China Under Communism (1962)

red China a nation that I think with more headlines in the Next Generation than Russia did during the last it was a memorable experience to me to be the first American correspondent inside red China to see firsthand this Awakening giant of the Orient why did I go to China well let's take a look China is a tremendous country geographically as you can see rich in natur resources iron ore 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 Chinese what I saw was a revolution so profound and far-reaching that it inevitably will leave its mind mark on China on the other nations of Asia and on the rest of the world and that includes us for in today's air age what happens in China is vitally important to us in America I entered China after a long trip across Russia and Siberia and down into ping where I traveled all over the country I had traveled extensively in China 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 patties the walking masses of people crowding the roads traffic jams of camels and goats The Familiar Chinese wall was built in the 3r 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 Liv the autocratic Emperors who ruled China for hundreds of years from ping these Emperors of old China were Swept Away in the revolution of 1911 led by the father of modern China sunatan his tomb is still a shrine but for most of the people this first Revolution met 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 eek 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 land 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 millstones 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 infertile 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 thousand new mouthes must be fed daily this is the critical problem of China too many people for too little land today China is in the throws of far-reaching Revolution the Communist rulers in piking have organized China 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 communes the traditional Chinese family unit has been broken up brigades of students and peasants work together under the watchful eye of the party boss goals and quotas are assigned from ping and to meet these goals The Peasants pull the wooden plows 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 work long hours to produce enough food to feed the the Chinese 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 the Bountiful corn crop harvested on one commune that I visited corn for human consumption some communes 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 3 ft deep hoping for a better yield 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 100 times a typical rice yield in China today rice shoots were crowded very close together they used wind machines and overhead lights and 100 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 crop land 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 field 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 CH leap forward to the visitor they look happy andard 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 men they are now subject to the all powerful state after work there is indoctrination in the principles of Communism parades and volunteer workers from the city march to Collective Farms or to 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 hands as well as their heads parades are a powerful weapon of the new regime this truck pulled 31 loaded trailers through the streets of piking a symbol of red China's ambition to achieve industrial Supremacy in exhibition Halls like this one in piking are displayed the technical wonders which are a dream of tomorrow for the chines Chinese peasant these irrigation pumps mean more water to produce more food gas turbines stand for electricity and light this self-propelled grain combine is as modern as any in the west this combine incidentally the only one that I saw in China and this tractor symbolize 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 1 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 might typical of the new drive for steel production is this vast new steel plant in hanca in central China the steel plant will be modern but it is being laboriously built by the muscles of 50,000 workers they Tamp the Earth they move the dirt in baskets a 100 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 and mud the coal is crushed with stone implements powered by the Foot limestone is crushed with little hammers iron ore is hammered into tiny pieces by hand no tool is too simple no effort too great to prepare the raw materials needed for pig iron and out flows the molten iron industrial senu to help build China's industrial might I saw these furnaces all over 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 while 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 mton but these spinning wheels on which women are winding copper wire are more typical of Chinese IND 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 owner ship 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 few cars outside the big cities transportation in China is carried on by muscles human and animal everywhere you see bicycles pedicabs and horse carts 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 well China is developing a chemical industry that extracts oil from coal this woman chemist checks a sample in the modern coal cracking plant in fushun 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 a tuberculosis sanitarium that I visited 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 Ping University one of the oldest in China like all dictatorships the Communist 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 project like this bridge AC across the yansi 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 10 C peasant who never have seen the city find themselves building sewers in ping seeing and hearing new things when they return home they carry the message of the Chinese 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 heroes celebrates China's long struggle against outside oppressors 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 hell 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 built by persuasion and coercion but there's no denying that the Chinese are making progress by our measures perhaps not much by theirs a great deal they're making steel Autos tractors they're building new apartments Bridges hospitals there is more food the China today is different and be like the old China tradition is being flouted 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