Government of China

Report Outline
Chaina's New Position as a great Power
Nationalists vs. Communists in China
Present Struggle for Dominance in China

Chaina's New Position as a great Power

Recognition of the Republic of China as one of the five great powers of the world carries with it the responsibility to maintain within the nation a strong and stable government. The government must be competent to enforce its laws, to protect Chinese sovereignty, and to play a dominant role in the preservation of peace throughout the Asiatic area.

Government stability in Free China is today challenged by a sizeable minority in the northwest. Communist China, a state with its own laws, currency and tax systems, political and military structures, stands in active opposition to the National government of Chiang Kai-shek. It is ready to take advantage of unpopular government measures to press its own case, to absorb dissident groups, and to conduct energetic campaigns of economic and social reform in the areas under its control.

Wartime difficulties and conservative influence within the Kuomintang (government party of China) have slowed the progress of reform under the Nationalist government. The prospect of an early coalescence of the two political groups is slight, and one experienced observer of Chinese affairs has gone so far as to say that “civil war now seems inevitable.”