As the Japanese prepared to lay down their arms in China, Yenan crackled with defiance. Communist Commander in Chief Chu Teh roughly rejected the nominal authority of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. To Chungking he wired: your order not to take independent action in accepting Japanese surrender (TIME, Aug. 20) "does not conform to the national interest. . . . You have issued the wrong order, very wrong, indeed, and we have to reject it resolutely."
Cried Radio Yenan: "Chiang Kaishek, the Fascist chieftain . . . whose policy has been to sit aside and watch others fight . . . really has no right to accept a Japanese surrender. . . . Reactionary . . . stupid . . . sinister plot ... to instigate civil war."
Communist Goal. One day claims were put forth that the Communists spoke for 100,000,000 Chinese; next day the figure soared to 260,000,000 (a year ago it was 80,000,000). Communist troops pushed into Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, neared Peiping and Tientsin. It looked as if control of all China north of the Yellow River was the Communist goal.
To the Japanese High Command in China, General Chu Teh sent an ultimatum: their forces in north, central and south China must surrender only to the Chinese Communists. To the U.S., Russian and British Ambassadors in Chungking, Yenan sent a memorandum: the Chinese Communists must be represented at the formal surrender of the Japanese; U.S. Lend-Lease to the Central Government must stop immediately.
The good, grey New York Times summed up the situation in a stinging editorial: "The Chinese Communists . . . are in open rebellion against President Chiang Kai-shek and his Government; they repudiate his order . . . which they are pledged to obey. . . . They want domination. They are not a political party; they are a conspiracy to seize the Chinese Government. And they consider the victory of the United Nations, in which they played a microscopic role, as their great opportunity."
"I Humbly Invite." In Chungking, Generalissimo Chiang held tense conferences with U.S. General Albert C. Wedemeyer, commander of all U.S. forces in China, and with U.S. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley. Then he moved swiftly.
U.S.-trained Chinese armies were readied to reoccupy key cities as soon as the Japanese gave up. U.S. air forces stood by to transport them. The Central Government appointed mayors for Canton, Shanghai, Nanking, Hankow, Peiping, Tientsin and a governor (General Hsiung Shi-hui) for Manchuria's strategic Kwantung Peninsula.
A note was dispatched to the Japanese Commander in Chief in China, General Yasuji Okamura: "Cease hostilities immediately . . . send representatives to receive military instructions from General Ho Ying-chin, Chinese military chief of staff. . . . Japanese troops are temporarily permitted to retain their arms and equipment for the maintenance of public order."
Then the Generalissimo made one more try for unity. To Yenan's leader, Mao Tse-tung, he wired: "May I humbly invite you to come to Chungking immediately? We will discuss things in person. This involves our national welfare. Please do not decline. Yours most anxiously. . . ."