52. Ralph Blake’s report was sent to Washington from Nanking on February 14, 1947. See U.S. Embassy in Nanking to State Department, “Public Uneasiness, Rumors, and Comment Concerning the United States,” January 10, 1947, no. 894A.00/2–1447, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
53. Kerr, Formosa Betrayed, 243.
54. Ibid., 250–251.
55. Ibid., 223.
56. Ibid.
57. Ralph Blake, U.S. Embassy in Nanking to State Department, report, March 6, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/3–647.
58. “Conditions in Formosa,” enclosed in Stevenson to Foreign Office, March 24, 1947, FO 371/63320, F4030/2443/10.
59. Blake, U.S. Embassy Nanking to State Department, March 6, 1947.
60. U.S. Embassy in China to State Department, March 8, 1947, no. 894A.00/3–847, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1; CKSD, diary entry for March 6, 1947, Box 46.
61. George Kerr, memorandum for the U.S. Embassy in China, March 10, 1947, no. 894A.00/3–1047, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
62. U.S. Embassy in Nanking to State Department, March 14, 1947, no. 894A.00/3–1447, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
63. U.S. Embassy in Nanking to the American Consular Offices in China, April 10, 1947, NARA, RG 84, Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, China: Nanking Embassy Circular Instructions to the Consulates 1946–48, 124.66/Nanking.
64. Stuart to State Department, March 26, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 711.93/3–2647.
65. Dean Acheson to Stuart, April 2, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/3–3147.
66. Stuart to State Department, March 29, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/3–2947.
67. CKSD, diary entry for March 23, 1947, Box 46.
68. George H. Kerr, “Memorandum for the Ambassador on the Situation in Taiwan,” April 18, 1947, enclosed in Stuart to State Department, April 21, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/4–2147.
69. CKSD, diary entry for March 17, 1947, Box 46.
70. For more about the evolution of Taiwan’s provincial administration, see Yang Zhengkuan, Cong Xunfu dao Shengzhuxi—Taiwan Shengzhengfu Zuzhi Tiaoshi zhi Yanjiu [From the governor to the provincial chairman—A study of the organizational adjustment of the Taiwan provincial government] (Taichung: Taiwan Province Information Office, 1990).
71. Stuart to State Department, April 25, 1947, no. 894A.00/4–2547, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
72. George Kerr, memorandum, enclosed in Stuart to State Department, May 31, 1947, no. 894A.00/5–3147, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
73. Lai et al., A Tragic Beginning, 164–167.
74. See Yang’s report on the February 28 incident, in Taiwan “Er-er-ba” Shijian Dang’an Shiliao [Archival materials on the February 28 incident of Taiwan], ed. Chen Xingtang (Taipei, Taiwan: Renjian chubanshe, 1992), 1:274–280; Bai’s report to Chiang, dated April 14, 1947, in Er-er-ba Shijian Ziliao Xuanji, ed. Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 2:238–244. See also Kuo and Myers, Taiwan’s Economic Transformation, 32–35.
75. E. T. Biggs (British consul in Tamsui), “Summary of events in Formosa during the first six months of 1948,” July 24, 1948, in Taiwan Political and Economic Reports 1861–1960, ed. Robert L. Jarman (Slough, UK: Archive Editions, 1997), 8:315.
CHAPTER 3 ▪ Reformulating U.S. Policy toward Taiwan
1. George H. Kerr to State Department, “Probability of Communist Penetration in Formosa,” memorandum, May 26, 1947, no. 894A.00/5–2647, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
2. Kerr, Formosa Betrayed, 326–328.
3. Odd Arne Westad, Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003), 157–159.
4. Li Yunhan, Zhongguo Guomindang Shishu [A historical narrative of the KMT] (Taipei, Taiwan: KMT Party Historical Committee, 1994), 3:687.
5. Intelligence Division, War Department General Staff, “Order of Battle of the Chinese Communist Armed Forces,” August 27, 1947, NARA, RG 319, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (319.12), Box 2900.
6. See, for example, Jin Chongji, Zhuanzhe Niandai, 147–158; Jay Taylor, The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 373–374; Christopher R. Lew, The Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War, 1945–49 (London: Routledge, 2009), 74–85.
7. Kerr, Formosa Betrayed, 345.
8. United States Department of State, ed., The China White Paper: August 1949 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1967), 1:308–310.
9. Stuart to State Department, August 23, 1947, FRUS 1947, vol. 7, The Far East: China, 740–741. See also Mendel, The Politics of Formosan Nationalism, 40–41; Ong Joktik, “A Formosan’s View of the Formosan Independence Movement,” China Quarterly, no. 15 (1963): 107–114.
10. U.S. Embassy in China to State Department, “Report on Situation in Taiwan,” confidential memorandum, August 22, 1947, no. 894A.00/8–2247, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
11. Sprouse to Wedemeyer, “Present Situation in China,” memorandum, August 23, 1947, FRUS 1947, vol. 7, The Far East: China, 744–745.
12. State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, “Policies, Procedures and Cost of Assistance by the United States to Foreign Countries,” top secret memorandum, October 3, 1947, issued on July 7, 1948, NARA, RG 334, Entry 16A, Box 5.
13. State-War-Navy-Air Force Coordinating Committee, “SWNCC 272 Series—Formosa: Acquisition of, by treaty,” October 15, 1947, NARA, RG 334, Entry 16A, Box 15.
14. Shen Keqin, Sun Liren Zhuan [The biography of Sun Liren] (Taipei, Taiwan: Xuesheng shuju, 1998), 2:463–476.
15. Chief of Naval Operations, entitled “Note on China by Commander Naval Forces Western Pacific,” memorandum, October 7, 1947, NARA, RG 218, Geographical File 1946–1947, Entry: UD 4, 190: 1. See also Kerr, Formosa Betrayed, 353–355.
16. CKSD, diary entry for June 19, 1947, Box 46. There is no indication that Chiang’s decision to send Sun to Taiwan was a result of political pressure from the United States.
17. CKSD, diary entry for June 18, 1947, Box 46.
18. Ralph Stevenson to Foreign Office, telegram, June 19, 1947, FO 371/63325, F9883/76/10.
19. Qin, ed., Zhonghua Minguo Zhongyao Shiliao Chubian, 7 (2), 892–905.
20. CKSD, diary entry for June 26, 1947, Box 46.
21. Su-feng Wu, “Song Ziwen yu Jianshe xin Guangdong” [T. V. Soong and the construction of new Guangdong] Donghua Renwen Xuebao [Dong Hwa Journal of Humanities] no. 5 (2003): 129–130.
22. U.S. Embassy in China to State Department, minutes of conversation between T. V. Soong and Hiram A. Boucher (U.S. consul-general in Guangzhou), October 7, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/10–747. See also Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen Pingzhuan [A critical biography of T. V. Soong] (Fuzhou, China: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1998), 520–521.
23. These “bandits” were anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in Guangdong during the Sino-Japanese war. After the war, part of the forces refused to be disbanded and later regrouped under the Chinese Communist Party’s remote control. See Guangdong Provincial Archives, ed., Dongjiang Zongdui Shiliao [Source materials on the East River Column] (Guangzhou, China: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1984), 7–12.
24. Sun Liren to T. V. Soong, December 20, 1947, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 9.
25. See Sun Liren to T. V. Soong, April 16, 1948 and Sun to Soong, September 24, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 9.
26. Lester Little to T. V. Soong, November 19, 1947; Soong to Little, November 20, 1947, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 36.
27. Leighton Stuart to Little, December 2, 1947; Little to Yu Hongjun (Nationalist minister of finance), December 5, 1947, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 6. Nanjing received no response from Washington regarding the loan needed for the customs forces.
28. T. V. Soong to U.S. Naval Advisory Group Survey Board (Guangzhou), telegram, December 29, 1947; A. L. Rorschach (U.S. Navy), “Establishment of Separate Water Police in Kwangtung Province,” memorandum, December 29, 1947, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 36.
29. Rorschach to
Soong, telegram, January 7, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 36.
30. T. V. Soong to Jiang Biao, April 10, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 19. The Control Yuan in Nanjing later proposed the impeachment of Soong for his unauthorized purchase of these planes. See Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen Zhengzhi Shengya Biannian [A chronology of T. V. Soong’s political career] (Fuzhou, China: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1998), 533.
31. See: T. V. Soong to Jiang Biao, telegrams, May 27, September 11, November 4, December 1, 1948, January 3, and 26, 1949, and Jiang to Soong, September 29, November 6, December 3, 1948, and January 25, 1949, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 19.
32. Alexander Grantham (Hong Kong governor) to T. V. Soong, letter, June 4, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 36.
33. “Memorandum of Agreement between the Central Bank of China and the Government of Hong Kong,” August 15, 1947, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 29.
34. George Kitson, Foreign Office minutes, August 11, 1948, FO 371/63331, F10250/76/10.
35. H. L. Hsieh to T. V. Soong, telegrams, January 3, 1948; William Youngman to Soong, February 27, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 19.
36. Lanxin Xiang, Recasting the Imperial Far East: Britain and America in China, 1945–1950 (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1995), 127–134.
37. Zhang Fakui to T. V. Soong, September 6, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 29.
38. Zhang Fakui, Jiang Jieshi yu Wo—Zhang Fakui Shangjiang Huiyilu [Chiang Kai-shek and I: a memoir of General Zhang Fakui] (Hong Kong: Art and Culture, 2008), 438–439.
39. UNRRA-Fishery Rehabilitation Administration to T. V. Soong, October 23, November 6, 1947, and January 13, 1948; Tateki Horiuchi, “Plans for the Development of Agriculture and Light Industry on Hainan Island,” April 11, 1948; Tateki Horiuchi, “Memorandum regarding the development of Hainan Island,” April 15, 1948, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 29.
40. Tong Lu, “Lun Huanan ‘Jingjian’ Yinmou di Pochan” [On the bankruptcy of the economic establishment conspiracy in South China], December 30, 1948, in Guangdong Geming Lishi Wenjian Huiji [Collection of Guangdong revolutionary historical materials], ed. PRC Central Archives and Guangdong Provincial Archives (Guangzhou, China: Guangdong Provincial Archives, 1988), 49:29–35.
41. Zhang, Jiang Jieshi yu Wo, 452–453.
42. CKSD, diary entry for May 19, 1948, Box 46.
43. CCP Guangdong-Guangxi border region committee, report, February 3, 1949, in Guangdong Geming Lishi Wenjian Huiji, 49:526–545.
44. See Directives from the Political Department of the CCP Unit in Swatow, November 13, 1948, in Guangdong Geming Lishi Wenjian Huiji, 59:172–175; Minutes of meeting held by the CCP Fujiang-Guangdong-Jiangxi border region, February 1949, ibid., 240–254.
45. See Feng Baiju’s reports to CCP Central Military Committee, November 17 and 31, 1949, and Feng’s reports to CCP Hong Kong Bureau, December 7, 1948, in Guangdong Geming Lishi Wenjian Huiji, 44:578–585, 599–600; Feng’s report to CCP Ministry of United Front and the Hong Kong Bureau, January 3, 1949, ibid., 48:110–111.
46. British War Office, “Will China Disintegrate?” memorandum enclosed in Foreign Office minutes paper written by A. L. Scott, July 7, 1947, FO 371/63325, F9309/76/10.
47. Ralph Stevenson to Foreign Office, April 30, 1947, FO 371/63322, F5994/76/10.
48. U.S. Embassy in China to State Department, August 6, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/8–647. In July 1948 T. V. Soong confirmed to American diplomats in Guangzhou that General Li was indeed harboring some “interesting ideas” about China’s future, but did not believe Li would gain wide support. See Raymond P. Ludden (U.S. consul-general in Guangzhou) to State Department, telegram, July 22, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/7–2248. For details of the meeting between Soong and Li concerning establishing a new power base in South China, see also Jiang Ping, Li Jishen Quanzhuan [A comprehensive biography of Li Jishen] (Beijing: Tuanjie chubanshe, 2002), 237–241.
49. U.S. Embassy in Nanjing to the American Consular Officers in China, “Separatist Tendencies in China,” telegrams, July 21, 1947, NARA, RG 84, 800/China.
50. See Stuart to State Department, March 4, 1948, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/3–448; Stuart to State Department, March 8, 1948, 893.00/3–848; Stuart to State Department, May 14, 1948, 893.00/5–1448; Stuart to State Department, July 12, 1948, 893.00/7–1248; U.S. Embassy in China to State Department, report, parts 1 and 2, August 10, 1948, 893.00/8–1048.
51. Intelligence Division, War Department General Staff, “Regional origin of Units in the Chinese Nationalist Army,” September 16, 1947, NARA, RG 319, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (319.12), Box 2900; “Military Implications in the Possible Disintegration of the Chinese National Government Authority,” October 14, 1947, NARA, RG 319, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (319.12), Box 2900.
52. “CIA Research Report, SR-8: China, I-22–24,” November 1947, in Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Research Reports: China, 1946–1976 (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1982), microfilm, reel 1.
53. See Stuart to State Department, July 12, 1948, telegram, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/7–1248; “Limitations of South China as an Anti-Communist Base,” China Research Report ORE-30–48, June 4, 1948, CIA Research Report, reel 1.
54. For more about Bessac and his secret activities in Inner Mongolia, see Sechin Jagchid, The Last Mongol Prince: The Life and Times of Demchugdongrob, 1902–1966 (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1999), 373–440.
55. Ma Hongkui, Ma Shaoyun Huiyilu [A memoir of Ma Hongkui] (Hong Kong: Wenyi shuwu, 1984), 282–287. For more about America’s postwar policy toward Inner Mongolia, see Xiaoyuan Liu, Reins of Liberation: An Entangled History of Mongolian Independence, Chinese Territoriality, and Great Power Hegemony, 1911–1950 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), 283–329.
56. For more information about Mackiernan and his espionage efforts in China’s western frontiers, see Ted Gup, The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA (New York: Anchor Books, 2001), 9–42 and Thomas Laird, Into Tibet: The CIA’s First Atomic Spy and His Secret Expedition to Lhasa (New York: Grove, 2002).
57. J. Hall Paxton (U.S. consul in Urumqi), “Travels in Southern and Eastern Sinkiang,” memoranda nos. 1, 2, 3, and 10, top secret, June 27, 1948, NARA, RG 59, 893.00 Sinkiang/6–2748.
58. Stuart to State Department, October 16, 1948, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/10–1648.
59. CIA, China Research Report ORE 45–48, “The Current Situation in China,” July 22, 1948, in CIA Research Reports, China: 1946–1976, reel 1.
60. See British Consulate in Tamsui to British Embassy in Nanking, “Political Rumours: Formosa,” July 25, 1947, in Taiwan Political and Economic Reports 1861–1960, ed. Robert L. Jarman, 8:294–295; U.S. Consulate-General in Shanghai to State Department, December 7, 1947, NARA, RG 59, 894A.00/12–747.
61. U.S. Consulate General in Taipei to State Department, December 13, 1947, no. 894A.00/12–1347, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
62. U.S. Consulate General in Taipei to State Department, May 13, 1948, no. 894A.00/5–1348, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
63. “Memorandum of Conversation with General MacArthur at Tokyo,” December 7, 1948, no. 894A.00/1–649, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
64. “The Political and Economic Appreciation of the Situation in China,” December 10, 1948, CAB 134/285/FE(O)(48)34. See also Westad, Decisive Encounters, 200–202.
65. Ibid., 192–211. For more about the three great campaigns of the Chinese civil war, see Liu Tong, Zhongguo di Yi-jiu-si-ba nian—Liangzhong Mingyun di Juezhan [1948 in China: a decisive battle between the two fates] (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing, 2006).
66. Chiang noted on November 23, 1948 that, as a result of the worsening situation within and outside China, Madame Chiang was emotionally and psychologically out of control, and both Chiang and his wife were suffering insomnia. See CKSD, diary entry for November 23, 1948, Box 47.
67. CKSD, diary entry for November 25, 1948, Box 47.
68.
For more about Madame Chiang’s efforts to solicit support in the United States, see Hannah Pakula, The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 563–578.
69. Robert J. Donovan, Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949–1953 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), 72–73.
70. CKSD, diary entries for December 16 and 18, 1948, Box 47.
71. CKSD, diary entries for December 22 and 25, 1948 and January 1, 1949, Box 47; Lin, Zhanhou Zhongguo de Bianju, 300–303.
72. CKSD, diary entries for December 23 and 24, 1948, Box 47; Lin, Zhanhou Zhongguo de Bianju, 241–242.
73. CKSD, diary entry for December 25, 1948, Box 47. See also Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, ed., China Confidential: American Diplomats and Sino-American Relations, 1945–1996 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 32–33.
74. Te-kong Tong and Li Tsung-jen, The Memoirs of Li Tsung-jen (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1979), 483–486.
75. “United States Policy toward China,” January 11, 1949, NSC 34/1, FRUS: 1949, vol. 9, 474–475.
76. U.S. Embassy in China to George Marshall, October 16, 1948, NARA, RG 59, 893.00/10–1648; China Research Report ORE-77–48 entitled “Chinese Communist Capabilities for Control of All China,” December 10, 1948, CIA Research Reports, China: 1946–1976, reel 1.
77. “The political and economic appreciation of the situation in China,” cabinet minutes, December 10, 134/285/FE(O)(48)34. See also Wu, Song Ziwen Pingzhuan, 521.
78. James Brennan to T. V. Soong, January 4, 11, and 20, 1949, T. V. Soong Papers, Box 19.
79. Kenneth Krentz (U.S. consul-general in Taipei) to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, January 15, 1949, no. 894A.00/1–1549, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1.
80. Krentz to Acheson, January 2, 1949, no. 894A.01/1–249, Formosa 1945–1949, reel 1; CIA memorandum, August 9, 1949, CIA Research Reports: China, 1946–1976, reel 1.
Accidental State Page 31