A study examined the treatment of Chinese affairs in four American newspapers during December 1949, when China fell to Communism. Content analyses were conducted on issues of the "New York Times,""The Christian Science Monitor,""The Chicago Tribune," and "The St. Louis Post-Dispatch." Each of the 416 articles examined was classified as relating to either Nationalist China (Taiwan) or Communist China. Results indicated that among the selected newspapers, "The Christian Science Monitor" was the only one that paid more attention to the Communists than the Nationalists, while the other three contributed the majority of space to the Nationalist government and followers during the last month of 1949. The results suggest that American newspapers tended to pay a little more attention to Nationalist China than to its reival in the Chinese Civil War. However, on the average, articles on Chinese Communists appeared more lengthy and thorough than those on the Nationalists. Analytical reporting appeared in nearly one-quarter of the Communist articles. (A historical essay on 20th-century China as well as extensive tables of data from the study and a four-page bibliography are included.) (HTH)