part of the United States. Now that the Japanese threat is removed, we are under the Soviet threat.”
In Dr. Sun’s opinion there are only three solutions to the Communist question: (1) if the Communists give up their military operation policy; (2) complete Communist control of China; (3) complete eradication of the Communist Party.
On the third point, Dr. Sun made a distinction between Communism and the Chinese Communist Party. He supported General Wedemeyer’s opinion that Communism cannot be eliminated by military force itself. The Communist Party and its destructive and military activities can be eliminated only if the Government and the people stand together, he declared. Otherwise, China will no longer exist as one nation.
In the past 2 years, China’s Vice President recounted, the Communists have given ample evidence that they do not wish to solve political differences by peaceful means despite the many gestures of the National Government, which has asked three times for truce.
“We cannot use peaceful means to solve the civil war. Only the Communists can answer that question.”
The responsibility for the civil war rests entirely with the Communists, in Dr. Sun’s estimation. He cited their failure to carry out the solutions of the political council conference, their refusal to participate in the reorganized government and their refusal to attend the National Assembly.
The Communist demand for minority over-rule was charged as being undemocratic by Dr. Sun. This means that the opinions and desires of the majority are of no avail. This means that the minority will rule the majority, he said. Although majority rule even may not be a perfect democratic process, Dr. Sun believes it is better than a minority rule, which, he declared, would imply that there is no ground for the existence of democracy’s implementation of majority rule.
The minority rules in the Communist territories, he said; there is no freedom in those territories. He pointed out that is why the Democratic League leaders prefer to operate in Nanking and Shanghai instead of in Communist territories.
General Wedemeyer’s plea in which the Presidential envoy urged the Communists “to stop voluntarily the employment of force in their [Page 269] efforts to impose ideologies” and to use “peaceful means in lieu of violence and destruction” was cited by Dr. Sun as an example of the futility of seeking Communist cooperation.
Dr. Sun predicted that Wedemeyer’s plea will not be heeded by the Communists. Both Wedemeyer and General Marshall, former special Presidential envoy in China, know only too well they will not find the Communists receptive, he reiterated.
“The effect of these pleas,” Dr. Sun commented, “is like playing music before a cow.”