Choices in China
By an overwhelming majority, and to nobody's surprise, the Chinese National Assembly has re-elected Generalissimo Chiang Kai- shek President of the Republic. There was for practical purposes no other choice it could make. The Generalissimo still dominates the Chinese stage, on which the heroic drama of ten years ago has gradually declined into a more normal tragi-comic formula. Civil war and inflation continue to cause widespread suffering; the whole country is bogged down in a condition verging on political and economic bankruptcy. If the Generalissimo went this condition would almost certainly be aggravated by the release of those centri- fugal forces within the Kuomintang which he alone can, however precariously, unite. Now that he is once more confirmed in office, retaining his emergency powers and in effect appointing his own Premier, what are the prospects of improvement ? They cannot be described as cheerful. Decisive battles have never been the vogue in China, and it is a safe bet that the Communist problem will never be settled by force of arms. The only alternative is a political com- promise, and that is not a practical alternative while the Generalissimo is in power. On the economic side, American aid can do little to restore the situation as long as its administration by the Chinese continues to be corrupt and inefficient. It is a gloomy outlook which reformers—if enough of the right ones are included in the new administration—may be able to ameliorate slightly ; but the outlook in China has often been gloomy in the past, and, though it is fairly safe to predict that things must get worse before they can get better, it is an even safer prophecy that they will get better in the end.
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