86 { China’s Quest
The WPC group spent two months conducting its investigation. When
members of the delegation visited the false infection areas created by the
North Koreans, Soviets, and Chinese, they were discouraged from lingering
too long in the area by setting off explosives in the vicinity of their lodging
and by the sounding of false air raid alarms.^64 Most of the “evidence” col-
lected by the WPC group came in the form of statements by Chinese who
claimed to have witnessed insects or rodents falling from the skies and
dropped by American planes. The commission took this testimony at face
value and passed it on to the world in a 669-page report. Beijing bolstered
the charges by securing and publicizing highly detailed “confessions” by US
POWs regarding their supposed involvement in a wide array of US germ
warfare activities.^65 These false “confessions” were given under extreme
duress (sleep deprivation, denial of sanitary facilities, poor and unsani-
tary food), and were withdrawn by the POWs after their release.^66 During
1952, Chinese and Soviet media along with Moscow-linked international
“peace organizations” gave extensive coverage to accusations of American
germ warfare. In the four weeks between mid-March and mid-April 1952,
the Soviet press devoted a full one-quarter of its coverage to germ warfare
allegations. Chinese newspapers during the same period followed suit. As
scholar Milton Leitenberg pointed out, April 26, 1952, was the date set for
ratification of the US-Japan peace treaty, to which neither the USSR or the
PRC was a party.
Chinese involvement in creation of false infection sites, help in procuring
disease-infected corpses in China, and the coercing false confessions from
US POWs suggests a massive disinformation campaign designed to erode the
moral credentials of China’s rival. Public health in war-wracked Korea and
Northeast China was undoubtedly appalling, and diseases of all sorts were
rampant. Convincing the Chinese people and foreign audiences that these
diseases were the product of American malevolence was an effective way of
undermining the United States, with its claims to stand for freedom and de-
mocracy. The apparent failure of extensive US “germ warfare” to defeat China
also reinforced the CCP idea that revolutionary human spirit could overcome
and defeat even the most advanced technology. If US germ warfare could not
defeat China, how could US atomic bombs?Teaching the People to Hate AmericaThe Korean War fundamentally altered the psychology of the US-PRC re-
lation. Traditionally, Americans had looked on China as a friendly power.
Friendship quickly changed to hate. The fact that Chinese now hated the
United States enough to undertake a war against it came as a shock to
Americans. Most Americans, both government officials and ordinary people,