continue its eighteenth-century dream
of direct or indirect domination of Southeast Asia? Will North Vietnam
detach itself from China and attach itself more closely to Russia? Will
Russia and China continue to create separate spheres of influence in
Asia, Africa, and South America? The first factor depends on
developments inside China, the second on events outside, and at least in
part on decisions in the United States, Japan, and Europe.

The third factor has to do with human nature. One may justifiably ask
whether the change in human personality which Chinese communism has
attempted to achieve is possible, let alone desirable. Studies of
animals and of human beings have demonstrated a tendency to identify
with a territory, with property, and with kin. Can the Chinese eradicate
this tendency? The Chinese have been family-centered and accustomed to
subordinating their individual inclinations to the requirements of
family and neighborhood. But beyond these established frameworks they
have been individualistic and highly idiosyncratic at all times. Under
the communist regime, however, the government is omnipresent, and people
must toe the official line. One senses the tragedy that affects
well-known scholars, writers and poets, who must degrade themselves,
their work, their past and their families in order to survive. They may
hope for comprehension of their actions, but nonetheless they must
suffer shame. Will the present government change the minds of these men
and eradicate their feelings?

Communist China has made great progress, no doubt. Soon it may equal
other developed nations. But its progress has been achieved at an
unnecessary cost in human lives and happiness.

That the regime is no longer so strong and unified as it was before 1966
does not mean that its end is in sight. Far-reaching changes may occur
in the near future. Public opinion is impressed with mainland China's
progress, as the world usually is with strong nations. And public
opinion is still unimpressed by the achievements of Taiwan and has
hardly begun to change its attitude toward the government of the
"Republic of China." To the historian and the sociologist, the
experience of Taiwan indicates that China, if left alone and freed from
ideological pressures, could industrialize more quickly than any other
presently underdeveloped nation. Taiwan offers a model with which to
compare mainland China.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

The following