(6 of 6)
The Nationalist regime on Formosa has not turned overnight into an American good-government league's dream of good government. Since the island contains both the exiled government of China and the provincial government of Formosa, the lines of responsibility are apt to get tangled. Wu, for example, is theoretically in charge of the island's internal security. But in addition to his own provincial police, Formosa is guarded by the Nationalist government's secret police and the army intelligence service. Governor Wu is thus in the somewhat cramped position of the captain of a ship when the admiral is aboard. U.S. observers fear that Wu may have been a little too successful for his own good, that he may arouse the jealousy of old-line officials (a good many of whom remain, despite Chiang's recent purge of the hidebound old inner Kuomintang clique).
Within a Year? Said one U.S. observer last week: "What we need is an act of imagination. We must imagine how it would be if the Communists had already invaded Formosa. The morning after that invasion, we would no longer debate whether or not Chiang's boys are worthy of our aid. We'd know that we must help Chiang for our own good."
With Douglas MacArthur in Formosa, imagination would not be lacking. K.C. Wu himself, who has an amazing capacity for believing the best of the U.S., has never doubted that the U.S. would help the Nationalists. He speaks with resounding confidence of a Nationalist return to the Chinese mainland within a year.
It will probably be a long time before K.C. Wu and his comrades again see ' their homeland. Meanwhile, what Wu and his friends have done on Formosa adds up to one significant message—the Chinese Nationalists are still fighting.
* Mao Tse-tung explained the alliance: "Our determined policy is 70% self-development, 20% compromise, and 10% fight the Japanese."