A Picture of China [Extracts from a letter from a
Chinese writer to an English friend.] ICAME here to find work, but it was not possible for me to escape from my responsibilities to my country and my people, so when I later received instructions from one of my former superiors- I went back to my native village with two friends. I was immediately subjected to the Chinese Com- munists' vigilance and consequently lost all personal freedom. Therefore, I had no alternative but to pretend to be sympathetic towards the Chinese Communists. By so doing I hoped to be able to lessen the suspicious and severe attitude with which the Chinese Communists regarded me.
For months I was out of a job at home without any income, and had to rely on my relatives and friends for my family's support. My first child was born during this period, and, because of my poor economic condition at that time, even today she is not a healthy child. One of my friends became concerned over the fact that I was unemployed, and advised me that I should have a job trra gain the Chinese Communists' trust in me, and recommended me to a teaching post in a middle school. My salary was equivalent to H.K.$100.00 per month. From this time on my work was naturally tripled, and then my second daughter was born. In order to feed my wife and two. babies I had to reduce my own diet, and my weight was decreased to only 96 lbs. (with clothes on). Maybe you know very little about conditions on the China mainland. The Chinese Communists after " liberation " of China gradually increased the length and strength of their tentacles and circumscribed the Chin= people's choice of religion, thoughts, speech, daily diet, clothes, etc. In the year of 1950 the Chinese Communists began to carry out in earnest their programme of liquidation of the so-called "counter-revolutionaries," "support of the Korean war," and "agrarian reforms." During the eighteen months from June, 1950, to the end of 1951 the Chinese Communists carried out in the villages and rural areas their programme of "agrarian reforms." This meant that they picked out certain landowners whom they either designated as "landlords," " rogues " or "wealthy farmers," and victimised these people by stripping them of all their land, houses, poultry and stock, clothes, furniture, jewellery and money. The Chinese Communists pocketed whatever they could, and divided the unmovable properties such as lands and build- ings to the poor uneducated peasants. These "landlords," " rogues " and "wealthy farmers" were then subjected to arranged public " trials " where they either were executed or convicted to hard labour. The wives and daughters of these victims were humiliated and insulted. Meanwhile, in the cities the Chinese Communists carried out their so-called movements of resisting "American imperialism and support of the Korean war" besides "counter-revolutionaries." People had to contribute specified amounts of money towards buying aero- planes and cannons; they were also encouraged to point their fingers at "counter-revolutionaries," and people were forced to attend classes and camps where a person's mind is "re-trained," that is by a systematic enforcement of " confess- ing " everything that a person has thought or done. The Chinese Communists have used the method of "demo- cratic convictions" to enforce people to pay all kinds of exces- sive taxes and duties besides buying " bonds " contributions of aeroplanes and cannons. The so-called "democratic convic- tions" is actually the Chinese Communists calling themselves "the will of the people." If a person does not comply with these requests for money he is immediately put to a public " trial " and inevitably comes out the loser by having all his properties sold to the Government in order to pay the " taxes " and "contributions." You can imagine after eight years of war with the Japanese and three years of civil war how much wealth or strength the Chinese people have left to satisfy the Chinese Communists. Hence the serfs even after the enforcement of " agrarian reforms" all of them have to continue to pay exhorbi- tant taxes besides speeding up production. In the cities factory workers and labourers have had to take on extra working hours, often working up to an average of fourteen hours a day—seven days a week. Many industrialists, small merchants and ordinary residents have become hopelessly bankrupt. More than that, many of these who cannot pay these requests for money have no alternative but to take their own lives rather than face Communist persecution which would mean slow and tortuous death in the end.
Under the Chinese Communists' despotism every employee of different Government departments, the headmasters and teachers of schools, the students of schools, the workers in large and small industries, labourers in each type of work and also employees of all shops and stores have membership in organisations according to their line of work. Each organisa- tion has several study groups which the members must attend. These study groups serve as an X-ray apparatus to see into each person's mind and at the same time to control and regulate the speech and actions of each member. Each study group has a head man and his deputy. The head man takes care of the minds and thoughts of the members, whilst the deputy looks after the daily speech and actions of each member.
During the study periods the head and deputy as well as the members of these groups must study together the specified materials including all the speeches and/or lectures of the Communist leaders especially Stalin's and Mao Tse-tung's speeches and/or lectures. Besides answering all the questions given on the study materials, the whole group must also frankly give their different attitudes and reactions regarding the answers they themselves have given. Furthermore each person must also admit whatever points they do not understand clearly, and must give instances of where they have applied or failed to apply the principles they have learned in accordance with "the people's requests." (The Chinese Communists always call themselves "the people.") Each person must tell who is their closest friend and intimate, and also all the details of their daily life. . In spite of telling frankly all that is required above, if another member should think that you are not sincere enough he will immediately criticise and rant bitterly at the speaker until the speaker has to say be has been wrong and promise to hereafter be more specific in his efforts for "the peoples' cause."
Once a week the heads and deputies have to get together for a meeting in which they report to their " superiors ' the speeches, actions and thoughts of each member of the study groups, and at the same time these heads and deputies are assigned work for the following week's study group activities., The Chinese Communists delegate to each study group a secret agent who reports on the activities of the group. This secret agent's report is Compared with the heads' and deputies' reports so that the " superiors " can immediately tell if there is any discrepancies between the reports. The "superiors" of these study groups also have their own study groups with secret agents in their midst to report to higher levels. In this way each reports on the other and a chain is established which closely spies on the activities of every individual organisation from the highest levels to the man in the street. The Chinese people continue to suffer man's worse in- humanity to man, and it is as if all our people in Red China are lying on burning pyres and their only hope of salvation is what the western world can do or is willing to do for a free China. If our people are rescued from this tortuous death, they are the ones who would be most willing and able to stand in the very front lines to fight for a world of peace and liberty.
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