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Distrust & Despair. It is important for the West to watch these signs in Communist China; it is equally important for the West not to overestimate them. For decades similar evidence has come out of Soviet Russia; yet through mass killings, violent social upheaval and economic crises the Soviet regime has kept its death grip on the country. China's Red masters may be in for plenty of trouble (and if the U.S. chooses, it can increase that trouble). But it is a fact that the Communists in China have under their control today one-fifth of the human race; they have succeeded in the staggering job of establishing an administration with some signs of efficiency on the ruins of economic chaos —a state of chaos which they themselves had deliberately fostered. They had also built up an army that has given an excellent account of itself in battle. With these qualifications in mind, the West can take comfort from Red China's difficulties.
Cabled TIME'S Hong Kong Bureau Chief Robert Neville last week: "Red China is in deep trouble. Early enthusiasm for the Red regime has now turned to sullen resentment, distrust and despair. The educated and the articulate seem to shrink away in shame and disgust from events over which they can have no control. If those Chinese who escape to Hong Kong are judges, a widespread disaffection has set in. Many people are certain that were it not for the secret police and the firing squad, hatred for the Peking government would soon spark into action."
Sincere Cooperation. "Travelers now report seeing Russians all over the country. There are apparently so many of them there that they can no longer do what they used to do—keep to compounds and out of sight. There are Russian colonies now as far south as Kunming and Canton, and there is apparently never a train running in all China on which Russians do not take up a large part of the first-class carriages. Russian consumer goods have begun to appear, and Russian gasoline of inferior quality has made its way as far south as Shanghai, where it has been selling for around $4 (U.S.) a gallon (one good reason why there are only about 500 privately owned cars left in the city).
"The Russian technicians who swarm all over China constitute its newest set of privileged taipans. Russian politicos are also much in evidence in Peking, where Chou's Foreign Ministry often plays second fiddle to the Soviet Embassy. While the Russian ambassador is ostensibly the highest Soviet official in China, he is actually outranked by another, more shadowy figure referred to only as the 'political representative,' who sits in on all meetings of the Chinese Politburo itself. From all-over evidence, the Russians could not be in more direct control if they moved the whole Chinese government to Moscow.
"Peking's alliance with Moscow was formally announced in February 1950 when Party Leader Mao and Premier Chou negotiated at the Kremlin a 30-year Sino-Soviet friendship pact in which the two nations promised 'in a spirit of sincere cooperation . . . to participate in all international actions aimed at insuring peace [and to] consult each other in regard to all important international problems.'