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Agnes Smedley, a War Correspondent from the United States
In the library of Arizona State University, one may see the handwriting of the renowned American journalist Agnes Smedley –“Who & What are Chinese Communists?”It is precisely this question that prompted Ms. Smedley, a writer, journalist, revolutionist, advocate for women’s rights and internationalist, to come to China in late 1928 and spend 12 years in the country. Her legendary life was thus closely connected with the Chinese revolution.
In Shanghai, Ms. Smedley witnessed the Japanese invasion, and saw how the CPC and the Red Army took the lead in calling for an end to the civil war and rallying the awakening Chinese people to resist invasion. In Xi’an, supported by Zhang Xueliang, she made English broadcasts about the developments and negotiations concerning the Xi’an Incident every day, and about the efforts of Zhou Enlai and other CPC representatives to make new progress in promoting solidarity. Her broadcasts became the main source of information for the public to learn what was really going on. Out of profound sympathy for the Chinese revolution, she yearned to get closer to Yan’an and the CPC.
In early 1937, Ms. Smedley arrived in her dream destination Yan’an after a journey of three long weeks. From early spring to late summer, she interviewed many CPC leaders and officials in cave dwellings, including Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Peng Dehuai. At night, she often worked around the clock on an old typewriter. The interview with Commander-in-Chief Zhu De at her first night in Yan’an deeply impressed her. Following that, she fostered deep friendship with Zhu De and decided to write a biography about him. After the Lugouqiao Incident, Ms. Smedley put on the Eighth Route Army uniform and went to the front line with Zhu De and his troops. In her eyes, this is an indestructible army. With a marching capacity of two hundred li a day (about seventy miles), it is probably the swiftest army on earth. It is also a thoroughly trained, strong, united and disciplined army. Each man knows exactly what and why he fights.
Before leaving the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, she told Zhu De that“I believe this army to be the hope of China and of Asia, and your army is pure of soul and purpose.”The nearly one year of life in Yan’an and interviews with troops helped her find an answer to the question“who & what are Chinese Communists”, and convinced her that the Chinese revolution will only succeed under the leadership of the CPC.
Ms. Smedley wrote that the CPC has a strong commitment to the nation and the country – it deeply cares about the interests of the entire country and nation, and their enduring interests. The CPC leaders were great soldiers, patriots and communists, yet they were humble –“My life is only a small part of the life of the Chinese peasants and soldiers.”Indeed, the CPC comes from the people and represents their interests – they come from worker and peasant families that make up ninety percent of the Chinese population, and they understand they are the only ones that the people may rely on;“the principles embodied in the heart of the Eighth Route Army are the principles that will guide and save China, that will give the greatest of impulses to the liberation of all subjected Asian nations, and bring to life a new human society.”
Smedley’s handwriting:“Who & What are Chinese Communists?”
Ms. Smedley felt at home in Yan’an. She was quite popular: staying with officials and soldiers in her Red Army uniform at daytime, and teaching soldiers to dance to phonograph music at night. She was eager to contribute to the Chinese revolution. She wrote letters to invite foreign editors and journalists to Yan’an, and facilitated interviews with Mao Zedong by foreigners including Owen Lattimore, editor of U.S. journal Pacific Affairs . Such interviews further broke the media blockade against the Red Army.
Ms. Smedley said any miracle may happen here. And with objective and truthful reporting, she paid tribute to those who created the miracles. She said that she is not great, and it is the CPC and the Chinese people who are great; and that what she did as a journalist was to send truthfully, without exaggeration or denigration, to the world the information about the just war of the Chinese people led by the CPC.
The Paper Tiger Lady’s Six Visits to China
Many people must have heard about Chairman Mao Zedong’s assertion that“imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers”. This famous statement served as an inspiration to the Chinese people, boosted their confidence in victory, and played a most significant role in the People’s War of Liberation. It owes its publicity to an American journalist, Anna Louise Strong, thus nicknamed the Paper Tiger Lady.
Strong visited China in 1925, 1927 and 1937. In China’s Millions, One-Fifth of Mankind and other books inspired by her visits, Strong told the world how the Kuomintang (KMT) reactionaries betrayed the revolution and suppressed the workers’ movement and the peasants’ movement which she hailed as a single spark that could start a prairie fire for the revolution.
At the end of December 1940, the 55-year-old Strong set foot in China for the fourth time. She continued to follow the revolution and went to Chongqing, the wartime capital. The situation there was more tense than it was known to the outside. The KMT reactionaries would soon stage the South Anhui Incident to sabotage the anti-Japanese united front and step up their anti-Communist campaign.
The moment Strong got off the plane, her journalistic instincts alerted her to the stifling atmosphere in Chongqing. Through meetings with UK Ambassador to China Sir Archibald Clark Kerr and other international friends, she learned that the Communist Party of China (CPC) had encountered many difficulties in the united front and that Chiang Kai-shek was about to strike at a well-established military unit of the CPC that was fighting the Japanese in areas south of the Yangtze River.
When Zhou Enlai heard that Strong was in Chongqing at this critical juncture, he invited her over for long talks that lasted several nights in a row. Zhou told Strong that over the past two years, the relationship between the CPC and the KMT had become increasingly tense and that Chiang Kai-shek’s generals had provoked one conflict after another. Zhou also told Strong in detail about the KMT’s scheme and gave her a 26-page document along with supplementary materials. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Zhou solemnly asked Strong to make it public to the world when the time was right. Strong accepted the mission and regarded it as a special honor.
On her way back to the United States, Strong learned via radio that the South Anhui Incident had taken place. In early February 1942, she received an anonymous air letter from Manila saying that the time had come for her to publish what she knew. Attached to the letter were the full text of the CPC’s official order to re-organize the New Fourth Army and the official statement of the spokesperson of the Revolutionary Military Commission. The statement listed a 15-point conspiracy plan by pro-Japanese elements in Chongqing aiming to include China in the Nazi-fascist Axis.
Strong quickly sent the materials to the North American Press Alliance for publication, and wrote a commentary upon request. At that time, many American news agencies and newspapers would choose not to publish anything in favor of the CPC, even if that meant missing an exclusive scoop.
Yet Strong was not someone who would give up easily. She fulfilled her mission despite the difficulties. With the help of friends, she got the information published in the New York Herald Tribune , giving a detailed account of what led to the conflicts in southern Anhui and between the CPC and the KMT, and who was the real troublemaker. The compelling evidence provided by Strong sent shock waves among the Americans, political leaders and the general public alike. It busted the lies fabricated by the KMT and revealed the truth as it was, winning public support for the CPC from around the world.
Anna Louise Strong
After China won the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Strong paid her fifth visit to China in June 1946. By a stone table in Yangjialing, Yan’an, She met Mao Zedong. They talked about the developments in the civil war and about the U.S. support for Chiang Kai-shek. Strong asked a difficult question,“Suppose the United States uses the atom bomb?”Mao paused for a moment before he replied firmly,“The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrifying, but in fact it isn’t.”Failing to find an English equivalent for paper tiger, the interpreter translated it as scarecrow, following a similar analogy Lenin had made. Strong did not get it. George Hatem, the well-respected doctor known to the Chinese as Ma Haide, was also present.“No, it’s not scarecrow,”he said,“Should be paper tiger.”Mao liked this translation.“A paper tiger is not something dead to scare crows. It scares children. It looks like a terrible tiger but actually, being made of pressed paper, it softens when damp and is washed away in a heavy rain,”he explained.“All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality, they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are powerful.”
Strong later compiled an English transcript of this conversation. The Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee translated it into Chinese for Party members and cadres in the Yan’an border region and the liberated areas to study and discuss. In April 1947, Strong published the English transcript in the New York-based monthly journal Amerasia under a revised title“A World’s Eye View from a Yenan Cave: An Interview With Mao Tze-tung”, which became the official English version of her conversation with Mao. It was soon translated and published by a number of Chinese-language publications in the KMT-controlled areas and Hong Kong. Thus, records of the conversation spread quickly with a far-reaching impact.
“The atom bomb is a paper tiger.”“All reactionaries are paper tigers.”“From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are powerful.”These remarks soon took off as rallying calls among the troops and civilians in the liberated areas. They boosted the confidence and resolve of the Chinese to fight on without fear, thus playing an instrumental role in winning the People’s War of Liberation. In just three years, the KMT, a big paper tiger with eight million troops armed to the teeth with U.S. gears, was torn apart; the“three great mountains”of feudalism, imperialism and bureaucrat-capitalism were toppled; and a great victory was won. History would go on to show that this famous assertion could stand many grave tests of nuclear blackmail. This unfailing truth has played a significant role in consolidating a new-born government, upholding world peace and promoting human development and progress.
In early 1947, Strong concluded her fifth visit to China and had to leave Yan’an. She later wrote in a letter that China was where she“wanted to stay forever”.
In 1958, Strong, then 73 years old, visited China for the sixth time. This time, she chose to stay and spend the rest of her life in China. On March 30,1970, this American writer who loved China deeply passed away of illness in a country that she deemed as her“ideal resting place”.
Indian Doctor Old Ke’s Bond with China
On July 7, 1942, five years after China began a full-scale war of resistance against Japanese aggression, a young Indian doctor solemnly swore to the red flag to join the Communist Party of China (CPC). He was then on the battlefront of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border region. After taking the oath, he declared excitedly that he would fight with the army and the people in the liberated areas till his last breath. His name was Dwarkanath Kotnis, or Ke Dihua in Chinese. The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and the villagers liked to call him Old Ke.
Old Ke’s bond with China began with a letter from Zhu De, then Commander-in-Chief of the Eighth Route Army, to Jawaharlal Nehru, the leader of the Indian National Congress, asking for material and medical assistance from India. The Army was in acute shortage of doctors and medicine as the war raged on in China. Upon receiving the letter, the Indian side immediately assembled and sent a medical team of five doctors to China amid the flames of war. Dr. Kotnis was one of them.
Before leaving for China, the team had heard that the CPC was different from the Kuomintang, and therefore when they arrived, they asked to go to the CPC-led battlefield behind the enemy lines, and work where the Chinese people suffered the most. With unrelenting persuasion, Dr. Kotnis finally arrived at the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border region and became a battlefront doctor, perform-ing surgeries on the firing line.
Fighting shoulder to shoulder with CPC members and the Eighth Route Army, Old Ke became well-known in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border region. Considering himself a real soldier of the Eighth Route Army, he fully blended in with the struggle and life of the liberated areas.
For him, the CPC-led war against Japanese aggression was a great, revolutionary fight for justice, and the Eighth Route Army was like an excellent university turning out tens of thousands of revolutionary youths. He found out that the anti-Japanese base areas led by the CPC were totally different from the Kuomintang-controlled areas. People there lived as equals. Officers and soldiers were no different. Soldiers could participate in discussions on major issues or criticize their superiors. Officers, soldiers and staff received almost the same allowance: according to him, a commander of a hundred-thousand-strong troop only had five rupees a month, while an ordinary soldier could get three rupees. There was neither extreme disparity between the rich and the poor like the situation in Kuomintang-controlled areas, nor strict stratification like the caste system in India.
Dr. Kotnis works at the Bethune International Peace Hospital.
All this changed Dr. Kotnis profoundly. In his letter to Dr. Basu, who was also on the medical team, he wrote with excitement that he had been“experiencing a good deal of transformation”in his“character”and“ideas”, and that he had gotten rid of his bad habits, including his“bourgeois ideas”. When the Indian government sent a telegram to the battlefront, urging him to return, he pled with the local officials in charge to let him stay. He noted that the war against Japanese aggression led by Mao Zedong and the CPC was a great fight. He had fallen in love with the cause of the CPC and the base areas behind the enemy lines, and no matter what may come, he would fight together with the Chinese till the final victory was secured.
On July 7, 1942, Dr. Kotnis became a proud member of the CPC and one of the proletarian vanguards. After joining the Party, he devoted all his time to saving lives, despite suffering from pain and illness himself. On December 9,1942, worn out by overwork, Dr. Kotnis passed away in illness on the Chinese soil. He was then at the age of 32.
In his eulogy, Chairman Mao Zedong wrote,“Dr. Kotnis, our Indian friend, came to China from afar to assist us in our War of Resistance. He worked for five years in Yan’an and North China, giving medical treatment to our wounded soldiers and died of illness owing to constant overwork. The army has lost a helping hand, and the nation lost a friend. Let us always bear in mind his international spirit.”
Though he was a CPC member for only five months, Dr. Kotnis dedicated himself completely to the cause he believed in. He devoted his best years and even life to the Chinese revolution and to the tough days and nights in the anti-Japanese base areas. He lived his life the way he wanted. He truly fulfilled his oath to the Party.