ABSTRACT
“China’s First National Assembly” opened in Nanking on March 29, and its sessions continued throughout the month of April. It provided a good many surprises for those who expected it to be nothing more than a colorless and meaningless “Kuomintang show,” put to impress naive observers at home and abroad. When the first session convened on March 29, the Assembly Hall, crowded with delegates from all parts of China, presented a colorful spectacle. The free expression of opinion within the Assembly did not mean, however, that this was basically a democratic body, representative of its constituency of several hundred million people or free from outside interference and control. The dispute was significant as an indication that the Kuomintang machine today is not the omnipotent, monolithic political organization it is sometimes assumed to be. The election of the Vice-President assumed an importance all out of proportion to the intrinsic significance of the job, which is relatively minor unless the President dies.
