Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-28
Editorial Correspondence of The STAR
THEODORE w. MOVES.

THEODORE w. MOVES.
The crisis in China grips world
wide attention. Is China to be unified
through Canton, after failure to Sc
cure unity through Peking? Is China
unified under bolshevik influence to
be the real yellow peril? Will the
new China be a menace or a benefit
to the world?
When / wrote about Chinese condi-
tons at the end of 1925 and the
beginning of 1926 the factors in the
military equation were Chang Tso-lin,
ex-bandit. cruel and despotic war
lord of Manchuria; Feng Yu-hsiang,
the so-called Christian general, de-
irving strength from Mongolia and
Russia, the betrayer of WI Pei-fu;
and WI Pei-fu, the ablest of the war
lords and the most unfortunate. in
every crisis the victim of disloyalty.
The Cantonese Reds and Whites were
in deadlock and a negligible factor.
The Yangtse lower provinces sup
posed to be part Of territory under
Wu's control had expelled Chang
Tso-lin's soldiers and driven them
back to Manchuria, where Chang
nearly suffered defeat and destruction
through the revolt Of one of his gen.
erals.
Overcoming finally this revolt,
Chang combined with the forces of
WI, advancing from the south,
against Feng and his bolshevik asso-
ciates who then held Picking.
This combination proved too strong
for Feng, who, after some fighting,
evacuated Picking, withdrew his army
to Mongolia and prudently retired to
Moscow, where. according to report.
he has been initiated into the inner
councils of bolshevism.
Chang and WI held Peking and
northern and central China, these
allies distressing and fearing each
other and being held together only
by the greater common dread Of
Soviet Russia.
CantOn's Fine Drive for Control.
Today, with several turns of the
Kaleidoscope, a new situation Is pre-
scented. The Cantonese Reds. neg
ligible before, are now the dominating
factor. Bolshevism, checked in North
China by Chang and WI, and by
strategic retreat withdrawing it's
forces to Kalgan, has made a new
attack from the south. The Red
Chinese army, disciplined, equipped
and guided by Russians, has swept
VIGOROUSLY through South China to
Central China and the Yangtse and
has beaten WI, captured Hankow and
pushed Sun Chuan-fang. once war
lord of the five lower Yangtse prov
inces, almost back to Shanghai.
The shrewd military move Of Can
ton against Hankow broke the north
ern combination of Chang and WI
and sent the latter hurrying back to
HankoW, where. attacked without his
natural allies and deserted by several
subordinate generals, he
was thoroughly beaten and driven to
the northward with only fragment
of his army remaining faithful to
him.
The Soviet plotters, withdrawing in
North China, where they had to meet
WI and Chang combined, are now
attacking their opponents singly in
detail. They have beaten WI alone
at Hankow; they are advancing upon
and beating Sun Chuan-fang and il
he is destroyed Changes turn will
come.
Rise of Chang Kai-Shek.
The conspicuous Chinese war lord
is neither Chang TsO-lin nor Feng
nor WI, but Chang Kai-shek, the
leader of the Cantonese Reds, young.
est of the war lords, q man still in
his thirties, disciple Of Sun Vat Sen,
whose organizing and military ability
has, with Russian aid, developed the
army which has pushed VIGOROUSLY to
the very gates of Shanghai.
Sun Chuan-fang. who, with his
small but well disciplined army, was
the main factor in driving Chang Tso-
lin from Shanghai and the Yangtse
provinces, made a fine record in the
fighting and maneuvering prior to the
Cantonese raid, ana. at the expense
of WI, brought within his nominal
jurisdiction the five lower Yangtse
provinces and became a promising
new candidate for membership in the
Chinese triumvirate to succeed that
of Chang and WI and Feng, and also
for the final dictatorship of China,
when the triumvirate of China's mill
tary rulers is reduced to unity.
But Suns ambitions and hopes may
be quickly blasted. He held back when
WI was attacked, leaving him to be
Id. .v.I D.