The "two worlds" of a country

The Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945) was a national liberation war in which China gained complete victory during its struggle against foreign aggressors for the first time in over 100 years. When the news of the victory came, people celebrated all over the country with great joy. Victory was gained, and the war ended, but the problems that had accumulated during the war in China, such as destitution, the broken economy and others, did not go with the end of the war. At that time, various parties could not help but focus their attention on China's two largest political parties, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

When the Anti-Japanese War ended, what was the situation in the KMT-controlled areas? What was the slightly mysterious Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region under the leadership of the CPC like?

John S. Service, who was born in Chengdu, China, in 1909, was a diplomat at the US embassy to China. He was fluent in Chinese and an authentic "China Hand." He had gone deep down to China's rural and remote areas for a wide range of social investigations and experiences of the living environment and conditions of China's ordinary people. He had a deep understanding of China's political, economic and social conditions. On June 20, 1944, Service sent to the US State Department a copy of "The Situation in China and Suggestions Regarding American Policy." On China's situation, he wrote:

China faces economic collapse. This is causing disintegration of the army and the government's administrative apparatus…

1) Morale is low and discouragement widespread. There is a general feeling of hopelessness.

2) The authority of the Central Government is weakening in the areas away from the larger cities. Government mandates and measures of control cannot be enforced and remain ineffective. It is becoming difficult for the Government to collect enough food for its huge army and bureaucracy.

3) The governmental and military structure is being permeated and demoralized from top to bottom by corruption, unprecedented in scale and openness.

4) The intellectual and salaried classes, who have suffered the most heavily from inflation, are in danger of liquidation…

5) Peasant resentment of the abuses of conscription, tax collection and other arbitrary impositions has been widespread and is growing…

6) …

7) Unrest within the Kuomintang armies is increasing…

8) The break between the Kuomintang and the Communists not only shows no signs of being closed, but grows more critical with the passage of time; the inevitability of civil war is now generally accepted.

9) The Kuomintang is losing the respect and support of the people by its selfish policies and its refusal to heed progressive criticism… To combat the dissensions and cliquism within the Party, which grow more rather than less acute, the leadership is turning toward the reactionary and unpopular Ch'en brothers clique.

10) His [the Generalissimo] growing megalomania and his unfortunate attempts to be "sage" as well as leader…h(huán)ave forfeited the respect of many intellectuals, who enjoy in China a position of unique influence. Criticism of his dictatorship is becoming more outspoken.

John S. Service thought that the KMT was facing its most serious crisis ever, but it was unable to change that situation; what's more, the KMT was making it worse. The KMT had lost its qualification for the leadership of the whole of China.

More than a month after he sent the report as a government official of the US State Department and political adviser to the US military commander of the China-Burma-India Theater, Service participated in the "U.S. Army Observer Section," and came to Yan'an. There, "with a conscious determination not to be swept off one's feet," Service and the other group members had the same feeling: "All of our party have had the same feeling – that we have come into a different country and are meeting a different people." There were great differences in the ethos and atmosphere compared with those in the KMT-controlled areas, and he gave the following account:

There is undeniably a change in the spirit and atmosphere… There is an absence of show and formality, both in speech and action. Relations of the officials and people toward us, and of the Chinese among themselves, are open, direct and friendly. Mao Tse-tung [Mao Zedong] and other leaders are universally spoken of with respect (amounting in the case of Mao to a sort of veneration), but these men are approachable and subservience toward them is completely lacking. They mingle freely in groups.

Bodyguards, gendarmes and the claptrap of Chungking officialdom are also completely lacking. To the casual eye there are no police in Yenan [Yan'an]. And very few soldiers are seen.

There are also no beggars, nor signs of desperate poverty.

Clothing and living are very simple. Almost everyone except the peasants wears the same plain Chungshan-type uniform of native cotton cloth. We have seen no signs of ostentation in dress, living or entertaining.

Morale is very high. The war seems close and real. There is no defeatism, but rather confidence. There is no war-weariness.

One gets a feeling that everyone has a job. The program to make every person a producer has a real meaning.

There is everywhere an emphasis on democracy and intimate relations with the common people.

There is a surprising political consciousness… There is no criticism of Party leaders and no political talk.

At the same time there is no feeling of restraint or suppression… The leaders make excellent personal impressions… The general feeling is of calm self-confidence — self-respect.

After enumerating the above-mentioned phenomena, Service analyzed as follows:

I think now that further study and observation will confirm that what is seen at Yenan is a well-integrated movement, with a political and economic program, which it is successfully carrying out under competent leaders.

And that while the Kuomintang has lost its early revolutionary character and with that loss disintegrated, the Communist Party, because of the struggle it has had to continue, has kept its revolutionary character, but has grown to a healthy and moderate maturity.

One cannot help coming to feel that this movement is strong and successful, and that it has such drive behind it and has tied itself so closely to the people that it will not easily be killed.

The two entirely different worlds that Service saw were both in China: One was the Kuomintang and the regions it dominated; the other was the CPC and the border areas under its jurisdiction. These were the two parties of the Chinese Civil War after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Their numerous differences were what decided the result of the Chinese Civil War.