China

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 264, 14 July 1944, Page 7

China

T has been plain for some time that whatever is happening in Burma the war not going well in China itself, and that the reasons lie deeper than exhaustion and isolation. Those are part of the story; at present the biggest part; but certainly not all of it. The Japanese are winning victories — far more critical victories than most people realisenot merely because they are better trained and better equipped than the Chinese but because they are united. The Chinese have never been united since the war started. It is not many days since Chungking reported the flat refusal of the Communist armies to attack the enemy in the north in order to relieve the pressure in ‘the centre and south; and it is probable, but not certain, that the Chungking story was. true. It is not certain, because all news is suspect when the news agencies are under control; but it is likely, because the Communists have no more faith in Chungking than Chungking, now, has in them. They control nearly a quarter of China on a population basis, and their army is believed to contain nearly as many front-line troops as the Generalissimo himself commands. They in fact claim that it is a better army than the Central Government’s because it is better educated politically, and they argue that its superior discipline more’ than balances its indifferent equipment. But instead of tying up Japanese divisions it is immobilising a large body of Government troops who are watching it when they should be attacking the enemy. It is not a pleasant picture, but until. we face it and accept its implications we shall not begin to understand the military situation. As for the political and economic problems of China, they are comparable with those of Russia in 1917-not insoluble, if friends help, but complicated by the threat of civil war. ,