Word: formosans
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...sunny morning last week 200 young men and women in faded khaki and blue denim uniforms filed into a warehouse on a barren hill west of the Formosan city of Taichung. They were there to begin their college education. Standing before piles of shipping crates, President Beauson Tseng, 61, welcomed them to a unique educational enterprise: Tunghai University, the first Christian university in Formosa's history...
...called no one a bandit or warmonger. The old demands were reiterated-for U.N. membership and an end to the trade embargo-but alongside them was a hint that Peking might be ready to "enter into negotiations with the responsible local authorities in Formosa." There was no question of Formosan independence, Chou insisted. But "conditions permitting, [the Communists] are prepared to seek the liberation of Formosa by peaceful means." "Peaceful means" was a phrase which Adolf Hitler used when he grabbed Czechoslovakia in 1939, and in Peking's vocabulary, it seems to mean the same thing...
Chiang moved swiftly to restore Formosan morale. He installed as governor frail, ulcer-ridden Chen Cheng, a general turned civilian who had been with Chiang since student days. Chen simultaneously tightened police control and initiated basic reforms, notably land reform. Chiang had learned his lesson on the mainland: "The consensus is that our party failed during the past four years because we failed to enforce the principle of the people's livelihood...
...danger is real: the Communists have tried hard to subvert Formosan loyalty. Three years ago a vice chief of staff was discovered to be a Communist spy. A few months ago two student pilots flew off to the Chinese mainland with an air-force trainer. But Chiang Ching-kuo insists that security cases are now down to two or three a month...
...other alternative of such a plebiscite would be the election of a native Formosan leader, who would receive continued U.S. support and might be able to undertake domestic reforms which Chiang has been unable to tackle...