Communism in Asia

Former Vice-Chancellor, Dacca University

Marxian Communism preached by Lenin in the early twenties caught the imagination of a section of intellectuals in almost every country in Asia. Communist parties were formed in Iran, China, Korea, Indonesia and India, and Communist movements were noticed in Burma, Siam, Malay, Annam and other parts of Indo-­China, where communism was the vanguard of the national struggle for freedom against colonial imperialism. It was not, however, till after the end of the Second World War, that communism became a great force in Asia. The great victory of the Allies and its aftermath gave Moscowa splendid opportunity to carry into effect the Communist policy of world domination. Japan, Russia’s most powerful enemy in Asia, lay prostrate. The Chiang Kai-sliek regime in China, hopelessly weak and corrupt, was at deadly enmity with a well-organised Communist Party, already entrenched in power in the country. In the West Russia’s control was thoroughly established over some regions in Eastern Europe, “liberated” from the Axis powers.

To this eminently favourable situation was added another very important factor. The democracies in war-weary Britain and U. S. A. forced their Governments to disband their army and navy, whereas the dictator in Moscow maintained the Red Army on a wartime basis. Stalin took full advantage of the situation. The U. S. A. monopoly in nuclear bomb, which was urged as a powerful argument in favour of dissolution of the armed forces, also acted as a deterrent to the ardour of Stalin, at the beginning; but the fear was removed in 1949 when Russia also found the process of making nuclear bombs. Hencefoth Russia shared with U. S. A. the unique honour and dread of the rest of the world as the greatest political power championing, respectively, the Communist and Democratic ideals in politics.

Stalin’s earlier efforts to spread communism in Greece and Turkey failed. The plan of establishing a land blockade against West Berlin (the portion of the old capital city of Germany which lay more than a hundred miles inside the Communist East Germany under the control of Moscow) also miscarried, as the U. S. A. planes, helped by the British, flew 2,300,000 tons of food into the blockaded city between April 1, 1948 and September 30, 1949, when the blockade was raised.

But, even during this period of failure in the West, Communism began its triumphant march in the East when it established its complete authority over the whole of the mainland of China in 1949, aided by Stalin during his wartime negotiations with U. S. A. and Britain. During the Yalta Conference, early in 1945, Stalin succeeded in wringing from Roosevelt two valuable concessions, namely restoration of Port Arthur and Southern Sakhalin to Russia, and grant of certain concessions in Manchuria. In return, Stalin agreed to sign a treaty of friendship with the Nationalist Government of China and guaranteed the independence of Korea. All the time Stalin really thought of using his position in Manchuria to help the cause of Communism in China, and had been planning a Communist coup to seize authority in Korea. It was settled at the end of the War that Russia and U. S. A. would accept the surrender of Japanese troops, respectively, in two areas lying to the north and south of the 38th Parallel of Latitude which crossed Korea in the middle. But, even before this purely temporary measure was approved by the President of the U. S. A., a force of 100,000 Russian soldiers arrived in North Korea and an interim government was set up by 36 Soviet Koreans trained at Moscow in Marxist ideology and Communist take-over techniques. Then Russia sealed the border between North and South Korea, divided by the 38th Parallel of Latitude. Electric power was cut off and the railway communication was cut off between the two parts. The industrial North and the agricultural South stood face to face, ed up respectively by the Russian and American troops. In the meantime Soviet troops overran Manchuria and seized its Industrial Plants, while the arms and equipment left behind in Manchuria by the Japanese were allowed by Russia to fall into the hands of the Communists of China. As Communist China henceforth became the spearhead of the advance of communism in Asia the course of events leading to the establishment of Communist regime in China may be briefly told.

The Nationalist Party in China, known as Kuomintang, was founded by Stin Vat Sen on the basis of the three principles of nationalism, democracy, and the people’s livelihood or economic equality. The party came into power in the wake of the great revolution of 1911. During his struggle Sun had received considerable help from Russia. Borodin was sent by Stalin as the adviser of Sun and exercised considerable influence in the organization of the new Government of Kuomintang, and its military department was orga­nized by a Russian General. Military stores of all kinds and in great quantity were supplied by Russia, mostly as free gifts. No wonder the Communists were admitted to the Kuomintang and gradually dominated its Central Executive Committee.

But things began to change after the death of Sun Yat Sen in 1925, when his mantle fell upon Chiang Kai-shek, the Commander-­in-Chief of the Nationalist forces. He did not like the Communist control but had toput up with it till he could consolidate the authority of Kuomintang over China with the help of Russian arms. But as soon as this was practically accomplished, he set up his Government at Nanking and denounced the Communist leaders, including Borodin, who were ousted from power. Kuomintang severed diplomatic relations with Russia (December, 1927) and ordered the closing of Russian consulates and the expulsion of their staffs. But, in spite of repeated military campaigns, Chiang could not liquidate the Communist Party by destroying their armed forces. They had three great leaders, namely, Mao Tse-tung, a Library Assistant in the National University at Peking, Chou-En-Lei the leadeer of the Paris Group of Chinese Communists, and Chu The, who belonged to the landlord class and had had a military career before he was converted to communism in Germany. In 1934 Chiang forced the Communist army to leave Kiangsi and Fukien, the two provincial strongholds which they maintained for six years against great odds. But under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh the army after a long march of more than a year found a safe retreat in the north-western provinces of Shansi and Shensi (1934-35). There they set up a parallel government of their own, became popular by land reforms and other measures benefitting the peasants which were neglected by Kuomintang dominated bythe feudal aristocrats and capitalists.

The Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communists continued, but a temporary truce was brought about by the Japanese invasion which was resisted, separately, by both parties. The truce continued from 1937 till the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. The Communists had been carrying on guerilla warfare against the Japanese in the north, and at the end of the war were in a position to take possession of cities in North China and Manchuria. But the Allies, sped-ally U. S. A., intervened, and with their help Kuomintang was installed in the north and its authority over Manchuria was recognised. ­

The Civil War between the Communists and Kuomintang now broke out with renewed fury, and continued till the end of 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek fled to Formosa or Taiwan (Island) which had an area of 14,000 sq. miles and a population of over eight million. Chiang was accompanied by what remained of his party cadre and an army of 6,00,000 troops. On first October, 1949, the Communists proclaimed the People’s Republic of China, and their Government was recognised by Great Britain and the Soviet Union, but not by the U. S. A. ­

The Communists had complete control over the entire mainland of China and were at first, perhaps not without some justice, regarded as the ‘liberators’ as they claimed to be. But it was not long before the virus of communism showed its ugly face. They adopted the threefold domestic programme of consolidating control, destruction of the old social order, and establishing a new pattern of thought and life, on the Marxian model, for the vast population of China, which had evolved a characteristic type of culture and civilization, through a continuous process for more than three thousand years. The more important items in the practical application of the programme were–mass propaganda, incitement of hatred against landlords and businessmen, forcible redistribution of land with collectivization as the ultimate goal, nationalization of finance and industry, heavy taxation and punitive levies, building of roads and railways by forced labour, Five-Year plans with Soviet aid, training of youths and indoctrination of adults in orthodox Marxist doctrines, etc. Indeed, it will be no exaggeration to say that there was no sphere of life, private or public, into which the Communist Govern­ment in China did not intrude.

At the same time the Chinese Communist Government, as could be expected, formally declared its definite alignment with Russia. Mao Tse-tung wrote in an article in July, 1949: “The Chinese people must either incline towards the side of imperialism or towards that of socialism. It is impossible to sit on the fence. There is no third road….Internationally we belong to the side of the anti-imperialist front, headed by the Soviet Union.” It was not long before the Chinese Communists were intoxicated with the ideal of world dominion, by means of ruthless military campaigns of aggressive character, which not only conformed to the Soviet ideals but was in complete harmony with the aggressive imperialism which characterised Chinese foreign policy from very ancient times, at least as far as the 3rd century B. C. The Communist leaders in China had fully imbibed the twofold ideas of aggression and imperialism long before they seized power in China. On 6th November, 1938, Mao Tse-tung, Head of the Communist Party in China, in a speech before the Central Committee, said: “Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun….Whoever has an army has power, for war settles everything.”

Mao did not make any secret of the objects for which the gun was to be used. He gave a list of territories and dependent States which had been illegally taken away from China in the past, these included Korea, Annam (Viet Nam) Burma, Bhutan and Nepal.

The application of this policy was not long delayed. In 1950 Mao Tse-tung sent an army against Tibet, which had been enjoying autonomy under the nominal suzerainty orChina, and brought it under control. This was merely the first phase of the “Liberation” of Tibet which, nine years later, resulted in the complete liquida­tion of the rule of Dalai Lama.

Next came the turn of Korea. As noted above, it was divided, by the 38th Parallel of Latitude into two temporary zones of occupation which became virtually a Communist North and a Democratic South under the protection, respectively of Russia and U. S. A. The hope of a free united Korea, as envisaged in the Yalta Conference in 1945, was not, however, altogether given up. All negotiations for this purpose having failed on account of the intrigues and intransigence of Russia, the question was taken up by the United Nations Organisation (U. N. O.) whose General Assembly resolved to hold elections throughout Korea in 1948, and appointed a Commission for the purpose. But Russia refused to allow the Commission to visit the Northern Zone. So elections were held only in the South resulting in the setting up of the Republic of Korea with its capital at Seoul and Syngman Rhee, an ultra-right Nationalist as President. The Communists thereupon set up the People’s Democratic Republic in the Northern Zone with its capital at Pyongyang and chose as its leader Kim Sung who had distinguished himself as a guerilla fighter against the­ Japanese and was revered all over Korea as the leader of the national liberation movement. Both Russia and U. S. A. thereupon withdrew their forces from Korea. But whereas Russia left behind a well-trained People’s Army in the North, there was only a con­stabulary force in the South.

It was not long before North Korea invaded the South. On 25th June, 1950, 60,000 soldiers of North Korea, protected by 100 Russian-built tanks crossed the border and easily drove away the troops of the South, who fought “pretty much with their bare hands”. The U. S. A. submitted the matter before an emergency meeting of the Security Council of the U. N. O. The upshot was that an army consisting of contingents from different countries was authorised by the U. N. to help South Korea against the North. General MacArthur was the Commander of the force fighting under the United Nations Flag. Only fourteen member-countries of the U. N. contributed contingents or promised to do so, and so the main brunt of the fight against the Communist North fell upon U. S. A. She contributed nearly 86 per cent of the naval forces and more than 93 per cent of the air forces, which sustained casualities, estimated at about 140,000, including 35,000 dead.

The advance of the North Korean troops was checked and they were driven to the 28th Parallel. The U. N. army, however, advanced beyond the boundary, against the advice of some members of U. N., including India, captured Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and reached the Manchurian border. The Communist Government of China, which had been systematically supporting North Korea’s aggressive campaign by sending thousands of regular army men in the guise of Chinese People’s Volunteers” now made loud complaints and communicated through K. M. Panikkar, the Indian Ambassador to China, that if the U. N. armies continued to advance towards the Chinese frontier, China would enter the war. “The President of the U. S. A., Mr. Truman, to whom the Chinese threat was communicated by the Government of India, poohpoohed the idea and even comments in his memoirs that Panikkar had been playing the game of the Communists”. But the Chinese were as good as their word. On 26th November a body of two hundred thousands of Communist “Volunteers from China crossed the Yalu river which formed the boundary between Korea and Manchuria, and not only forced the 150,000 U. N. troops and 91,000 Korean civilians to evacuate North Korea, but also advanced 70 miles beyond the 38th Parallel into South Korea. In February, 1951, the General Assembly of the U. N. condemned Red China as an aggressor and soon thereafter called for an embargo on­ shipments of strategic materials to the Communist Government in China. But Russia continued to give aid to China. General Mac­Arthur was in favour of driving the Chinese and persuading them across the Yalu to their air-depots in Manchuria, but a number of nations, including India, were against any such aggressive policy against China. In April MacArthur was recalled and the war front was stabilized on or about the 38th Parallel. For over two years, from 10th July 1951 negotiations for armistice were carried on. Negotiations started, were broken off, were resumed again, and again broken off, and after 575 meetings truce terms were signed on 27th July, 1953. A military demarcation line was established along the final battle line, a little to the north of the 38th Patallel, and troops and equipment of each army were to be withdrawn about two kilometers from this line, leaving a demilitarized zone about two and half miles wide. The war thus ended in a stalemate, and the Korean position remained where it was before. If U. S. A. and U. N. powers felt satisfied that China and Communism were restrained, there is no mistaking the fact that China also had good reason to feel proud for having scored a victory against world powers, and secured a Communist buffer on the Korean side of their Manchurian territory. The happiest was Russia as it played a big role without any cost and made Peking feel the value of her assistance. The worst sufferers were the Koreans, three of whose thirty million people were killed. The net result was that the Peking-Moscow axis was strengthened and Northern Korea became a permanent communist satellite of China.

A very important factor in the Communist China’s expansionist programme was the permanent residence of four million Chinese in Siam and three million in Malaya and Singapore. The land-link between them and China lay through Indo-China which was thus of great strategic importance to China. So China turned her attention to this region and, thanks to the peculiar political situation created by the Second World War, has already achieved great success in painting the banner of Communism almost all over the region.

Japan had overrun Indo-China during the Second World War, and after she surrendered in 1945 it was decided by the Allies, in spite of the opposition of U. S. A. to hand over to France, the country now called Viet Nam (former Annam), which was part of the colonial possessions of France in Indo-China. But France did not find it easy to re-establish her authority after the war. As far as 1930 a Communist-cum-Nationalist Party was established in Indo-China which worked underground for the freedom of the country from the French yoke. During the Second World War it developed into a “League for the Independence of Vietnam”, known as Vietminh (abbreviation of the indigenous name). Its leader Dr. Ho Chi-minh, who worked from China, was trained in Moscow, but, though imbibing Communist doctrines, was a great nationalist, and enjoyed great prestige among the people. Before the arrival of the French troops to re-occupy Annam, Ho Chi-minh gained control over the whole of the country, now called Vietnam, and there was a prolonged war between him and the French troops which lasted for more than seven years and the French loss amounted to 92,000 dead or missing, 114,000 wounded and 28,000 prisoners. The surrender of the French forces at Dien Bien Phu on 7th May, 1954, practically ended the war, and the future of Vietnam was settled at the Conference of Geneva, in May, 1954, which was attended not only by the Western Powers but also by the Foreign Minister of Communist China which was the real power behind Ho Chi-minh. The settlement followed the line adopted in the case of Korea. The country was partitioned along the 17th Parallel of Latitude. The northern part became an independent State under Ho Chi-Minh, while the southern part was virtually ruled by the French in the name of a local puppet Emperor, Bao Dai, whom the Japanese had set up as such during their rule. It was provided that the future of the country should be decided by a free election to be held within two years. This was never done and the French also lost interest in the country. The U. S. A., however, anxious at the growing influence of communism in Indo-China, took South Vietnam under its protection. There has been really no peace between North Vietnam, supported by China, and South Vietnam dominated by the U. S. A. The tension has been growing and at this very moment the old cold war has been followed by an undeclared war between North and South Vietnam which is really a test of strength between China and U. S. A. Bombing operations from the air on both sides are still going on and earnest attempts by the world powers to bring about a cease-fire have not yet produced any result.

But the tussle between communism in Indo-China represented by China-cum-North Vietnam on the one side, and Democracy represented by U. S. A. as protector of South Vietnam on the other, is not confined to Vietnam. It has extended to the two other old colonial dominions of France, namely Laos and Cambodia. Like Bao-Dai in Vietnam, the Japanese had set up, during their short rule in Indo-China, King Sisavong Vong in Laos and King Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia. When the French returned to Indo-China after the war, these two kings accepted their authority, as before, but some members of the Government in each country dis­agreed and carried on guerilla activities for the freedom of their country. Thus came into existence the Pathet Bao and Khmer Governments, respectively, in Laos and Cambodia. These were supported by the Vietminh from its base in North Vietnam as well as China. Here, again, U.S.A. intervened to prevent communism from getting a hold in this region. The result has been a triangular fight in Laos between the Left supported by the Communists, the right supported bythe French (and sometimes by U. S. A.) and the Neutral or Centre Party supported by the U.S.A. The situation has been a very fluid one so far at least as the Right and Centre parties are concerned, and there have been prolonged negotiations and fights between the three contending factions. The plan of a coalition Government has failed, and though the political situation is somewhat obscure, the Communist influence seems to be growing more and more powerful. The same reaction seems to have taken place in Cambodia which is now practically a satellite of China. Both Burma and Thailand had been striving successfully against the Communists, but though the Thailand Government is now definitely aligned with the Western Democracies, the attitude of Burma is not so clear, and signs are not wanting that she is gradually inclining more and more to Communist China. Thus, with the exception of South Vietnam in the east and Thailand on the west, Indo-China may be regarded as within the sphere of influence of Red China. It should be noted that due to the growing differences between U. S. S. R. and China, Russia has ceased to interfere in the politics of South-East Asia which is now a preserve of Communist China.

Indonesia is the last great outpost of communism in South-East Asia. The Communist Party in Indonesia is regarded by some as the “strongest Communist Party outside the Soviet-Chinese orbit”. As far as 1926 the party tried to seize political power by force, but the Dutch Government succeeded in suppressing it. A similar attempt was made in 1948, but was crushed by the Republican Govern­ment under the leadership of Sukarno and Hatta. Sukarno’s position vis-a-vis the Communist Party has always been somewhat intriguing. He acknowledged its services during the struggle for freedom against the Dutch and rewarded it for the same, but his political manifesto goes definitely against some of the fundamental principles of commu­nism. In 1945 Sukarno laid down five principles (panchasila) as the guidelines of the State, and these included belief in God and nationalism. The Communist Party of Indonesia, however, accepted this programme, though it is in conflict with orthodox communism, and it is probably for this reason that the Communist Party was associated with the Government and regarded by Sukarno as the third pillar to the State, the other two being nationalism and religion.

Nevertheless Sukarno took good care not to allow the Commu­nists to have effective control over the Government, and allowed Aidit’s Communist Party, only a negligible number of secondary departments in his 70 men Cabinet. But since 1963 the growing tension with Malayasia, ed by U. K., has led Sukarno to incline more and more towards China with corresponding increase in the strength of the Communist Party. But the sense of nationalism has proved too strong, and when, in Oct. last, the Communists for the third time tried to seize power by force, there was a national reaction represented by the army, and the coup of the Communists planned with the full knowledge and support of Communist China, has completely failed and a vigorous campaign against communism is still going on. Sukarno seems to be sitting on the fence, trying to hold the balance between irritated China and the anti-Communist National Army. But his position has proved to be very shaky.

“In conclusion, reference should be made to the growing cleavage between U.S.S.R. and China which has profoundly affected the history of communism in Asia, and may altogether change its character and significance. Oneeffect of this cleavage has been the alliance between China and Pakistan and her determined and continued aggressive policy towards India. But these big issues and their reaction on the Communist parties in India cannot be attempted at present.