(2 of 3)
The Japanese colonial masters had harnessed Formosa's rivers to produce light and power. They opened coal mines, built industrial plants (sugar, cement, aluminum, etc.), developed fertilizers and irrigation so that the farmer could produce more rice. Today the island's industrial output is only 60% of prewar. Cement, necessary for reconstruction of cities gutted and leveled by U.S. warplanes, brings outrageous prices on the black market; manufacturers refuse to produce because the government has pegged prices below production costs. Other industries are shut down because replacement parts are not available. Formosa's railroads are still on time, mostly because their Japanese-trained crews are still in charge. But last week, when rail workers complained about wages below the starvation level, they were told: "Start growing victory gardens."
Rice acreage is bigger than ever, but yields are down because fertilizer, which used to cost $40 a ton, now costs $140. By year's end, because of the influx of refugees and army demands, the island, once self-sustaining, may be short of food. Government monopolies (inherited from the Japanese) and fixed prices for island products make it next to impossible for anyone but the government to export. Imported consumer goods are priced beyond reach of the average Formosan. "The Chinese are squeezing us," complain the islanders. "They put everything into their pockets. They act like people who don't plan to be around very long. The Japanese at least furnished us with the cloth and consumer goods we needed."
Pigs Just Eat. This resentment is grounded partly in the psychology of a colonial people whose standards of living, general educational level and technical proficiency were raised well above the standards of their mainland Chinese brethren. The Japanese, for example, trained 30,000 Formosan doctors, more than the number in all the rest of China. But when the mainland Chinese took over the island, they did not even treat the Formosans as equals, but as "liberated" inferiors. The result is that even thoughtful Formosans now say: "We think of the Japanese as dogs and the Chinese as pigs. A dog eats, but he protects. A pig just eats."
Many Formosans want complete independence for their island—to be gained by revolution or any other means. Others talk of "autonomy under a good Chinese government," neither Nationalist nor Communist. A third group favors a U.S. mandate.
So far, Formosa's resentment has failed to weld a solid revolutionary party. The island's leaders are more emotional than realistic. Fifty years of Japanese control kept them out of top government positions, barred them from adequate administrative experience. Though all are bitterly critical of both Nationalists and Communists (said one Formosan recently returned from Red Peiping: "The regimes of Nationalists and Communists are like eggs laid down by snakes of the same family"), they seem more interested in paddling their own canoes than shaping a strong third force that would be the best weapon against the communism they all hate.