After the CPPCC, the “autocratic” National Government continued the process of returning the political power to the people without losing its gentlemanly style. In accordance with the resolution of the National Congress, it proceeded to convene the Constitutional National Convention, which ended the training regime and initiated constitutional democracy. But the communists began to worry that the “democratic coalition government” would turn out to be a sham and hinder their stated goal of armed seizure of power, but they could not openly oppose it. So they resorted to another tactic of political hooligans, stirring up nonsense.
The communists refused to submit the names of delegates to the National Convention on the grounds that the list could only be given to the reorganized coalition government. But there was no such provision in the resolution of the National Convention, and the date of the meeting was already specified as May 5 of the same year (1946). The government wanted to agree on the number of seats in the committee of the coalition government, but the CPC did not sincerely cooperate and dragged the NLD to demand 14 seats. At first the government agreed to 12 seats, but later gave in to 13 seats, arguing that you could exercise the veto as long as you got a vote from non-Communists, but the CCP refused to do so, and threatened to boycott the Constitutional National Convention, even though the issue of seats had nothing to do with constitutionalism. It is clear that the communists are deliberately creating a deadlock. [14]
Things had come to a head, and Chiang C.C. felt that a political solution had to be abandoned. He stated at the KMT Central Committee’s Memorial Week in June 1946, “I depend on completing the military (suppression of the Communists) within one year and restoring the economy within two years.”
However, Chiang could not let go of his independent decisions without the United States, which was still seeking the peaceful reunification of the Communist Party. The mediation envoy Marshall, who was mindful of the democratic coalition government, was firmly opposed to a military solution and pressured the government to continue unnecessary negotiations with the Communists, arguing that a coalition government without the participation of the CCP would encourage the Communists to expand their rebellion. Chiang explicitly told the Communists that they wanted to seize power with arms, and that the Communists were fighting with the National Army in Soviet China at that Time. But Ma, like a man possessed by a fire, turned a deaf ear to it completely.
In response to Marshall’s forced intervention, Chiang C.C.C. confronted him with the question: Can a democratic government be established without the participation of the Communists? In his diary, he lambasted Marshall for his “insanity”, “obstinacy” and “lack of political common sense”. But after all, the Nationalist government could not build a country against the Communists without the support of its American allies, so knowing that political reconciliation was hopeless, it had to cooperate with the United States and the communist hooligans to continue negotiations and tug of war. But Chiang also instructed himself “must not change my basic national policy for the sake of Marshall’s personal favor or dislike.”
Marshall, in order to promote peaceful reunification, also asked the Nationalists and Communists to stop the hate and suspicion propaganda in order to create an atmosphere of reconciliation. But only the National Government, as a gentleman’s side, responded, while the Communist rogues disdained it. At that time, a large number of refugees from northern Jiangsu fled the communist area to Nanjing and complained to the press about the communist bandits’ atrocities of land reform. This would have been excellent material for the national government to expose the communists’ fake democracy and true terror to the people. However, the Central Daily News and other Anti-Communist media were ordered not to report the story. Wu Guozhen, the Kuomintang propaganda minister, recalled, “Nothing could have pleased the Communists more than this policy. While we foolishly kept silent, they made a great deal of propaganda, and the world could only hear what they had to say and not what we had to say.” [15] When a Nationalist general was killed in action and his body was shipped back to Nanjing, the central government banned the publication of news and the participation of the military in the mourning so as not to irritate the Chinese Communists. [16] In contrast, the Xinhua Daily, which was allowed to be distributed in the National Unification Area, openly promoted the Communist philosophy, flaunted the Communist war record, published the list of captured generals of the National Army, brainwashed the public, and broke the morale of the National Army, causing confusion and panic in the National Unification Area. Marshall’s fear of the Communists forced even the National Government to be Mr. Dong Guo.
The Communists also took advantage of the goodwill and tolerance of the Nationalist government to encourage school petitions, strikes, rallies and protests in the major cities, which led to a wave of public opinion wars against the government and directed public discontent toward the government. The Communists’ alternative attacks on the government on their so-called “Second Front” were another important reason why the Nationalist government lost the hearts and minds of the people and eventually withdrew from the mainland. All this had much to do with the untimely and forced democratization of politics with the Communists.
In November 1946, after waiting once for an extension, the government took the first step toward constitutional democracy by reserving seats for the CCP to convene the National Convention and adopt a constitution that the CCP had previously participated in formulating and endorsing. The CCP, however, accused the government of unilaterally convening the NCP in a deliberate attempt to divide it and vilified it as a pseudo-NCP and a pseudo-constitution. Even Marshall had to say, “It is unfortunate that the National Convention has indeed adopted a democratic constitution which is in all major respects consistent with the principles laid down by the Political Consultative Conference, that the constitution adopted already includes all the points demanded by the Communist Party, and that the Chinese Communist Party should consider it inappropriate to participate in the Convention.” Ma also thought that the CCP really cared about political democratization.
After the formal constitution of the Republic of China in 1948, the Communist rebellion had gotten out of hand. In response to the wartime state of fighting the Communists, the Temporary Provisions for Mobilization in the Counterinsurgency Period had to be added to expand the President’s emergency powers so that they would not be subject to the Constitution of the Republic of China, which had only been in force for a few months. Marshall’s efforts to democratize politics have not only made the government time-consuming and troublesome, but also brought the wolves into the house, back to square one.
In fact, the Communist Party is most unlikely to practice democracy, either by nature or by objective. The so-called “democratically elected” government is actually a totalitarian tyranny, and there is no democracy or freedom for the people in the Communist Party. The U.S. had the intention to promote the democratization of Chinese politics, but unfortunately, it both misread the target and chose the wrong time, and as a result, the U.S. fell for a big trick and did the Communist Party a big favor, making the state government suffer a big loss.
Besides, democratic politics is supposed to be a game between gentlemen. And the disagreement between the Communist Party and the state is a dichotomy between gentlemen and rogues. The rogue will not agree with the rules of a gentleman, and naturally should not enjoy the treatment of a gentleman. If you treat a rogue as a gentleman, it is the gentleman who will suffer. The U.S. mistook the Communists for normal human beings and expected the rogues to accept the rules of civilization, to the detriment of others and themselves.
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