YENAN AUTHORITIES REFUTE WEI TAO-MING'S LIES

4 February 1945

[Text] HSIN-HUA NEWS AGENCY, Yenan, 4 February--Yenan authorities commented
on the statement of Wei Tao-ming, Kuomintang ambassador to the United States,
at a Washington press conference on 2 February. The comment is as follows:

Wei's statement on the distribution of lend-lease resources consisted of
rumors and lies. He said: "Among the lend-lease supplies shipped to the
Central Government for use against Japan, a considerably large portion has
been distributed to the Communist Party for use in the same cause." It
was truly a groundless lie. Unless in his unique mathematics zero equals
"a considerably large portion," such a statement runs completely against
the facts and is a shameless lie. Since the southern Anhwei incident in
January 1941, the Kuomintang government declared the New 4th Army a "rebel
army" and completely cut off all supplies to the 8th Route Army. Not only
did it not distribute even one gun, one bullet, one pill, or one penny to
the Communist Party, but it blockaded and surrounded the Shensi-Kansu-
Ninghsia Border Region and the liberated areas behind enemy lines with
several hundred thousand troops and confiscated all resources entering the
Border Region, including several tons of medical supplies solicited by the
China Defense Alliance from England and America. Until now this situation
has not changed in the least bit. The only contact between the Chinese
Communist Party and the lend-lease supplies is the anticommunist Kuomintang
troops armed with "a considerably large portion" of lend-lease supplies
besieging the Border Region. Therefore, Wei's words should be changed to
fit the facts: "Among the lend-lease supplies shipped to the Central
Government for use against Japan, a considerably large portion has been
distributed to the anticommunist troops for another use."

As for why Wei would tell such a shameless lie, it is not hard to understand.
It was because public opinion in America and England and the responsible
officials of their governments had shown great concern over the relations
between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and over the use of the
lend-lease supplies by the Kuomintang government. Recently, U.S. Under
Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew and Leader of the British House of Lords
and Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Viscount Craneborne both openly

indicated that they hoped for China's unity and would "render aid to the
Chinese Government and the communist government in Yenan regardless of
their differences." (K'o-lan-po-en's words). Agitated, the Kuomintang
absolutists ordered their ambassador, at whatever cost, to tell lies in
public, making such statements as "the National Government has made many
compromises with the Communist Party" and "a considerably large portion has
been distributed to the Communist Party" for the purpose of hoodwinking
international public opinion and in order to preserve their fascist regime
of one-party dictatorship. Nevertheless, the international public opinion
and foreign statesmen, like the people of China, are not easily deceived
by lies. We advise the Kuomintang authorities to show a modicum of
national integrity and not let their foreign ambassadors forever be regarded as swindlers and liars.

CHIEH-FANG JIH-PAO, 5 February 1945.