Eight Months Behind the Bamboo Curtain—A Report on the First Eight Months of Communist Rule in China

Preface to the First Edition
This book is written on the advice and persuasion of newspaper readers and friends who thought that the twenty-one articles I wrote for the United Press when I arrived here in Hong Kong on December 23, 1949 were the first comprehensive and systematic reports on the Chinese communists that had ever come out of Red China. They suggested that the articles be expanded into a book for the information of the world in general and the Chinese overseas in particular.

I acknowledge that this book tells only part of the story of China’s new rulers. It is not a story of my life in Red China, but a report on my observations on communist rule, on how it affected the common man, and how the common man in China felt towards it during the eight months I was behind the Bamboo Curtain.

It is not a scholastic study of the present and future of the Chinese communists. It is not history, but the facts which I give in this book will, I hope, help future historians in their work. The conditions and popular reactions which I report in this book are what existed during the period from April 23 to December 23, 1949. They may change as time goes by, as they have changed before.

This book consists of two parts: (1) the communist “liberation” and administration of Nanking, the nationalist capital, and how the communists went about erecting their rule and how the people reacted towards them during the first month of occupation; and (2) the conditions and popular reactions throughout China after eight months of communist rule.

I added the first part for the purpose of showing the reader the difference in the tenor of popular reactions towards the Chinese communists after the people had been subjected to it for one month and subsequently eight months.

The difference, as the reader will discern, is that the people reacted favourably towards the Chinese communists after one month, but their reactions became unfavourable as time went by. This is true of all places in China. The change in popular reaction is one of the most significant phenomena, which to my knowledge has not yet been adequately publicised in the outside world.

As I said, this book is an objective report on communist rule in China as the common man sees it. If it is anti-communist in the final analysis, it is unintentional and something which I cannot help. As a correspondent, I must follow the popular trends.

I apologise to the reader for being unable to identify my sources as clearly as I should, as it may endanger the safety of my sources who are still living in China.

In illustration of the reasons of why we correspondents must be very careful in identifying our sources: one day our Shanghai correspondent met an American missionary in the streets and asked him about conditions in his area. He said he could not talk due to fear of communist reprisals. He said the communists had somehow gotten hold of an article in an American magazine which contained a description of conditions regarding missionaries in his area. The communists had then conducted a check of all the missionaries in the area in an effort to ascertain who had given the information to the writer.