Friday, 16 December

In the afternoon, Professor Chen Shouyi invited me to have a talk at the place of Zhijie. We conversed happily for the whole day. He thought that Chen Cheng is more understanding towards the overall trend, and is one who advocates economic construction. They seemed to be eager for my return to Taiwan. I told him of the various difficulties, particularly that it would be difficult to persuade Madame Chiang to lessen her arrogant character and accept my opinion. Professor Chen also thought so. He also told me that the overseas Chinese in New York, and even various restaurants, had jointly boycotted Song Ziwen. They would even not take the business of those feasts inviting Song as a guest. Chen also said he felt it was not right that Liang Hancao left Sun Fo to join the panel of Chen Brothers. I invited him to have dinner at Hong Kong Restaurant and we continued to talk until late in the night.

The Soviet Union had exercised veto power for the eighteen states to join. It has now reconsidered her stance. The status of the National government has reached its nadir. Even though world-wide there was discontent with her; it did not hurt. But it was different for the Soviet Union, as Soviet policy is turning from the stage of military struggle to political struggle. To disappoint neutral states is against the policy Soviet Russia is now adopting. Therefore, the Soviets suddenly demanded to summon a special meeting for the Security Council of the United Nations, abolishing its veto decision, only with the exception of Japan. So neither Outer Mongolia nor Japan are able to join. Thus it has come to pass that sixteen states could join. Britain, the United States and the other countries are naturally pleased. On the surface, this time, the National government seems to have gained a victory. It seems to have retrieved what it wanted. But as Taipei is using its inferior status to press those strong countries, even though it has gained a minor victory it would create other issues later on. Therefore, the result is also a failure. Also, as Taipei has gained such a minor victory it would make the country more arrogant, which makes it even more difficult to change its way of doing things. My return to Taiwan is even devoid of usefulness.

Ilya Ehrenburg’s book, The Thaw, has recently been under the attack of the Council of Soviet writers. When Marguerite Higgins questioned the writer unexpectedly about it, he said, “We claim in the Soviet Union to have abolished old capitalists. We do not claim to have abolished all idiots.” That he could reply to a foreign reporter like this, is enough to illustrate that recently Soviet internal control seems to have weakened slightly.