Tension in the Taiwan Straits was started on August 23, 1958, just 3 months ago. I was then in New York City, beginning to pack my books and to wind up a mess of nine years’ accumulation, in preparation for my return to Taiwan. I must confess that, during the first days of Communist shelling of the islands of the Quemoy group, I was a bit worried.

I realized that this concentrated and continuous shelling of the islands was a probing tactic; it was a test—a test of the strength of Free China’s front line of defense, a test of her capability to supply the offshore islands, a test of her troops defending the fortified islands, and of her navy and her air force. And it was also a test of the morale of the people of Free China at a time of crisis. And above all, it was in all probability intended to be a severe test of the reliability of the Sino-American Treaty of Mutual Defense (which specifically covers Taiwan and the Penghu Islands) and the U.S. Congressional Resolution of January 1955 (which was understood to apply to the offshore islands.)

The questions then uppermost in our minds were: How effectively can Free China meet the test in the face of our obvious difficulties of distance, lack of new weapons, and lack of logistic equipment? And how ready and willing is our American ally to meet the challenge—in the face of an adverse public opinion which was then overwhelmingly on the side of appeasement and “disengagement?”

I confess I was worried in those first days of savage shelling of the islands. But my worries did not last long.

The fortifications on Quemoy stood well. The troops and the population on the islands remained calm. Their morale proved excellent.

Page 315 →And the people of Taiwan stood the test well. “No signs of panic, no hysteria, no hoarding, work goes on as usual.”

And the response from the great leaders of the U.S.A. was truly heartening. Secretary of State Dulles was a rock of strength. President Eisenhower proved himself once more a great soldier and a great statesman. “A Western Pacific Munich,” said Eisenhower, “would not buy peace and security. It would encourage the aggressors and dismay our friends and allies.”

As Mr. R. C. Chen told you two weeks ago, “Since August 23rd, Uncle Sam has sent to Taiwan more than one billion U.S. dollars worth of the best military equipment for the joint defense of freedom.”

And we were soon reading of the good news of our victories in the air. The Associated Press described the Chinese airmen as “the best fliers in the world.” The “Sidewinders” were used for the first time over the Taiwan Straits. But it was said that more than “80% of the MIGs knocked down were destroyed without the use of the Sidewinders.”

And our naval men and marines also did very well. “The Chinese,” said Admiral Felt, “have learned in the past two months the techniques and tricks of amphibious warfare which we spent years to learn.” So the Communist blockade of Quemoy was broken by the Chinese armed forces, with American arms. So the half-million-round Communist artillery barrage failed.

This, then, is my sum-up: Free China, with the timely and generous aid of American arms and equipment, has been able to meet the severe test of the last three months. Her great ally, the U.S.A., has been ready and willing to meet the challenge. All evidences point to a joint Sino-American victory over an apparently well planned Communist campaign of probing aggression. It is a victory of Chinese anti-Communist patriotism and national unity. It is also a victory of the U.S. policy of firmness and fidelity to the pledged word as enunciated by President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles from the very beginning of the tension in the Taiwan Straits.

Bishop Ward has characterized the Communist shelling of Quemoy as a test of Sino-American solidarity. And I agree with him that the test has resulted in much strengthening of that solidarity.

But this hard-earned victory in the first round of the conflict must not make us complacent. We must be constantly on our guard.

World Communism is one, and is highly centralized in control. Its strategy of world conquest is conceived on a world scale and its tactical moves may be carried out in different parts of the earth either simultaneously or at different but always well coordinated points of time.

Page 316 →Earlier this year, it was the Middle East that was threatened. But, before the situation in the Middle East calmed down, war suddenly broke out in the Far East by the savage shelling of Quemoy. And now, while the Chinese Communist guns are still shelling our offshore island every day or every other day, the city of Berlin has already been threatened by new dangers of a long blockade or a war.

On November 10, Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev of the Soviet Union made a speech in Moscow, in which he demanded the termination of the Four Power occupation of Berlin. He said that the Soviet Union was ready to hand over its occupation functions to the puppet Communist regime of East Germany.

I quote a few sentences of the Khrushchev speech:

The time has evidently come for the powers which signed the Potsdam agreement to give up the remnants of the occupation regime in Berlin. The Soviet Union, for its part, will hand over those functions in Berlin which are still with Soviet organs to the sovereign German Democratic Republic. I think that this would be the right thing to do.

Let the United States, France and Britain form their own relations. with the German Democratic Republic and come to an agreement with it if they are interested in certain questions connected with Berlin.

Should any aggressive forces attack the German Democratic Republic . . . then we will consider it as an attack on the Soviet Union, on all the parties to the Warsaw Treaty. We shall rise then to the defense of the German Democratic Republic, and this will mean the defense of the root interests of the security of the Soviet Union, of the entire Socialist camp and of the cause of peace all over the world. . . .

On November 16, the Pravda, the official organ of the Communist Party, published an article under the title, “There Can Only Be One Solution to the Berlin Question.” The article quoted the key sentences from Khrushchev’s speech of November 10th, and remarked that this is “a decision of the Soviet Government,” and that “the Soviet Government is inflexible in its decision to implement the long matured measures.”

To this enlightened assembly, I need not go into the details of the story of the divided and occupied city of Berlin which is an “island” surrounded on all sides by East Germany. Nor is it necessary to describe the very serious predicament in which the other three occupation powers, the United States, Page 317 →Great Britain and France, will be placed if and when the Soviet Union will unilaterally terminate the agreement of occupation signed on June 5, 1945, by the military commanders of the four powers and confirmed by the Potsdam agreement.

In brief, the occupation troops of those three powers will be forced to deal with the East German regime which they have refused to recognize. And the many millions of freedom-loving German people in the Western section of Berlin will be forced to submit to Communist rule which they hate. Or they will have to face a second Berlin Blockade in which the troops and the vast population can only be supplied by an airlift to be organized on an unprecedented scale.

And, of course, there is always the danger of a great war breaking out in such a highly explosive situation.

In the last two weeks, the Western Powers have, on several occasions, declared their determination not to be ousted from Berlin, and to hold the Soviet Union responsible for maintaining the status quo in Berlin. Sixteen days have passed since the Khrushchev speech of November 10th, and the Soviet Union has not yet carried out its threat to end its occupation of Berlin and to transfer its functions to the East German regime.

The initiative is in the hands of the gangsters. And experts on world affairs hesitate to foretell what the outcome of the new Berlin crisis may be like.

But I for one would like to sound a serious warning to all of us who are immediately concerned with the fate of a free China and a free Asia. My warning is: Whatever may happen in Berlin and in Europe, there will be no lessening of tension in the Taiwan Straits. On the contrary, it can be safely predicted that, while the attention of the entire western world is focused on the Berlin crisis, world communism will start its sudden and aggressive moves in Asia—surely in the Taiwan Straits, and most likely also in Korea, or in Vietnam—and possibly also in Iran, which was specifically mentioned in Khrushchev’s speech on November 10th.

For, let us never forget, World Communism is one, and its machinations and manipulations are calculated and well co-ordinated.

And let us never forget what happened ten years ago in China during the long months of the first Berlin Blockade.

The first Berlin Blockade began in July 1948, lasted ten months and a half, and was not ended until May 1949. It was during those ten and a half months that the fate of China was sealed.

Page 318 →When the entire western world was watching and admiring the thousands of dramatic airlifting planes flying into and out of Berlin, Shantung was lost, the whole of Manchuria was lost, North China was lost, and the Communist troops crossed the Yangtse River and occupied the evacuated capital of Nanking in April 1949. The city of Shanghai fell in May. And when the Berlin blockade was at last ended in May, the main part of China had been lost to the armed conquest of world Communism.

There is a Chinese proverbial expression for this kind of tactics. It is called the method of “attacking the west while making a big howl in the east.”

Let us all remember the tragic lesson of the first Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949. Let us warn ourselves and our friends never to lessen our daily and hourly vigilance.