Fang Chih

He was made the Chairman of the Fujian Provincial Party Headquarters of the KMT at the suggestion of a fellow Japanese educated classmate Dai Chuanxian with Chiang's approval.

His work during this period was focused primarily in Hubei, Jiangxi, Qingdao, Nanjing, Hunan, Anhui and Fujian provinces in various military, political, party affairs and education related jobs.

The connection with Chen Lifu aligned Fang with the CC Clique faction of the KMT and led to his increased involvement in the operations of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.

By March 1929, he was promoted to Chief Secretary of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee by Shao Yuanchong who was one of four people responsible for the lyrics of the National Anthem of the Republic of China.

[16] In the early 1930s, rumors in Shanghai began spreading of an assassination list compiled by a secretive KMT group that became collectively known as the Blue Shirts Society.

By 1933, these rumors began to come into the mainstream Shanghai press, particularly due to articles printed in the left leaning China Forum published by American radical Harold Isaacs.

"[17][18] In fact, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the CC Clique's counterintelligence organ was heavily involved in myriad kill or capture missions in Shanghai during this period.

[19] On 21 June 1931, Gu's entire section of the Special Service was either captured or fled with 24 arrested including his superior and General Secretary Xiang Zhongfa in Shanghai and Cai Hesen in Hong Kong.

Xiang was quickly executed after his interrogation and the resulting windfall of information led the KMT to conduct an even greater purge of the Communist intelligence networks.

These propagated the ideas of the New Life Movement which was the brainchild of General Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling and was supported by the CC Clique and the Blue Shirts Society.

In November 1935 at a meeting of the KMT Big Five, Fang Chih was elected to the Central Committee of the Kuomintang cementing his position as a prominent fixture of the administration.

In July 1936, there was a shakeup of the propaganda department after Liu Luyin was arrested on spy charges by Dai Li who was carrying out a purge of the party and Fang became the vice minister of the Board of Publicity.

The squadron flew over Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kurume, Kyushu, Saga, and Sasebo distributing over 1 million leaflets containing various propaganda and disinformation, completing the mission with no human losses.

Fang's agents spied heavily on the rallies in efforts to document the Communist opposition forces who were operating in the open following the Double Tenth Agreement.

Fang also collaborated with Chen Lifu, Ye Xiufeng and Wang Sicheng to move against the Communists by mobilizing large scale anti-Soviet marches around Chongqing.

Mao Zedong pushed for the CCP to withdraw entirely from the unity government and to pursue a military campaign following the incident, which he argued could be taken to mean that Chiang Kai-shek was not committed to peace.

[38] In October 1946, Fang Chih was made the party boss and chairman of the Shanghai KMT Municipal Government, replacing Wu Shao-hsu, one of his longtime rivals within the CC Clique.

[49] Fang's propaganda machine attempted to ease the situation with statements saying that dancing girls should be redirecting their talents to reconstructing the country and eliminating the Communist bandits.

[51] In the end, the halfhearted ban served to drastically increase prostitution in the city, an issue that remained even after the government completely abandoned any further attempts to shutter the dance halls.

[54] On 6 January 1949, Fang made a proposal to send a delegation of Shanghai's citizens to speak with Communist officials, following a convening of Kuomintang policy makers which resulted in an agreement to attempt to sue for peace.

[55][56] Fang's action, which was made to stall for time, did little to hinder the opening of a new front in Anhui by the Communists on 5 January, but it presented the quite accurate image of an increasingly desperate situation faced by the Nationalists.

The KMT blunder at Shanghai, resulted in the further bleeding thin of its forces, and facilitated an easier campaign for the Communist victories at Ningbo, Wenzhou and in Canton Province.

At 11:00 am on 24 May 1949, Fang gathered the foreign press at the Broadway Mansions where he announced the Nationalist plans to hold the city:[63][64][65] In order to deal the fatal blow to the Communist bandits, the Government made a decision to defend Shanghai to the last.

On 15 August, this strategy was made public by the Kuomintang's Central Planning board who tasked Fang, Tang Enbo, and Lei Chen in the organization of the defense of the two Fujian islands.

[67] Mainland Fujian fell to the Communists in around November 1949 but many of its outlying islands including Quemoy (Kinmen) were successfully defended and the Republic of China retains control of them to this day.

[69] In around 1954, the organization came under the umbrella of the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL), a group founded jointly by Chiang Kai-shek of the ROC, Syngman Rhee of the ROK, and Elpidio Quirino of the Philippines.

Forces of the 15,000 strong KMT 13th Army under Li Mi established himself in Burma,[79] nearly creating a Shan State and attempted to invade Yunnan Province no less than seven times.

On 16[85] February 1961, a PB4Y-2 Privateer[85] or a B-24 Liberator[86] operating with the FCRA and carrying a payload of weaponry for the irregular troops who were retreating across the Mekong river into Laos and Thailand, was shot down by the Burmese Air Force resulting in a complaint being lodged at the United Nations.

At the conference, Fang outlined his objectives to deliver aid to refugees from Tibet together with John McCarthy, Director of the Department of Immigration at the National Catholic Welfare Council.

They are more afraid of foreigners getting in than of their own people dying after an earthquakeTaiwan's furious response to the mainland's refusal to accept the aid was a powerful piece of political drama at the time, serving its interests at home and abroad.

Communist troops in Fuzhou after seizing Fujian Province in November 1949.
PVA soldiers captured by US Marines during the Battle of Hoengsong
Fang Chih hands disaster relief supplies to an official from the Ministry of National Defense for distribution to the Mainland after the 1976 Tangshan earthquake .
Portrait of the University of the Ryukyus from the 1960s.
Fang Chih meets with Dwight Eisenhower during the latter's trip to Kadena Air Force Base , 19 June 1960.
The memorial to Fang Chi at Onna , Okinawa Prefecture .