For the past year, the Chinese Nationalist navy has blockaded Shanghaito the chagrin of Hong Kong merchants who are eager to resume trade with Red China. In May, when the Nationalists abandoned their naval base on Chusan Island, 100 miles from Shanghai, Hong Kong was sure that the Nationalists could not keep up their blockade. The Nationalists vowed that they would. When Hong Kong traders laughed off warnings, sent their ships to Shanghai anyway, the Nationalists threw their Formosa-based air force into the fight.
In an eleven-day running battle, Chiang Kai-shek's airmen machine-gunned and bombed the blockade-running ships,...