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From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 49, 6 December 1948, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Chiang Kai-shek’s boasts of major military successes in the battle for Suchow have proved just as fraudulent as were his similar claims on the eve of the fall of Mukden in Manchuria. A military debacle followed Chiang’s order to “evacuate” Mukden. Another debacle on an even bigger scale appears to be now unfolding in the wake of a similar order to “evacuate” Suchow.
One of Chiang’s armies, a force of 140,000 men, is reportedly caught in a trap 65 miles south of Suchow. The strongest military formation in this area that could come to their aid is the evacuated Suchow garrison, estimated at 180,000 men. But this garrison is itself, from all reports, a disorganized mass of stragglers whose officers have already fled in panic.
Within striking distance of Nanking itself, at Pengpu, another Nanking army of 80,000 is threatened with encirclement. Everywhere Chiang’s military fronts seem to be in a state of utter confusion and demoralization. Meanwhile, strong Chinese Stalinist armies are converging on Nanking.
Walter Sullivan, N.Y. Times’ correspondent in Nanking, asserted flatly that there exist no “effective forces to bar the way” to direct thrusts against Nanking itself. (N.Y. Times, Dec. 1)
The same dispatch reports fears in the capital that such attacks may be imminent. Chiang has reportedly issued a ban on “the mooring of any ships along the north bank of the Yangtze, fearing attempt by the Communists to cross.”
The defense of Nanking has been placed under the “personal command” of Chiang himself, who has boasted he will hold the capital “for three months” under the most adverse conditions.
Meanwhile his government is making hasty preparations to evacuate Nanking. Where it intends to flee has not been decided as yet. Conflicting reports say Formosa or Canton or Chungking.
The speed with which the events; are unfolding in China cannot be ascribed to developments op the military front alone. By far the more decisive factors lie in the economic and political fields.
Chiang’s corrupt and reactionary regime is utterly bankrupt economically and politically. It has lost all support among the mass of the people. All this has been translated in recent days into the crushing military defeats and the incapacity and outright refusal of entire armies to continue to fight in its behalf. Conversely, the Chinese Stalinists continue to score successes not because of their own policies but despite them.
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