Plastrik (Stanley/Judd) Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 49, 5 December 1949, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Off the coast of China lies the large island of Formosa, now rapidly becoming of increasing importance in our “cold war” world. Not only is it soon to be the last substantial area held by Chiang Kai-shek’s government (sometimes curiously referred to as “free China”) but it is an area considered of particular importance by American military and naval leaders, since it occupies a position in the so-called defense arc extending from Alaska through Japan and the Philippines.
The island of Formosa, a typically rich and lush semi-tropical land, has 6 million inhabitants, now swelled by hundreds of thousands of the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek’s troops. If is Chiang’s island, the last place on earth where this brutal, ignorant and revolting personality still holds dictatorial power.
The 6 million people of the island are largely of Chinese descent, their ancestors having come from China’s southern provinces of Fukien many years ago. They gradually conquered the island, pushing its primitive aboriginal tribesmen into a small eastern area and bringing Chinese ways and culture with them. For centuries, the island was a sort of autonomous Chinese province, having a good deal of independence and developing its own traditions and island culture. Fifty years ago the Treaty of Shiminoseki, which concluded the first Sino-Japanese war, forced China to hand the island over to the Japanese in whose hands it remained until the conclusion of the last war.
The Japanese were obliged to conquer the island by force, since the island people resisted their reduction to an outright colony of Japanese imperialism. Under the Japanese, it developed into a great source of rawmaterials as well as a significant naval base for operations in Japan’s war upon Asia. During the Second World War, the Cairo and Potsdam conferences stated that Formosa would be returned to the “Republic of China” (Chiang Kai-shek), once it had been removed from Japanese control. We note, of course, that these conferences in no way suggested that the people of Formosa – the Taiwanese – would be consulted in the matter.
The result was that when the war ended and all Japanese on the island had been repatriated back to Japan, Chiang began to pour in his mercenaries, administrators and bureaucrats. The people resented them and considered them as mere replacements for the ousted Japanese. Even the New York Times has stated editorially: “This occupation [by the military and civil forces of China’s government!] has been unpopular in some aspects with the indigenous population, many of whom regard themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.”
Before long, open revolt broke out and Chiang proceeded to carry out his familiar blood-bath tactics, killing an estimated 3 to 5 thousand people. For two years, his savage dictatorship has ruled over Formosa; and inflation, sequestration of goods and property, quartering of troops, etc., are the rule on the island. The people of Formosa are unquestionably bitterly anti-Chinese and anti-Chiang, and desire to be removed from China’s civil war, securing autonomy for themselves. But such good fortune is not to be permitted.
Chiang wants to retain Formosa as his last stronghold, to which he will cling until World War III begins, when (he hopes) with a revived American backing he will march forth from the island and conquer China once more. What a colossal and arrogant fool this gentleman is! He actually believes this can be done. He has even succeeded in frightening the New York Times with a vision of Chinese Stalinist control of Formosa, breaking “... the outer arc of our defenses and flank(ing) both our Okinawa and Philippine positions. Such a contingency cannot be viewed with equanimity.” Etc., etc.
What does the Times propose to prevent this? Here is its tactic to save Formosa from the Stalinist menace: (1) a UN trusteeship for the island, provided Chiang could be forced into an acceptance of this; (2) use by Truman of the $75 million fund he now has to strengthen Formosa militarily; (3) a military mission to Formosa, somewhat like that still functioning in Greece; (4) use of the American navy and its forces to defend the island, although it is not concretely suggested how this should be done. Obviously not, since the only way would be for the navy to stand between the island and the mainland, prepared to fire upon any land attack launched by the Stalinists.
This, then, is the program to save Formosa, keep Chiang in business and preserve the proper geopolitical “strategic arc” in the Pacific. The Chinese Stalinist program is a simpler one, omitting strategy and threats. Understanding in their demagogic fashion how unpopular the Kuomintang government over Formosa is, and knowing that they themselves have no real strength on the island, the Mao Tze-tung regime proposes autonomy to the island. In other words, they propose to conquer the island from within, by depending upon popular support of the 6 million population to the idea that autonomy would mean an end to Chiang’s rule and use of their island as a pawn in the “cold war.” They propose, in effect, to struggle for neutralization of the island and it is doubtful if they plan an immediate effort to conquer it from without.
Here we see a shining example of, first, the kind of policy and practice American imperialism engages in. Even if, for reasons of expedience, America should decide it cannot carry out the Times program, this would merely mean that it would do nothing. It has no other alternative to that of military force and a naval display of force. In no sense can it consider the wishes or desires of the 6 million people of the island since that would run counter to their continued use of Chiang Kai-shek, even if only in a limited sense. Aside from this scoundrel, American imperialism literally has no one left in all of China and it knows this. Reduced as he is to insignificance and exiled to his small island, he still represents the future hope of American imperialism for an ultimate conquest of the Stalinists. What a dubious prospect this is!
The Chinese Stalinists, shortly to be in command of all of China, can easily let the island of Formosa rot and stagnate, while steadily working from within to build up more opposition to Chiang. They, at least, know how to work among the masses and to play up their discontent and hostility. America can only, on the one hand, rely upon its show of material strength (which diminishes in proportion to its distance from home), while supporting whatever reactionary is closest at hand. Chiang is still in possession of Formosa, and the American fleet hovers about. We wonder how long this state of affairs will last.
Plastrik (Stanley/Judd) Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 10 December 2022