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Mr. Albert Ravenholt, correspondent of the American Universities Field Staff and staff correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, and Dr. George A. Peek, Jr., assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan and coordinator for the series, focus their first discussion of the "tension areas" in the Far East on Formosa. Mr. Ravenholt, considered one of the nation's best-informed men on the Far East, comments on the important strategic position of Formosa, the complicated internal "police state" condition of the Island, and how the situation affects the United States. He explains that the Chinese communists are building up their forces along the China coastline. They may be planning to attach Formosa directly, to capture the Chinese Nationalist held islands closer to the mainland, or to force a diplomatic settlement concerning the possession of Formosa. The latter would then involve the issues of recognition of Red China and admission of that country into the United Nations. The United States is sending to Formosa economic and military aid totaling three to four million dollars per year, Mr. Ravenholt points out. This aid not only consists of building up the defenses of the Island, but also improving the diet of the Nationalists soldiers, improving their uniforms, constructing air fields and bridges, and making agricultural improvements. Finally, Mr. Ravenholt stresses the need for the U.S. to begin thinking of what kind of support we are willing to extend to the Chinese Nationalists in the event of war, and the need for thinking about the kind of non-communist Chinese leadership which we would like to have evolve in the future
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