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Last Stand. On that island outpost, the men of order had another chance. For a time after V-J day, a carpetbagging Nationalist regime did great harm on Formosa. When Chiang's Nationalist government arrived, it carried with it from the mainland many of the weaknesses and the faults it had suffered before, but the realization—always bracing to strong men —of having to make a last-ditch stand had purged the Nationalists. Above all they were removed, if only 100 miles across the Straits of Formosa, from the Reds' corrosive power. Even Chiang Kai-shek's bitter foes concede that his government on Formosa is better than any Nationlist government of the past. Formosa (for 50 years brutally but efficiently ruled by the Japanese) is orderly, clean and prosperous looking. Over the neat towns and the green hills there seems to blow a breeze of determination and high spirit.
Wu lives quietly with his wife & four children in an unostentatious, comfortable house which they bought with the proceeds of watercolors painted by Mrs. Wu. One Chinese explained why the Wus collected only enough for a modest house: "Not so plenty money because paintings not so good." The picture that fetched the highest price ($500) shows a grey palm tree with red fruit. The caption, written by K. C. Wu, says: "This tree is very hard, like iron; beautiful birds perch on it, looking down on the clear springwater. This is a heavenly place, wthout the slightest noise to break the stillness."
Too Much Success. Since the Generalissimo appointed him governor last December, Wu has ably wielded the broom of reform. He has managed to halt inflation by curbs on the amount of money in circulation. Wu has also managed to repeat his feat of Hankow: he has balanced Formosa's budget—not without drastic forced loans and capital levies.
Wu has overhauled the administration of the provincial government, thrown out unnecessary officials by the carload, given government posts to large numbers of Formosans. He has also pressed for early local elections, against the advice of more conservative Nationalist leaders.
Perhaps the most important Nationalist measure on Formosa is land reform, begun by General Chen Cheng, Wu's able, shrewd predecessor as governor and now Prime Minister in the Nationalist government. Wu, good friend of General Chen, has vigorously enforced his land-reform program, which provides that farmers are to pay rents no higher than 37.5% of their crop (in the past, rents ran as high as 75%). The land reform has been partly financed by EGA and carried out with the help of a remarkable, little-known organization composed of U.S. and Chinese technicians called the Joint Commission for Rural Reconstruction, which has done important work teaching Formosans modern agricultural techniques.