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Approved for Release: 2020/08/11 C02000171 CONFIDENTIAL # Food Shortage Stirring Up Discontent in Communist China Discontent strong enough to take the form of antiregime manifestations is reported in Communist China. The principal cause is the effect of protracted food shortages--now going into their third year. "Bad" living conditions and growing discontent were reported in late November on Hainan Island. Anti-Communist slogans were painted on the walls of official buildings in Paso, one of the island's port cities. stevedores there could no longer carry heavy loads because of undernourishment. A similar report has been received from Dairen, where signs believed to have read "More Food" and "Down with Communism" were being erased from public buildings in mid-December. An unconfirmed report states that food riots occurred last month in Harbin and that 70 persons were arrested and summarily executed. There is considerable dissatisfaction among civilians in Dairen over the army's favored treatment. While the regime's controls appear more than adequate to cope with the present scale of popular dissatisfaction, the near-famine conditions may have resulted in organizational changes in at least one and perhaps two provinces. According to the Peiping press, the north coastal province of Shantung was the hardest hit in last summer's drought. People's Daily announced on 8 December that four neighboring provinces were organizing a major relief campaign to assist the people of Shantung. Two weeks earlier the local press noted the ouster of the Shantung first party secretary, Shu Tung. His replacement declared that "all cadres should overcome the high and mighty bureaucratism and habit of excusing themselves by pleading special circumstances." The American Consulate General in Hong Kong reports that there is also some evidence of a shake-up in the Kwangtung party provincial committee. The number of refugees fleeing Kwangtung into Hong Kong because of the food shortage is increasing despite stringent border controls. CONFIDENTIAL 10 Jan 61 CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN Page 1 Approved for Release: 2020/08/11 C02000171

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