Word: island
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...mother of reform . . . We've got to try new men and new ideas." Shrewd, capable K. C. Wu, onetime mayor of Shanghai and longtime friend of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek, was talking about plans for the administration and defense of his new domain, the rich, 250-mile-long island of Formosa, which had become the last refuge of China's Nationalist government...
...Rout. For the time being, the Nationalists were safe on Formosa. Last October, the Communists had launched the beginning of an invasion when they tried to storm the tiny island of Chin Men, just off the mainland from Amoy and 130 miles across the Strait of Formosa. The attack was a bloody failure. Nationalist troops commanded by trim, V.M.I.-trained General Sun Li-jen, who four months ago was placed in charge of Formosa's defense, routed a Communist assault force of 20,000, returned to Formosa with 7,000 prisoners. Most of the Reds have since been reorganized...
...most important of the island's defenses is the air force. On the airfields which dot Formosa's western coast, some 300 operable aircraft-fighters, bombers, transports-are ready to fly. But most military observers doubt that the air force can remain in operational condition longer than six months without U.S. spare parts and technical advisers...
Signs of Maturity. Protected by the 100-mile-wide Strait of Formosa, separating them from the Communists on the mainland, the Nationalists seem to have a good chance of successfully defending their island redoubt against an assault-providing Formosa's native population does not rise against them. While General Sun is licking Formosa's military defenses into shape, Governor Wu is busy trying to win the loyalty of Formosa's 6,500,000 people, most of whom dislike the Chinese, Nationalist or Communist. To win friends among Formosa's hard-working peasants, Wu is pressing...
Formosa's modern, Japanese-built power plants, badly battered by U.S. wartime bombing and in dire need of spare parts and trained personnel, are doing their best to supply the island's rich and potentially profitable industries (sugar, aluminum, cement and coal). But Formosa's industries are painfully short of capital. Many Formosan businessmen blame many of their financial troubles on SCAP, whose red-taped regulations prevent virtually all trade between Japan and Formosa...