Return of the Gimo

When China's Nationalists retreated from their refugee capital of Chungking last November, Acting President Li Tsung-jen did not go with them. Instead, Li took a plane to Hong Kong, announced he would enter a hospital for treatment of an old stomach ailment. Ever since then, Nationalist China's fight against Communism has been directed by Chiang Kaishek, who came out of retirement to take over unofficially in Li's absence.

Li tarried in Hong Kong for two weeks, then came to the U.S. for an operation, bringing his family with him. Under Chiang, meanwhile, the Nationalists' resistance seemed to stiffen. The Chinese air force and navy set up a surprisingly vigorous blockade of the Communist mainland. Nationalist troops on Formosa began training in earnest under capable,

V.M.I.-educated General Sun Li-jen (TIME, Feb. 27).

Last week, in Formosa's capital of Taipei, Chiang Kai-shek formally resumed his position as President of Nationalist China. Chiang ascended a barren platform in the red brick government headquarters, nodded unblinkingly to an assembly of 200 of Nationalist China's remaining leaders--cabinet members, generals, governors of China's lost provinces and four former mayors of Shanghai. "At this critical moment," came the clipped tones of the Gimo's native Chekiang, "I cannot shirk my responsibility." He added optimistically: "I do not have any doubt that we will recover the mainland, that the Communists will be crushed . . ." That afternoon, the Generalissimo and Madame Chiang received a thousand guests at a tea celebrating the Gimo's return to office.

When the news of Chiang's return to office reached Hong Kong, headlines in the pro-Communist press jeered: BALDHEAD GOING BACK TO THRONE. In New York City, where he has been convalescing from his stomach operation for almost three months, Acting President Li Tsung-jen received reporters on a windswept terrace in the Bronx. While Madame Li scuffed in annoyance at an occasional leaf (see cut), Li denounced Chiang as a "dictator" and "usurper," doughtily vowed he would "return to crush this movement," but failed to explain when or how. Then he boarded a train for Washington to eat a hearty lunch with President Truman. Just before he left New York, Li had a cablegram. From Formosa, President Chiang expressed hope that Acting President Li would, indeed, be able to return soon. But nobody really thought that he would.

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