Chapter 134 Chapter 20 The establishment of Dai Li, Melles and the Institute

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, on April 15, 1943, in the auditorium of the rural office of the National Government Military Commission Investigation and Statistics Bureau (referred to as the Military Statistics Bureau) of the Ciqikou silk reeling factory at the foot of Gele Mountain in the suburbs of Chongqing, the accompanying capital, Yangjiashan, A signing ceremony was held attended by Chinese and American officials.On the Chinese side are Foreign Minister Song Ziwen’s representative, Executive Vice Minister Hu Shize, and Deputy Director General Dai Li; on the U.S. side are Secretary of the Navy Knox, President Roosevelt’s personal representative, Ruth, owner of American Life magazine, and Naval Intelligence Agency representative Miles. ——that is, Melos, which is well-known in the old translation.From this day on, the China-US Special Technology Cooperation Institute, jointly established by the military intelligence agencies of China and the United States, was formally established.

For a long time, this wartime transnational military intelligence cooperation agency, referred to simply as "SICO", has become synonymous with the well-known "US-Chiang crimes".The two notorious prisons for political prisoners established by the former Kuomintang authorities at the foot of Gele Mountain in Chongqing, Baigongguan and Zhazidong, were once called part of the "SICO Concentration Camp".The Geleshan Revolutionary Memorial Hall was once called the "Exhibition Hall of Chiang Kai-shek's Crimes in the Sino-US Cooperation Institute Concentration Camp".It is the novel "Red Rock" that appeared in the 1960s and the film "Eternal Life in the Fire" and the opera "Jiang Jie" and other literary and artistic works that made the "Sino Concentration Camp" deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. .Was SACO really like this in history?

In fact, the China-US Special Technology Cooperation Institute jointly established by China and the United States at that time was not a fascist concentration camp established for "anti-communism" and "anti-people", but a transnational military intelligence cooperation organization established in the international anti-fascist united front. For the leaders of China and the United States and many people who participated in the specific work at that time, the purpose of establishing this cooperation organization was indeed for the needs of China and the United States to jointly fight against Japan.Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States began to consider cooperating with China to carry out research on the technology of telecommunication detection and interpretation of the Japanese army, to collect intelligence on land, sea, and air forces of the Japanese army in China and the Pacific coast and along the coast of China, and to obtain weather, Hydrological data, etc.China, on the other hand, hopes to exchange information with the United States in combating Japan, and to receive training from the United States in propaganda against Japan and sabotage activities in enemy-occupied areas. tools etc.According to Bao Zhihong, Major General Director of the Military Intelligence Department of the Military Statistics Bureau who participated in the drafting of the draft agreement on special technology cooperation between China and the United States, the first article of the agreement is: "For China and the United States to jointly fight against Japan, organize the China-U.S. Special Technology Cooperation Institute (referred to as China-U.S. Institute), exchanged information on the Japanese army, army, and air force, collected meteorological information on mainland China, trained guerrillas, advanced into the rear of the Japanese army, assisted the US military in landing operations along the coast of China, and jointly quickly wiped out the Japanese invaders.” ("Dai Li, Melles and China Institute of American Cooperation, page 34, Mass Publishing House, 1994 edition)

The role of Sino-US cooperation in the joint war against Japan between China and the United States was rarely mentioned in the past, so that it was little known.According to Bao Zhihong’s recollection, the U.S. Air Force shot down the plane of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Fifty-Six, thanks to the contributions of members of the Military Statistics Bureau of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute in telecommunications detection and code-breaking (ibid., p. 41). At the same time, the Sino-American Cooperation Institute has also established a number of meteorological workstations and observation posts for the U.S. Navy and Air Force to provide weather information. , played an important role.A report by the U.S. Department of the Navy after the war even commented that the military and meteorological information provided by China to the U.S. in the Japanese-occupied area through the China-U.S. Sole source of information".

In addition to military operations, SACO also carried out some work on psychological warfare and economic warfare against Japan.Such as listening to Japanese and puppet radio broadcasts and using secret broadcasts for interference and anti-propaganda, launching a propaganda offensive to disintegrate the morale of the Japanese army, creating panic among the Japanese and puppet troops, and encouraging the fighting spirit of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians in the enemy's rear; , Disturbing the Japanese and puppet finances, and buying a large number of Japanese goods and materials from the occupied areas and transporting them back to the rear...

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, in accordance with the provisions of the "Agreement" when the Sino-US Cooperation Institute was established, American personnel returned to China in batches.In January 1946, the Sino-US Cooperation Institute officially announced its termination, and reported to Chiang Kai-shek for the record through the Military Control Bureau.The personnel of the Military Statistics Bureau of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute report back to the Military Statistics Bureau, and the non-Military Statistics Bureau personnel (this is what many people do not understand, thinking that all Chinese personnel of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute are military intelligence agents, but this is not the case) are issued to three Monthly salary severance.The training courses and intelligence stations in various places were all completed (the students of the second phase of the Chongqing special police class were handed over to the Military Statistics Bureau because they did not graduate).The Siyi Hospital of the Chongqing Sino-American Cooperation Institute was transferred to the Central Hospital for reception, and the Shanghai Sino-American Hospital was transferred to Tongji University for reception...By July and August 1946, all procedures were completed.

In the last scene of the opera "Sister Jiang" (scene description: Chongqing "Sino-American Cooperation Institute" Zhazidong Concentration Camp Women's Prison), Sister Jiang laughed at Shen Yangzhai and said, "What? You Afraid? Your signboard of "Institute of Sino-American Cooperation" is about to be taken off!" The director and actors didn't know that the signboard of "Institute of Chinese American Cooperation" had been taken off as early as four years before this plot happened. . However, because the Chinese director of the Institute for Sino-American Cooperation is Dai Li, the head of the military command bureau and spy chief who is not well-known inside and outside the Kuomintang, and the US deputy director, Melles, tried his best to intervene in the internal affairs of the conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in spite of the ban by the US authorities. Coupled with the fact that the fighters, policemen, and secret agents trained by the institute, and the American weapons and equipment acquired by the institute were later used by the Kuomintang authorities in the anti-communist civil war, the institute gained a notoriety of "supporting Chiang Kai-shek and opposing the communist party".The famous American sinologist John Fairbank who once worked with Mellors in Chongqing as an employee of the US Strategic Intelligence Agency commented: "The Sino-US Cooperation Institute did indeed deploy operations to harass the Japanese army's rear, and made arrangements for the landing of the US Navy. However, the disadvantage of SACO is that when the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke out in 1945, it used all the U.S. aid on the side of the Kuomintang. This objectively means that the U.S. formally joined the Oppose the activities of the CCP. This is abhorred by the Chinese Communist Party, and has every reason to regard it as an unjust act of American imperialism." ("Fairbank's Memoirs on China", Knowledge Publishing House, May 1991 edition, No. 256 Page)

Due to such historical reasons, after the dismantling of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute, the crimes of imprisonment, torture, and massacre of political prisoners that occurred at its original site and its vicinity were charged to its account.Especially in 1949, when the Kuomintang regime collapsed on the mainland, the massacre of political prisoners held was publicized as the "SICO Massacre", discrediting "SICO" and becoming a An important target in the anti-American and anti-Chiang (KMT) propaganda.Many people no longer know what institution it was in the first place, but only think it is a bloody and terrifying concentration camp.Coupled with a series of renderings of literary and artistic works such as the novel "Red Rock", the movie "Eternal Life in Fire", and the opera "Sister Jiang", the popularity of "SICO" as a negative image has greatly surpassed that of the same in Chongqing. Hongyan Village, a revolutionary memorial site of greater historical significance.

Even some Americans are skeptical and even disgusted with Sino-US cooperation.American scholar Michael Schaller wrote a chapter in his book "American Cross in China" entitled "Sino-American Cooperation Institute!The Counter-Revolutionary Forces Move Stubbornly", before the Chinese translation was published by the Commercial Press in July 1982, this chapter was serialized in "Reference News", which was quite influential (someone answered questions about the historical truth of the Sino-American Cooperation Institute use this book as evidence when questioned).In fact, although it is written in the book that Melles used the China-US Cooperation Institute to engage in activities of "supporting Chiang Kai-shek and anti-communism", but if you read it carefully, it will be clear that most of it is Melles' personal behavior and does not represent the US government's China policy at that time , At the same time, the book clearly stated that Melles' behavior has been subject to the commanders of the US military stationed in China (first Stilwell, then Wedemeyer), representatives of the US Strategic Intelligence Service, the US embassy in China, and President Roosevelt. Strong opposition and efforts to prevent it from many quarters.

Originally, in the third issue of "American Studies" of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1988, Mr. Deng Youping (now Chongqing Museum) wrote " A brief analysis of the article "The Concentration Camp of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute" clarifies many historical facts, lists strong evidence, and denies the crimes of "arresting, detaining, and massacring communists and revolutionaries in concentration camps" that have been added to Sino-US cooperation in the past. .However, due to the narrow distribution of the magazine, it is difficult for ordinary readers to read it. In addition, the novel "Red Rock" is still being republished, and the movie "Eternal Life in Fire" and the opera "Jiang Jie" are still being screened and performed. In the minds of many people, the cooperative is still a "fascist concentration camp".

The Baigongguan and Zhazidong at the foot of Gele Mountain in Chongqing are two notorious Kuomintang prisons.The reason why it is notorious is that it specializes in detaining political prisoners, and from September to the end of November 1949, the Kuomintang authorities, which were facing collapse, imprisoned mainly Communists here, including the Kuomintang, Democratic League, "Trust More than 200 political prisoners, including people without party affiliation (including disciplinary offenders from the Military Control Bureau), carried out a brutal and bloody massacre.For a long time, SACO was considered to be the general name above these two prisons. Bai Mansion was originally the country villa of Bai Ju, the commander of the Sichuan warlord Yang Sen's subordinates. In the winter of 1939, it was used as a temporary detention center by the Military Control Bureau.When the Sino-American Cooperation Institute was established, the Baigongguan Detention Center was ordered to move the prisoners to Zhazidong, and the Baigongguan house was given over to the American personnel as a residence, which was named the Third Guest House of the Sino-American Cooperation Institute.It was not until after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that the China-U.S. Cooperation Institute was revoked and the American personnel returned to the country that the Bai Mansion resumed its function of detaining political prisoners (later called the Detention Center of the Bureau of Secrets of the Ministry of National Defense).If it is said that the Bai Mansion was a prison (or concentration camp) during the establishment of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute, then who were the prisoners in it?Could it be the American personnel living in it? Zhazidong Prison was originally added due to the overcrowding of the Baigongguan Detention Center. After the prisoners were moved back to the Baigongguan at the end of 1946, it was closed for a while, and then reopened at the end of 1947 (called Chongqing Xingyuan Second Detention Center). Primarily detain persons in the educational and media circles who were arrested in the "June 1st Arrest" in 1947, those arrested in the "Little Civilian Revolution" underground armed case, those captured and arrested in the three armed uprisings in eastern Sichuan, and "Advance People arrested in the "Newspaper" incident, members of the Chuandong and Chuankang branches of the Kuomintang, etc. Mr. Deng Youping listed one of his survey results in the article "Brief Analysis of "Sino-US Cooperation Institute Concentration Camp"": among the political prisoners who were arrested by the Kuomintang authorities and imprisoned at the foot of Gele Mountain, some of them (such as Ye Ting, Liao Chengzhi, Luo Shiwen , Che Yaoxian, Xu Xiaoxuan, Zhang Luping, etc.) were imprisoned here before the establishment of the Sino-US Cooperation Institute, while others (such as Yang Hucheng, Xu Jianye, Jiang Zhuyun, Chen Ran, etc.) were detained here after the Sino-US Cooperation Institute was revoked. In addition, the massacre of political prisoners all occurred after the Sino-US Cooperation Institute was withdrawn.Mr. Deng Youping concluded: "SICO has absolutely nothing to do with these criminal activities such as arrests, detentions, and massacres." None of the documents issued by the U.S. on the arrest and massacre of revolutionary patriots mentioned that Americans personally participated in these activities." ("American Studies", No. 33, No. 3, 1988 34 pages)