James Reardon-Anderson

THE RELATIONSHIP between science and politics in the Nationalist and Commu-
nist areas of China during the War of Resistance is important for understanding
not only the nature of China's wartime resistance, but the subsequent develop-
ment of science in that country as well. In both Nationalist- and Communist-
ruled areas, the interests of the political leadership and of the scientific and
technical community were overlapping but not completely congruent. Political
and scientific-technical elites shared a commitment to apply scientific knowl-
edge and skills to the immediate needs of production and defense. However, the
government authorities wanted that commitment to be total, while the scientists,
teachers, and scholars reserved a place for more basic learning. They valued
research into the fundamental workings of nature and wanted education to be
rooted in theoretical foundations. This the politicians considered a waste of time
and resources.

The battle over science, and the limits placed on pure as opposed to applied
learning, was fought within the Nationalist and Communist camps alike. The
outcome of these battles, however, was somewhat different in the two cases.
Political leaders in the Communist areas more thoroughly subordinated the sci-
entific community to the utilitarian ends of the war effort than their counterparts
in the Nationalist areas were able to do. These variant outcomes affected not
only the immediate contest for the control of China but also the character of
Chinese science for decades to come.

One key question stood at the center of the debate over the nature and function of
science in both Nationalist and Communist camps. How much of their limited
resources should be devoted to the immediate and pressing needs of increasing
production and strengthening defense, and how much could be spared for training
students in broader, deeper knowledge or for conducting research into more funda-
mental, albeit nonutilitarian, problems? The answer was not a simple one for politi-
cal and scientific-technical elites in both Nationalist and Communist China.

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