121.893/8–647
Memorandum by the Consul General at Tsingtao (Spiker) to General Wedemeyer
Shantung Political Situation
Kmt–Commumht Problem. This is the foremost political difficulty in the province. While the Government occupies Tsingtao and Weihsien, [Page 711] and the principal cities along the Tsinp’u Railway from the Kiangsu border to Tsinan, as well as a number of other cities east and west of the Tsinp’u line, it is experiencing difficulty in maintaining highway communications and does not control more than an estimated 20% of the hinterland of the province. By “control” is meant actual administration by Government agencies of their duties such as preservation of the peace and the collection of taxes. Shantung has been and will continue to be one of the prinicipal battlegrounds of the civil war. The communists have controlled large areas in the interior of the province for 8 years or more, and have long ago, with many flagrant abuses, engaged in such programs as re-distribution of land, punishment of usurers, liquidation of the wealthy merchants and their properties, et cetera. They have denuded much of the occupied areas of their able-bodied men who have been drafted into the communist forces. Well-informed missionary sources express their belief that not more than 10% of the people favor communism over the Central Government, but apparently by a technique of terror the communists are succeeding in preventing the common people from assisting the Government in its military or administrative operations. The communists are becoming increasingly ruthless in punishing those who cooperate with the Government, and assassinations and executions, practiced on a large scale, apparently are depriving the Government of a significant portion of the support which it might otherwise expect from the people. The fighting “front” is too fluid to permit the common people to cooperate with the Government forces without fear of reprisals when the communists re-take a town or area. The ruthlessness is reminiscent of the bloody communist technique in Kiangsi, and during the Long March.91
Communist Anti-American Propaganda. This is entirely outspoken and widespread in communist-occupied areas. It accuses the United States of encouraging civil war for imperialistic purposes. The propaganda is sincerely and violently anti-American. It probably influences youngsters much more than adults, who in the past have had profitable connections with the Americans through the manufacture of hairnets, strawbraid, linens, and other products of cottage industry, and the production of tobacco (encouraged by Americans for many years with distribution of free seed, instructions in improved growing methods, et cetera). In contrast to anti-Americanism, it is reported that the communists speak well of the Russians and occasionally have attempted to identify the USSR as the source of UNRRA supplies distributed in communist areas.
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- From Kiangsi to Shensi in 1934–35.↩