In the year 169 B.C, a certain General Chao, who had been sent} to fight the Huns, wrote in a report to the Han' Emperor, Wen Ti, that it was even then "the: Chinese rule to fight the bar-parian with barbarians" and to "put no reliance in the chance of battle'. After enlarging! upon the efficiency of the Hun cavalry, he remarks that an encounter with them might} seriously damage the Imperial] prestige and that it would be! much better to make friends with certain Tungusic tribes, equip them and let them do the dangerous work on the frontiers, Two hundred years later another Chinese soldier-diplomat operating in what is now Turkestan, makes almost identical recommendations to his Imperial master and almost identical references to China's traditional] foreign policy. More than two thousand years have passed since the first documentary reference was made to this policy and, if one studies not only the history of China's foreign relations during the past few centuries, but the situation of the moment as well it will be seen that there has been no! change. The idea of playing one alien against another to weaken the position of both, of fighting all battles by proxy, of studying! and profiting by the mutual antagonisms of the barbarians, like a woman who accepts presents from many suitors and then. sets them quarrelling to relieve! herself their consequent importunities, remains China's one and only foreign policy to this day. We have two very clear evidences of it in current! affairs. The non-committal itude of the Nanking regime towards the continued sojourn of the Soviet Consul-General, and his staff of "workers" and Chinese Communist dependents, is one; while General Yang Vu-ting's transparent effort to] play America. against Japan in the matter of the development Manchuria, as revealed interview which we published yesterday, is another.
The Kuomintang attitude is not difficult to understand: The "Nationalists," as a loose ud disjointed federation, with more now to quarrel about than to bring them together, have, gut-raged or at least offended reputable major Power repre-nted in China, Under Soviet guidance they pushed their antiforeign propaganda to the point where, for fear of the fever} with which they have infected the masses reacting with violence upon' themselves, they dare not make reparation or even apology for their offences. They dare not even say that. outrages which would disgrace the most degenerate savages were regrettable except in confidential private conversations. They have no hope of being able to do conand useful work that out th@ memory their criminally insane activities nor can they hope now to evolve government that will elicit such respect that the Powers can. afford to let the dead past bury itself. They are forced, therefore, to maintain a surly attitude of defiance throughout their dis. integrating realm and to reiterate their wants and support them abroad with increasingly' mendacious accounts of the, situation here and its causes, such as the Linebarger interview which we published yesterday, in the hope that some one nation will be soft enough to see advantage in forgetting the immediate past and support them against the chilly, unrelenting attitude of the other Powers.
Until this happens, however, they dare not cut the slender thread that still binds them to Soviet Russia, for if they did they would be without a single potential "barbarian" ally to play against the others. Red Russia, they say, is the only Power that voluntarily made a documentary display of ceding to them all the rights that they demand, They must cherish this precedent. A complete break with the USS.R., for which all Chinese now admit there is ample ground, would at this moment not only look like a repudiation of Communism but would also wipe out the valuable precedent established by Ri sia's documentary gesture. This they cannot bring themselves to do until some other Power, some other "barbarian" willing to be used to promote the discomfiture of the others, follows the Soviet, example. Meanwhile they are content if they can keep Red activity within such bounds that the Chinese Communists are cluded from the executive of the Kuomintang, but are allowed just enough freedom of action to keep us diverted and buoy so that we do not think too much about the "Nationalist" crimes of the past, the "Nationalist"
lure of the present, and the impending chaos of the immediate future. A little Communist deviltry is good for us, they think, much as the flea good for the dog, since it keeps his mind engaged and absorbs energies that might be directed into turbulent channels. The complete elimination of all Red centres of agitation and criminal activity in this country would be a great relief to the harassed Kuomintang and would rob the "left wing" extremists of much of their present assurance; but, in the light of China's' Han Dynasty policy, it would be a desperate measure to force! through, because it would disarm and' alienate with finality what might possibly be an ally) in an emergency, and would free communities like this from an anxiety and a constant source of irritation which the Kuomintang regards as a fortunate pre-occupation for us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.