In 1942, Chiang Kai-shek took his wife Soong Mei-ling on a special plane to visit India with great spirits, and this time the old Chiang Kai-shek was full of effort to show the world his spiritual outlook, but he did not expect that on this trip to India, he not only did not receive "courtesy", but also was humiliated by the Indians and the British.
Why did Chiang Kai-shek, who had been a self-proclaimed hero all his life, finally say nothing about this "trip to India"? Why did he send it to the door himself to humiliate others?
This article takes you to explore the story of Chiang Kai-shek's visit to China and India in 1942.
China in 1942 was still in dire straits, with the unresolved Japanese war of aggression against China on the one hand and the problems in Henan, the Chinese granary. Feng Xiaogang's "1942" also made a strong depiction of this rare famine. In 1942, Henan suffered a severe drought, and grain production was forced to decrease. But the last straw that ultimately crushed Henan was the harsh anti-war environment in Henan Province.
The September 27, 1943 report reported on the famine, with rising food prices, inadequate military supplies, devaluing land, the inability of peasants to sell land to survive, and local officials embezzling money from relief grain to enrich themselves. Henan Province fell first, followed by Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, and Anhui. Henan is the hardest hit area, with 96 of the 111 counties affected and 39 extremely serious disasters, with a total of 12 million people affected. A total of 3 million people in the country suffered as a result, and the United States also came to intervene in a critical period.
At a time of famine in China, the Pacific region was also unstable. The Axis powers, led by Japan, fought the Pacific War with the Allies, led by Britain and the United States. Although the United States has the ability to fight beyond the crowd, "soldiers are expensive in training", American soldiers have been recuperating for too long after World War II, and in the face of the wolf-like Japanese officers and soldiers, they actually fell behind at the beginning.
Seeing the international situation that was not very optimistic, the American soldiers were anxious, and Roosevelt was also anxious. Japan, a small island country, can not only make waves in China, but also dare to move the soil on the head of the tai nian and blatantly confront the United States! Of course, the United States could not tolerate this, following the principle that the enemy of the enemy is a friend, the Americans finally decided to reach out to help China.
Watching the Roosevelt administration send weapons, ammunition, and food to China like crazy, China was a little afraid at first, but then decided to take the olive branch handed by the United States and fight with the United States. Under such a premise, China and the United States shared the same hatred and became allies with the Soviet Union and Britain. This alliance was also the "prototype of the Five Permanent States of the United Nations".
Chiang Kai-shek watched China's international status rise sharply, and he was able to stand with the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Mistakenly thought that he could be like Roosevelt, proud of the crowd. As everyone knows, this is just an "illusion". China was still trapped in the War of Resistance Against Japan, not to mention going out to show off to others. Many Chinese people don't care who China can be friends with, and they can't even maintain daily food and clothing and be sure of tomorrow's safety. But Chiang Kai-shek was as arrogant as ever, feeling that he was going to India to show "great power care." At that time, India's internal conflicts were constant, and a material transportation route with India in southwest China was in jeopardy.
Chiang Kai-shek only saw the "extremely dangerous" India, fearing that under the intrusion of the Japanese army, the people would "rebel" against British colonialism and seek independence, and the domestic situation would be even more chaotic. As a result, before Chiang Kai-shek could go to India, the British government began to suppress the rebellious people.
Therefore, before Chiang Kai-shek went, the Indian people were already "boiling with blood" and the British army. It is just that most of the Indian army is "old, weak and disabled soldiers", and can only tear down the eastern wall and make up for the western wall, but it is not a matter of doing so and staring at it all the time, and finally britain put forward peace conditions for India, saying: "As long as India is willing to help it defeat the Japanese invaders, it will agree to India's post-war independence." The learned indians were not stupid enough to guess that Britain was writing a blank cheque for "first enter the war and then independence." The British saw that India was the scalp and did not agree to its own empty cheques, and could only carry them hard. Japan, India, and the United Kingdom are all ghostly, and Japan, as the "culprit", looks at India and Britain, who are wide-eyed and small-eyed, and do not know whether they should let go or continue.
In the end, britain really "couldn't get enough", so it found a third-party guarantor, and this person was the pro-American Chiang Kai-shek. Britain's small calculation was that although Chiang Kai-shek was pro-American, China itself could not be saved. On the other hand, the United States does not regard China as a friend, and it is not afraid. But Chiang Kai-shek obviously did not think so, and as soon as he heard that he was going to represent Britain as a third-party mediator, he immediately raised his eyebrows and took his wife Soong Ching Ling on a special plane to India.
In the beginning, Chiang Kai-shek was indeed respected. As soon as Chiang Kai-shek got off the plane, the British prepared a "welcome ceremony" to welcome him, and then they also catered to Chiang Kai-shek and chatted with him about "aid materials." Chiang Kai-shek looked at the posture of what Britain wanted and what to give, and felt a little proud of his achievements. I really think of myself as a "VIP", and I also mention that the Next Welcome Ceremony in the Uk can be less extravagant. "Completely unaware that this is a trap.
Just when Chiang Kai-shek was immersed in the style of a great power head, he found that something was wrong. It is reasonable to say that the British invited him this time to let him act as a "confidant big brother", untie the knot between India and Britain, and fight against Japan together. But he had been here for so long, and apart from the attentive British emissaries, he had not yet come into contact with the leaders of India!
So he began to meet with his old acquaintance in India, Nehru, who had a "chat" in Chongqing in 1939. As the leader of the Indian independence movement, Nehru had considerable influence in India. Before the meeting began, Chiang Kai-shek was full of confidence, and he felt that he was an old friend of Nehru after all. "Reach out and don't hit the smiley face man", Nehru will not face each other coldly. The British and Indian media also issued the news that "Britain and India invited Chiang Kai-shek for the sake of reconciliation." But the result was much more "embarrassing" than expected, and although Chiang Kai-shek smiled and greeted him, Nehru seemed to be a "stone in a pit — smelly and hard." When the two men talked about unrelated culture and history, Nehru gave a smiley face. But when it came to mediating the crisis, Nehru turned his face cold. After all, Chiang Kai-shek was a human spirit, and although he had no choice but to understand Nehru's position. China, like India today, was a colony of other countries. After having the experience of being bullied, most of them will be cautious and unwilling to trust others easily. Not to mention that this country once bullied itself.
But Chiang Kai-shek did not forget his original intention, and after bidding farewell to the "cold" Nehru, he went to visit Gandhi, the supreme leader of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi, as a "rather majestic" leader in India, had his own set of rules, and Chiang Kai-shek admired him very much when he was at home. Now that he has the opportunity to talk to Gan, Chiang Kai-shek is not stupid, and his little calculation is: "Even if you do not act as a good regulator, it is good to take this opportunity to have a good relationship with Gan and bring China and India closer." ”
But Chiang Kai-shek did not calculate that the British did not agree to his visit to Gandhi at all. The reason is also straightforward – shame. As a former empire where the sun never sets, Britain is proud in its bones. First the terms of the negotiations with India were rejected, and now the mediators who have been found have been beaten back, and their face really cannot be hung up. So they wanted Chiang Kai-shek to abandon his plan to meet Gandhi on his knees and prevent him from going to Gandhi's location, believing that this sincere approach was humiliating to them. Let Chiang Kai-shek meet Gandhi in Calcutta, so as not to be "inferior to three or four." After Chiang Kai-shek heard these absurd explanations, his face turned green. He believed that he had independent action as a regulator, and that the British were a bit too bullying to do so, and directly rejected the advice of the British governor.
After all, Chiang Kai-shek has a proud Chinese, and he was invited to mediate the contradictions, and as a result, the host pointed fingers at himself, and I am afraid that it is uncomfortable to put on anyone. But the British governor is not a fuel-saving lamp, he saw that Chiang Kai-shek did not agree with his plan, simply put him under "house arrest", and immediately blocked all available means of transportation near Chiang Kai-shek's address, a look of "small sample, leave me to let you insert your wings and escape!" " look.
Chiang Kai-shek originally just wanted to discuss matters with the British, but seeing britain's unreasonable attitude, he decided not to give in. Chiang Kai-shek felt that he was the "new head of state of the four great powers," and although Britain had a rich background in development, it was too hateful for a governor to dare to interfere with the fuehrer's behavior. So I made an attitude, the more you obstruct me from visiting Gandhi, the more I want to go!
The British governor also reported the matter to Churchill. Churchill then sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek: "The meeting place will be changed to Calcutta, otherwise I will consider whether to continue to distribute materials to China." "Naked threat! What can Chiang Kai-shek do? After all, Britain is the host who invited him to come, and he still has "support materials" in his hands, and he must also take into account the overall situation for the sake of the Chinese people who suffered and suffered, and for the sake of the soldiers who worked hard to resist Japan.
However, the meeting in Calcutta did not go as smoothly as Chiang Kai-shek expected. February 18, 1942. After Chiang Kai-shek saw Gandhi, he repeatedly ran into a wall. He thought that his sincerity could move Gandhi and make Gandhi think about the policy of cooperation with Britain, but he did not expect that Gandhi's approach was the same as Nehru's. They all welcomed the Chinese head of state who had come from afar and warmly chatted with Chiang Kai-shek about history and culture. But as soon as I encountered the contradiction between Britain and India, I became "dumb", an attitude that what you said had nothing to do with me.
Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to say it with a straight face. "The whole world is having a hard time now, but our main enemy is the Japanese aggressors, so it's the most efficient and reasonable way to think about fighting Japan first and then solving the remaining problems," he said. It was only Gandhi's long silence that made Chiang Kai-shek's embarrassing toes grasp the ground.
Chiang Kai-shek, who originally had unlimited expectations for India, ate an invisible "closed door soup" in this way, and he was expecting to unite with Japan to oppose the Japanese army. But now that his dream was shattered, Chiang Kai-shek was ashamed and felt that he had no face to continue the mediation work as the "head of state of the four major powers", and "fled" back to China with his wife, and then never mentioned the "wordless" humiliation he suffered in India.
Chiang Kai-shek's act of humiliating himself and going to India to mediate contradictions is indeed ridiculous. At that time, China was still in the depths of the waters, and we seemed to be one of the "four major powers", but in fact we were still trapped in the "War of Resistance Against Japan" and could not extricate ourselves. The United States has pulled out a chicken feather, and Chiang Kai-shek's arrogance as a ling arrow does not seem smart, but it also reflects the treachery of the United States from the side. In order to win China over Japan, the United States actually issued a blank cheque for the "four major powers."
As for the incident of Chiang Kai-shek's humiliation, we also blame others for not having enough hearts to swallow elephants. The so-called outside must first be inside, and our ancestors have said this truth hundreds of times. As a reader, Chiang Kai-shek not only turned a blind eye to the "golden rule" of his ancestors, but also was easily pulled by the nose of the "empty cheque" of the United States and left. I didn't think at all that China at that time did not have the ability to compete with any country, and could only be self-inflicted!