![]() ![]() We decided to wait on events and kept to our embassies, expecting the communists to make the first move. We of the diplomatic colony were anxious and uncertain. General Liu Po-cheng, the one-eyed dragon, as he was known, was proclaimed mayor of the city. By the evening the crossing was completed and the Kuomintang capital effectively occupied. Except ourselves and the Burmese (and of course the Soviets) the other diplomats remained indoors, apprehensive lest their presence might lead to some untoward incidents. We drove about everywhere, watching the endless procession of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) marching through the famous Chung Shan Street. I did not think that there was much enthusiasm, but neither was there any hostility. The streets were crowded with sightseers. I went out into the streets to see the troops coming into Nanking. By the afternoon the Committee of Public Order had gained control and issued various proclamations and orders to the people.Įarly next morning everyone knew that the advance party of the communists had entered Nanking and that the main force was being ferried across without any opposition. suffered badly, but on the whole the mob behaved in an orderly and quiet manner. The army headquarters, the offices of the youth organisazation, etc. It was done in a civilized and orderly manner, old women being helped by younger people to carry what they had collected! The mob did not destroy anything they broke only such things as had to be broken, like doors, window frames, etc., which some people carried away quietly as if they were withdrawing a deposit from a bank. From my chancery I could see the official residence of the mayor being plundered by the inhabitants of the locality. ![]() They looted systematically the houses of Kuomintang leaders and officials, but otherwise there was no hooliganism. The civil authorities having fled the town, the mob took charge. On the 22nd of April 1949, Nanking presented a strange scene. In his memoir In Two Chinas, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, the Indian ambassador to the Republic of China, gives an account of the Communist takeover of Nanking in April 1949. ![]()
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