CHINA UNDER COMMUNISM

lines in the next generation then Russia did during the last it was a memorable experience to me to hunt it inside Red China to see firsthand this awakening giant of the Orton why did I go to China well let's take is a tremendous country geographically as you can see rich in - coal iron over all over the country water power and when it comes to people China is the biggest one out of every four persons on earth is a Chinese what I saw was a revolution so profound and far-reaching that it inevitably will leave its mark on China on the other nations of Asia and on the rest of the world their age what happens in China is vitally important to us in America I entered China after a long trip across Russia and Siberia down into Peking where I traveled all over the country I had traveled extension at 20 years ago and since then have logged 70 countries around the world as a foreign correspondent but none of these experiences prepared me for the changes in China of course a big country like China does not change overnight so much that I saw was traditional the rice paddies the walking masses of people traffic jams of camel and goats the familiar Chinese wall was built 3rd century BC to protect China from invaders today it reminds both Chinese and foreigners that whatever changes the communist regime may impose tradition will long remain in these temples and palaces of the Forbidden City the autocratic Emperor's who ruled China for hundreds of years from Peking these emperors of old china were swept away in the revolution of 1911 led by the father of modern china sun yat-sen his tomb is still a shrine but for most of the people this first revolution meant little 85% of the Chinese are farmers and the life of the peasant stayed much the same he tilled his tiny plot of land trying to eke out a living for his family for centuries the Chinese peasant has fought a running battle with famine he carefully saved all manure and carried it out and spread it on his lane at harvest time peasant families like these villagers harvesting millet often joined in cooperative effort but in the past this collective work has been purely voluntary and the tools they use are more ancient than the Bible they grind the precious grain into flour using mill stones powered by oxen this map gives some clues to China's great problem of being able to feed its 500 million people as you can see much of China is mountain desert in fertile soil the great river valleys are often subject to disastrous floods and the population is growing at the rate of several millions a year nearly 30,000 new mouths must be fed daily this is the critical problem of China too many people today China is in the throes of far-reaching revolution the Communists as it has never been organized in its long history by force and persuasion the peasants have been organized into collective farms and then consolidated into super communist units called communes every commune has its militia and is organized along military lines in these communal Chinese family unit has been broken up brigades of students and peasants worked together under the watchful eye of the party boss goals and quotas are assigned from Peking and to meet these goals the peasants pulled the wooden ploughs by hand when they don't have a donkey or a cow you rarely see one person in the field for private ownership of land is now forbidden they worked long hours to predict the Kenny's people enough food to wipe out famine that has plagued them for centuries ask the individual peasant whether he likes the commune and he will not criticize it for it is treason to doubt the doctrine that the Communist Party knows best my impression is that the Chinese definitely are making agricultural progress are raising more food here for example is a bountiful corn crop harvested on one commune that I visited corn for human consumption some commune specialize in growing crops like cotton for industrial use the Chinese are going all-out in experimentation here for example they're digging the soil three feet deep hoping for a better year every commune has an experimental plot they told me that this rice plot would yield a fantastic 11,000 bushels per acre but that's more than a hundred times a typical rice yield in China today rice shoots were crowded very close together they used wind machines and overhead lights and a hundred pairs of hands to separate the heads so that air and sunlight could get down into the heavy mass of shoots collectives are also using chemicals for crop improvement in these and other ways traditions are overturned and scientific methods introduced irrigation by mechanical means is not new but it is spreading from commune to commune and now the government claims 55% of all cropland is irrigated all life in the commune is regimented along military lines the ringing bell calls you to work calls you to eat in the canteen calls the women to their washing the workers to the feed the children they're kept in the central nursery while their parents work the children are taught to love their communist leaders these children are singing a song of praise about the Chinese Revolution called the Great Leap Forward to the visitor they look happy and well cared for even though they sometimes do not see their parents for a week at a time their mothers for the first time they are not slaves to their men but like their man they are now subject to the all-powerful state now after work there is indoctrination in the principles of communism parades and volunteer workers from the city marched to collective farms Arda factories where they are needed most shock brigades go out from the schools to help with the harvest because the Communists believe everyone must learn to work with their horth weapon of the new regime this truck pulled one loaded trailers through the streets of Peking a symbol of Red China's ambition to achieve industrial supremacy in exhibition halls like this one in Peking are displayed the technical wonders which are a dream of tomorrow for the Chinese peasant these irrigation pumps mean more water to produce more food gas turbines stand for electricity and light this self-propelled grain campaign is as modern as any in the West this combine incidentally the only one that I saw in China and this tractor symbolized the goal of Communist China to become an industrial power the steam tractor and this mechanized rice transplanter invented by a peasant stir the Chinese with pride for they were made with Chinese hands in China the Chinese remember when all heavy machinery had to be imported from abroad to make machines China needs iron and steel in 1943 China made only one million tons of steel china's announced goal is 20 million tons of steel the Chinese say they've doubled steel production in the steel mill the Japanese built in Manchuria to the Chinese as well as to the other Asiatic nations steel is a symbol of industrial mind typical of the new drive for steel production is this vast new steel plant in Han Cao in central China the steel plant will be modern but it is being laborious Lee built by the muscles of 50,000 workers they tamp the earth they move the dirt in baskets a hundred men working 100 hours may produce only as much as one machine but there are millions of workers in China and few machines this drive for iron and steel production is evident in the most remote village in China I saw thousands of tiny backyard furnaces where farmers were turning out pig iron the crude furnaces were built of stone than meth Nikole is crushed with stone implements powered by the foot limestone is crushed with little hammers iron ore is hammered into tiny pieces by hang no tool is too simple no effort too great to prepare the raw materials needed for pig iron an out flows the molten iron industrial sinews to help build China's industrial might I saw these furnaces all over China but the pig iron they turned out was less important than the psychological lift the campaign gave the people for the Chinese peasant could say to himself we are making steel just like the Americans and British we are helping build the new China having served its psychological purpose the great campaign for little Steel has since been discontinued well steel is given much attention other industries are also encouraged for example copper products for the growing electrical industry heavy copper wire is produced in this modern factory that I saw in Mouton but these spinning wheels on which women are winding copper are more typical of Chinese industry today village industries not new in China are being organized on a gigantic scale as China tries to raise herself by her own bootstraps production quotas are prominently displayed on bulletin boards in factories and on the collective farms the red flag is a symbol of excellence this is an automobile factory private ownership of automobiles is forbidden in China but being able to manufacture cars is a great triumph for a nation that has long had to depend on the outside world for industrial products to the Chinese their infant auto industry is a matter of national pride but there are a few cars outside the big cities transportation in China is carried on by muscles human and animal everywhere you see bicycles pedicabs and horse cars fuel is very scarce in China so buses using attachments like this one burn wood and coal to reduce her dependence on Russia for oil China is developing a chemical industry that extracts oil from coal this woman chemist checks a sample in the modern coal cracking plant in foucha here is another parade this time against the four pests flies mosquitoes rats and sparrows there is an extensive public health campaign in China today this is Colossus sanitarium that I stood in manchuria where deserving factory workers may come for a free cure every factory every farm I visited had medical clinics like this where they dispensed free medicine it's almost a sin to get sick in China today so every morning at 10:00 a.m. the factory workers go through a daily routine of calisthenics as music blares from the loudspeakers they're very sports minded too and have thousands of outdoor basketball courts this is Peking University one of the oldest in China like all dictatorships the Communists lay great stress on youth propaganda plays an important role posters extol the virtues of the new China posters ridicule foreign imperialists hatred of Western domination is very strong this is one reason for the hate America campaign that I saw all over China this poster on this small steel mill says liberate Formosa our national territory bulletin boards and political cartoons are also used as a whip to spur the people on to greater effort but the regime provides a people with a unifying purpose it gets a lot of people into the act it gives them a sense of participation and a promise of the future whether it is a parade against imperialists or an ambitious construction product like this bridge across the Yangtze River it is this common purpose that is new to the Chinese the army too is employed on massive government projects these Red Army soldiers are helping build a big dam and here is a new factory building in tents in peasants who never have seen the city find themselves building sewers in Peking seeing and hearing new things when they return home they carry the message of the chain revolution into their villages at present China's great friend is Russia this big building is Russia's monument to Chinese friendship and this monument to fallen war hero celebrates China's long struggle against outside of presence these are the two forces that mold China's policies I left Red China by the misty road that crosses the barbed wire frontier into Hong Kong this great British held port on the southern coast is the only doorway between China and the West as I looked across Hong Kong harbor I pondered what I had seen in Red China and what it means to us the things I will never forget are the work of the people organized for a purpose people toiling under grueling hardship and all in a relentless mobilization of human strength to build a new world a communist world of course built by persuasion and coercion but there's no denying that the Chinese are making progress by our measures perhaps not much by there's a great big deal autos tractors they're building new apartments bridges hospitals there is more food the China today is different and will never again be like the old China tradition is being floated by the communist dictatorship no one knows where this will lead but I believe it has vast significance for the rest of the world and I am sure we will hear much more of China in the years ahead