44 { China’s Quest
a large share of it was handled by long-established British merchant houses
like Jardine Matheson and Butterfield & Swire. The British Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation was one of the leading Western enter-
prises based in Shanghai, with branches in eleven Chinese cities. Shanghai’s
utilities—electricity, natural gas, water, streetcars, and telephone—were all
run by British, US, or French firms. US investment was somewhat more ge-
ographically dispersed than British and concentrated in public utilities and
distribution network of American oil giants like Standard Vacuum and
Caltex. France too had significant commercial interests, worth an estimated
US$200 million. French holdings were concentrated in real estate owned by
the Catholic Church.
The Western religious presence was also quite large. There were an esti-
mated 5,500 foreign Catholic missionaries and 4,000 foreign Protestant mis-
sionaries in China circa 1948. These foreign missionaries were assisted by an
estimated 8,000 Chinese ordained ministers and priests. In many villages
with Christian populations, the church was the largest and most prominent
building. Aside from religious activities, foreign missionaries supported a
number of eleemosynary activities: clinics and pharmacies in rural areas,
203 Protestant hospitals, hundreds of orphanages and foundling homes for
abandoned babies, 227 middle schools, and thirteen universities. Catholic
missions operated another 4,500 schools with an estimated 320,000 stu-
dents, plus three universities with 4,000 students. These Western-supported
Christian schools constituted in 1948 a significant portion of China’s overall
educational system. Ironically, a number of CCP leaders—including some
who would play leading roles in shutting them down in 1949–1950—were ed-
ucated in these Christian schools.
A strong media presence was another dimension of Western presence
in China. Western press agencies like United Press, Associated Press, and
Agence France-Presse maintained agencies there. Beijing alone had sev-
enteen foreign correspondents circa 1948. These Western agencies were
major suppliers of news about China to Western publics. Chinese-language
newspapers were also major customers of the Western press agencies;
Western media provided content for them. Chinese readers found inter-
esting this Western coverage of China’s affairs. There were also three
English-language newspapers in Shanghai, which served to knit the for-
eign community together while also serving a substantial English-reading
Chinese audience. The US, British, and French governments maintained
cultural and information offices in many cities where their consulates were
located, and offered an array of public lectures, film showings, and con-
certs. American jazz was popular, as were cultural performances, language
lessons, and general information about the American, British, or French
ways of life. Cinema was probably the Western art form with the wid-
est appeal in China. American Hollywood movies, especially, were very