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"All Was Quiet." Speaking at a mass meeting of Yenching students, the commissar said Chinese Reds desired friendly relations with all foreign countries, including the U.S., and eventually hope to be admitted into the United Nations. The speech avoided all the usual attacks on "American imperialism." A few days later the same commissar visited neighboring Tsinghua University, a Chinese government institution, and made the same professions of Communist respectability. The fact that his first concern had been for American-endowed Yenching was not lost on the courtesy-sensitive Chinese.
In Chengchow, a rail junction for east-west and north-south traffic in Honan, two Shanghai cotton brokers reported "all was quiet." Their warehouse of cotton had been untouched by the Communists. Said a Red officer: "When the kettle belonged to Chiang, we tried to break it; now that it is ours, we want to preserve and use it."
In other words, the Communists intended to take full advantage of their ability to bring the immediate fruits of peace to China. By war and sabotage they had prevented the resumption of normal life after China's liberation. Now the mere end of fighting'would bring a resumption of trade and a measure of (relative) prosperity. What would happen when Mao Tse-tung no longer needed to tread softly would be another—and a grimmer—story.