124.4735/12–1351
The Consul General at Hong Kong (McConaughy) to the Department of State
No. 1211
Subject: Gradual Drying Up of Information Sources on Communist China
During 1951 it has become steadily more difficult to obtain accurate, up-to-date and extensive information on Communist China from nonofficial sources. The reasons for this are briefly outlined below.
Decreased Flow of American and Foreign Nationals Out of China
At the first of the year there was a large flow of Americans from Communst China running as high as 70 to 80 persons per month. This has now decreased to 16 persons during November. Furthermore, those coming out now have been under house arrest or otherwise isolated from Chinese friends for many months so that their information on recent developments is rather limited. Fairly large numbers of Europeans are still coming out of the mainland but they have also been isolated from Chinese, are generally less willing to talk to American officials and there is often a language problem.
New Travel Restrictions on Chinese
Since the inauguration on February 15, 1951 of Chinese Communist travel restrictions on Chinese coming to Hong Kong and returning [Page 1870] to the mainland, the movement of persons across the border of this Colony has been sharply restricted. With the development of the campaign against counter-revolutionaries and the agrarian reform movement there has been a steady trend toward stricter enforcement of these travel restrictions to prevent the departure from Communist China of persons whom the Communists might want to use as a target in either of these campaigns, and to forestall the entry into the mainland of enemy agents. Chinese from provinces other than Kwangtung find it particularly difficult to come to Hong Kong. Persons here who are in close touch with Kwangsi province, for example, report that the flow of refugees from that province has practically ceased. It was reported in the Hong Kong Hsing Tao Jih Pao for November 21 that issuance of exit or exit-reentry permits for the following types of persons in Kwangtung has been temporarily suspended: (1) students; (2) persons under police supervision or control; (3) landlords who have not yet refunded overcharged rents and interest to their tenants; (4) young shop assistants studying prescribed courses; (5) technical workers; (6) families of landlords; and (7) merchants who have not yet paid the taxes due. While the Hsing Tao Jih Pao is not a Communist paper, it leans heavily to the left and seems to have unusual access to information on Communist administrative measures, so that this report probably has some basis in fact.
It is apparently still possible for persons who have had no political connections or activities in the past, particularly women, to get permits to come to Hong Kong, but if the authorities have the slightest suspicion concerning the background of an applicant, he does not get his permit.
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The Hong Kong government, concerned over the swollen population of the Colony and deteriorating economic conditions, has recently begun to require Hong Kong entry permits even from Cantonese who desire to enter the Colony. Formerly, although entry permits were required for Chinese from other parts of China, Cantonese were allowed to come in freely, provided they had re-entry permits issued by the Communist authorities.
A good measure of the extent to which these various restrictions have interfered with travel across the border of the Colony is the fact that the going rate for smuggling a person into Hong Kong, which was only HK$40 to HK$50 a year ago, is now reported to be anywhere from HK$700 to HK$1,000.
Increasing Difficulty of Getting Information from Chinese
Even though there is still a small number of Chinese coming into the Colony from Communist China, it is more and more difficult to get from them useful information on mainland conditions.
[Page 1871]In the first place the Chinese themselves are less able to report accurately on the real thinking and attitudes of people on the mainland because, under the unremitting pressure of Communist thought control methods, people are increasingly prone to conceal their real feelings and to avoid comment on possibly dangerous subjects.
Merchants who travel back and forth regularly are afraid to contact a foreigner in Hong Kong, particularly an American official, no matter how clandestinely the meeting may be arranged. They have a healthy respect for the Communist espionage system here, and there have been examples of merchants who have been interrogated closely on their return to China about their relations with the individuals whom the Communists knew they saw in Hong Kong.
Even refugees who have fled the mainland for good often have reservations about talking to Americans. They are not at all sure that Hong Kong may not some day be taken by the Communists and they hope that by remaining neutral and inconspicuous they will avoid some day being the object of reprisals. They realize they have no place to go should Hong King be attacked. There is also a prevalent feeling that United States policy is fickle and that the United States in the future may reach some accommodation with the Chinese Communists which would leave anti-Communist Chinese out on a limb. Therefore, they prefer not to identify themselves as anti-Communists even to the extent of giving information to American officials.
Conclusions
Although China’s “bamboo curtain” has not become the “iron curtain” which exists in Eastern Europe, there has been a steady movement in that direction for the past year. First-hand reports on mainland conditions are fewer and less comprehensive and the reporting officer is forced to rely to a greater extent upon second or third-hand reports and the output of the official Communist press.