Before Storms & Winds

Along South China's invasion coast, facing the Nationalist islands of Formosa and Hainan, Communist generals are drilling a million men, assembling thousands of junks and sampans for amphibious assault. How firmly will Nationalist China hold out in her island remnants? Last week TIME Correspondent Wilson Fielder surveyed Formosa's defenses. His report:

In the foothills of southern Formosa's terraced mountains, youthful soldiers shout "Shat Sha!" (Kill! Kill!) as they lunge at practice dummies with bayonets. The huge military training camp at Feng-shan echoes with machine-gun chatter, and squads of infantrymen work under live ammunition fire. Fengshan's combat course is modeled after the training system used in the U.S. in World War II, and the camp's officers call it "the cradle of the new Chinese army."

From the training camp, troops graduate to the volcanic black sand beaches not far away. There, facing the mainland, they build concrete pillboxes, string barbed wire, drill endlessly to repel the invasion from the sea. In their off-duty hours, the soldiers sing a new army song:

The fields of the Motherland are calling, The blood of 400 million is throbbing...

Let storms and winds buffet us...

The goddess of Liberty is smiling ...

We are the vanguard of anti-aggression.

From V.M.I. The morale of the new Nationalist army seems to be good, and officers credit the improvement to the work of trim, greying General Sun Li-jen, 49, who learned the elementary facts about soldiering at the U.S.'s Virginia Military Institute. Sun served ably against the Japanese at Shanghai and later in Burma, where he commanded the snappy, U.S.-trained 38th Division. As one of the Nationalists' top commanders in Manchuria after V-J day, he beat the Communists consistently. In 1947, Chinese clique politics led to his transfer to Formosa and the Fengshan training camp.

The islanders soon learned that Sun was no carpetbagger. He set up six "Don'ts" for his troops: "Don't molest the populace; don't go to prostitutes; don't gamble; don't 'squeeze'; don't be false; don't be lazy." He asked Formosans to help enforce discipline. Villagers still talk about the lieutenant who walked the streets of the small towns near Fengshan carrying a big sign listing his crimes.

Sun learned more than discipline at V.M.I. He has an American zest for sport. Recently he took part in a Fengshan soccer game, told the other players: "On the playing field, I'm no general." An enlisted man bowled him over with a well-executed block. The general rose groggily. "Guess I'm not as young as I used to be," he said, but he insisted on finishing the game.

Last month the Nationalist government offered 4,500 young Formosans a chance to serve in the island's defense, and thousands of volunteers were turned away. General Sun was heartened. With the troops he had already trained and those in training (well over 100,000), he feels that he can stand off at least the first waves of a Communist invasion. He has shaken up the officer corps, though too much deadwood still remains. He needs more materiel and more parts for vehicles. But he insists that his "boys are working like beavers because they know now what they are fighting for."

Against Disaffection. The Nationalists' 300-plane air force, commanded by amiable General Chou Chih-jou, could be Formosa's most effective defense (so far, the

Reds have fought without planes), but until recently Chou was plagued with disaffection among his airmen. Last week in Taipeh, Chou opened a lengthy "self-examination" meeting where airmen could talk over their personal worries with top brass. He is also promoting better housing for their families, now thinks that the morale problem is on the way to being solved.

Disaffection has also considerably weakened the Nationalist navy. Following the lead of turncoat airmen, sailors, have surrendered at least twelve ships (including the navy's only cruiser, the Chungking, formerly the British Aurora) to the Communists. To combat disloyalty, chubby Admiral Kwei Yung-ching has clamped several senior captains in irons. He has also promoted relatively liberal pay raises, hopes that what is left of his navy is loyal.

Crucial Front. Beyond its shaky defenses, the specter that haunts Formosa is economic collapse. If Nationalist military expenditures cannot be held within the limits of Formosa's productive capabilities, the Communists might just as well be invited to come on over unopposed. As General Sun says: "If prices double, we get just half the food we need for our men. What do you think will happen if we can't feed our men and their families?"

The commander on the economic front is indefatigable, Princeton-trained Governor K. C. Wu, former mayor of Shanghai. To set a good example, Chain-Smoker Wu gave up cigarettes because "cigarettes are smuggled into Formosa, and represent, therefore, a drain on our financial structure." Since he became Formosa's governor last December, Wu has stopped speculation with government payrolls by military and civilian bureaucrats. He has tried resolutely to tap wealth. Automobiles have been classed as luxuries, and their owners must now buy a certain amount of war bonds; residents applying for passports must purchase bonds equal to the amount of their transportation costs; taxes on restaurant meals and motion pictures have been upped from 20% to 60%.

The real key to a stable economy is industrial expansion. In this field, Wu is pressing as hard as he can with the limited means at his disposal. Formosa's power plants have reached the peak levels of production achieved under the Japanese. Cement production has surpassed the best Japanese mark. The island's meager foreign exchange has been reinvested in irrigation projects for richer crops. But even the most enthusiastic Nationalist admits that all of this will eventually come to naught unless Formosa receives more financial and technical aid from the U.S.

Like other Nationalist leaders, honest Governor Wu is conscious that the U.S. Government, to put it kindly, is impatient with Nationalist shortcomings. He answers: "When your heart is for reform, you must sometimes be patient." And if the Reds take Formosa as they have taken China, what price reform?

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