ABSTRACT
Attention to transport, as well as to water conservancy, has characterized strong Chinese governments through the centuries, at once both a cause and an effect of their strength. Without good means of communication the distant provinces would soon break loose from central control. Modern technical improvements in transport and telecommunications have enabled this control to be more effective than in olden days. The Communist regime has been the first government of China in a position to benefit by these developments over any considerable period of time, and in so doing it obtained a tighter and more penetrating hold over the country's life than was wielded by any of its predecessors.
