CHINA’S DEVELOPMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1938, Page 6

CHINA’S DEVELOPMENT

♦ GROWTH OF NATIONALISM. CHIANG KAI-SHEK’S ROLE. An informative address on the development of China was given by Mr A. S. Hely, W.E.A. tutor-organiser, last evening. Mr Hely referred to the forces at work, the impact of Western influences in China and China’s reaction. China, he said, could feel the massiveness of her race. Her culture was unconquerable. Invaders were easily assimilated and had little effect on Chinese life. There were three phases of European impact, first, from 1800 to 1840, the struggle to get an open door; secondly, from 1840 to 1920, the battle for concessions and from 1920 onwards, the development of China’s unity and resistance, and the setting up of new nationalism. The revolutionary movement started in the south under Sun Yat-Sen, as a protest against the impotence of the Chinese Imperial Government against foreign aggression, but the movement broke down owing to the treachery of various leaders. A further impetus was given to the spirit of nationalism following the presentation of a document of 21 demands by Japan in 1915. In 1927 the Kuomintang Government, springing from the radical south, and under the military leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, gradually drove northwards into Yangtse, became more impregnated with conservatism, and turned gradually against its own supporters in the Chinese Soviets. The next ten years saw Chiang Kai-shek, apparently treacherous to his former supporters, ruthlessly endeavour to stamp out Communism, while not moving against the Japanese in Manchuria and Shanghai in 1931. He set up a national government and moved the capital to Nanking. Chiang Kai-shek was probably taking a long-sighted view, in order to consolidate and unify China before engaging in a disastrous foreign war. Mr Hely referred to the epic moves of the Red Army into North China from the South, which ended in the building up of the most effective fighting unit in China. The country was now reconciled with Chiang Kai-shek, who was leading the way in anti-Japanese resistance. The present tendency was for the National Government to again swing to the left, and its ever-stiffen-ing resistance against the Japanese had amazed the world.