(See Cover)
The tide of terror rolled on. Shanghai's Liberation Daily reported the execution of 208 "counter-revolutionaries," who were made to kneel in a suburban lot one afternoon while a firing squad finished them off from the rear. For the first time, as a new service to its readers, the Daily printed the names of the victims.
Peking's Mayor Peng Chen, chief organizer of the purges, called for more executions. The Chinese press diligently reported the antiphonal dialogue, almost liturgical in tone, between Peng and a conference of Communist deputies:
Peng: How shall we cope with this herd of beastly despots, traitors and special agents?
Answer: Kill them!
Peng: Another thing. We have already disposed of a number of cases, but there are some still in jail. What shall we do with them?
Answer: Kill them all!
Peng: Another thing. There are despots in the markets, among fishmongers, real-estate brokers, water carriers, and night soil scavengers. How shall we cope with these feudal remnants?
Answer: Execute them by firing squad!
So, week after week, went the official news out of China.
"You Mustn't Forget." From reports by foreign diplomats and Chinese refugees, from statements by Red deserters and prisoners of war in Korea, and, above all, from the insistent testimony of the Red press and radio, one fact was clear: Red China's masters are not only waging war against the U.S. in Korea; they are waging a relentless war on their own people. So far, the Korean war has cost China an estimated 500,000 casualties (including wounded); the Red bosses' terror has cost China's people three times that much.
China's wholesale murder, which had become a commonplace of policy, was directed discipline by the most efficient group of administrators China had ever known. Heading that group was a man so mild and affable in manner that many a Westerner who knew him in the past had suspected him of only playing at Communism. He is a professional political organizer named Chou Enlai. Once he had found it necessary to remind one of his American admirers: "You mustn't forget, you know, that I am a Communist."
Nowadays, neither the U.S. nor China get a chance to forget it. As Red China's Premier, Foreign Minister, member of the Politburo, member of the Government Council and member of the Council of State Administration, Chou (pronounced dzu) has a hand in almost everything that happens in China, from "bandit suppression" (i.e., fighting Nationalist guerrillas) to the price of rice. In the months ahead, Chou's organizational talents will be put to harder & harder tests. There are already signs of serious weakness in the structure he has helped to rear.