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Taiwan 2002 |
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The History of the ROC Before 1949 |
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IntroductionThe Republic of China was established in 1912 after a revolution overthrew China's last dynasty, the Ching, and the last emperor abdicated. From its very beginning, the ROC faced enormous challenges that threatened its survival: division by warlords, political struggles, economic underdevelopment, and foreign colonialism and aggression. These weaknesses were taken advantage of when the Japanese invaded China in the 1930s and 40s, devastating the country and leaving millions dead. After the war, the Chinese communists also took advantage of a weakened ROC to wage civil war. In 1949, the ROC government was forced to relocate to Taiwan. While the ROC carried out agrarian reform, industrialization, and modernization on Taiwan, the communist People's Republic of China waged decades of political struggles on the mainland.This chapter provides a brief summary of the history of the Republic of China prior to 1949.
Traditional ChinaSince the appearance of writing in China some 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, Chinese people have been recording the history of their families, clans, and dynasties. In time, many Chinese rulers and the large bureaucracies under them collated these various historical materials to write histories that highlighted the ruler's place in Chinese history. The resulting histories showed a "dynastic cycle" that began with the fall of a corrupt ruler and a weak dynasty followed by the rise of a new moral ruler and a strong dynasty. Many of these traditional histories are still extant and intelligible to readers of Chinese today. The Chinese people are thus the inheritors of the world's longest unbroken historical tradition.
The historical focus on political legitimacy and continuity was a powerfully conservative force in China. Traditional histories provided successive dynasties and governments with a set of precedents by which to rule. Thus, even though ruling power passed hands quite often in China, the way the country was ruled remained roughly the same. This lent a degree of stability to Chinese culture that was absent in the cultures bordering China. One common explanation of the phenomenal endurance of Chinese civilization is that China was actually governed by an aristocracy of intelligentsia, which had been continuously revitalized by the introduction of new personnel. A civil service examination system, first implemented in the Sui dynasty over 1,400 years ago, allowed young men who were well schooled in China's historical and literary traditions to enter the government bureaucracy, regardless of their family's social, political, or economic status. Theoretically, even the son of commoners could become prime minister one day as long as he could pass a series of imperial examinations. When an emperor was deposed, it mattered little who would take his place, since the Chinese bureaucratic system continued to function. Equally insulated from political infighting was the village economy, upon which China's agricultural civilization was based. Peasants seldom troubled themselves with national affairs unless war or imperial mismanagement threatened the livelihood of the village and its ability to raise grain, produce goods, and render the services of labor. China's modern history began when the three pillars of Chinese stability--rule by historical precedent, bureaucratic conservatism, and village-based economics--were shaken by contact with the West. This chapter seeks to shed light on China's modern history and provide background information on the history of the Republic of China.
East Meets WestFor thousands of years, China has maintained close relations with the nation states on its periphery. These periphery states often served as intermediaries between China and other major civilizations in India and the Middle East. As far back as the Han dynasty (206 B.C.A.D. 221), China was exporting silk, porcelain, and other trade goods to the Roman Empire. During the Yuan dynasty (12791368), China's Mongolian rulers, especially Kublai Khan 忽必烈, brought a significant number of Persians, Turks, and other peoples from Central Asia to work in the Mongolian administration. The great Italian traveler, Marco Polo, visited China during this time and is said to have worked for the Mongolians as a superintendent of trade in Lanzhou 蘭州.Early in the 15th century, an ambitious Ming monarch, Cheng Tsu 成祖 (commonly referred to as the Yung Lo Emperor 永樂大帝), showed an intense interest in overseas exploration. He equipped scores of seafaring ships, manned by tens of thousands of sailors, and placed them under the command of one of his closest advisors, the eunuch Cheng Ho 鄭和. In the years between 1406 and 1433, Cheng Ho made seven voyages through the South China Sea, past the Malaysian Peninsula, into the Indian Ocean, and on to the east coast of Africa. His travels to more than 50 countries constituted the greatest overseas venture in Chinese history. Two main sea routes linking the East and West were discovered during the Ming dynasty, and by the early 16th century, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and England were sending powerful fleets to Asian waters. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach China by sea. With the permission of Ming officials, the Portuguese set up an entrepot at Macau in 1535. In the years that followed, many Christian missionaries came to China on Portuguese ships. In 1601, the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci was granted an imperial stipend to reside in Beijing 北京. Other missionaries soon followed in his footsteps. Julius Aleni, Johannes Terrens, Didacus de Pentoja, Johannes Adam Schall von Bell, and Ferdiandus Verbiest brought not only their religion, but also new concepts and ideas with respect to the arts, medical science, water conservancy, mathematics, geography, and astronomy, including the Gregorian calendar. As in the Yuan dynasty, some of these intrepid Christians even served as officials in the imperial bureaucracy.
China's Closed-door PolicyThe Manchus established the Ching dynasty in 1644. During their rule over China, the Manchus subdued the remnants of Mongol resistance in the northwest, and conquered the Khalkhas, the Kalmuks, and the Turks. They also formally annexed Outer and Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Tibet, thereby fixing the modern boundaries of China. In 1683, Ching forces took over Taiwan.At the height of Ching power, the Manchus utilized the best minds and richest human resources of the country, regardless of race, to carry out many scholarly projects. However, Western missionariesactive in China since the end of the Ming--lost the trust of the Yung Cheng Emperor 雍正 because of their role in a power struggle for the throne. Christianity was thus banned in 1724, and the flow of Western technology into China soon slowed to a trickle. During the entire 18th century and the early 19th century, while Europe was being transformed and invigorated by the rise of rationalism, nationalism, colonialism, and the industrial revolution, the Ching court was adopting a virtual closed-door policy toward the Western world.
Breaking Down the DoorThe Western powers, however, were not content to leave China isolated, as they coveted Chinese markets and resources. They were dissatisfied with perennial trade deficits with China; unhappy with being treated unequally by the royal court of China, which viewed trade as bestowing a favor; and chafed at being restricted to doing business in only a few small ports. High productivity in both light and heavy industries drove European countries (especially England) outward in search of new markets and resources. By the early 18th century, England dominated overseas trade, having gained dominance of the seas over Spain and Holland. During the next century, colonialism and resource exploitation backed by military force went hand in hand with the push by major European nations to develop overseas markets.The seeds of the Opium War of 183942 were sown in a worsening trade relationship between Great Britain and the Ching court. The Ching government was gravely concerned about the loss of 1.8 million silver taels its populace was spending on 30,000 chests (each containing more than 100 catties) of opium each year. In January 1839, Ching Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu 林則徐 was made responsible for stamping out the opium trade. He closed down guilds in Canton 廣州 after foreign merchants, such as Lancelot Dent, refused to yield all the opium stored on Lingding Island 伶仃島. The foreign merchants finally gave in and handed more than 20,000 chests of opium to Lin who, to the great dismay of the drug dealers, promptly burnt them all. In July 1840, British warships occupied Dinghai 定海 and in August attacked Dagu 大沽 near the northern port city of Tianjin 天津. A Ching official, Chi Shan 琦善, gave in to English demands for indemnity and ceded Hong Kong 香港 to England. However, the British government was not satisfied with the agreement and sent a new plenipotentiary, Henry Pottinger, who attacked Amoy 廈門 (Xiamen) in 1841, and Shanghai 上海 in 1842. The Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking) 南京條約 was consequently signed on August 29, 1842, and has proven to be one of the most influential treaties in China's modern history. Not only was it the first in a series of unequal treaties signed with Western powers, but it also marked the beginning of a long period of internal turmoil and external concessions for China over the next 150 years. The 13 articles in the treaty stipulated that five ports were to be opened for British trade and consulates; Hong Kong was to be ceded to England; and 21 million silver taels were to be paid in four installments. Supplementary clauses that were signed later further stipulated consulate jurisdiction over Englishmen residing in China. After the Treaty of Nanjing, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, the United States, and France also asked to establish consulates in China. In 1844, the Treaty of Wangxia 望廈條約 was concluded with the United States, which stated that the US would enjoy whatever privileges China granted to other nations. Later that year, a similar agreement, the Treaty of Whampoa 黃埔條約, was signed with France. By signing the Treaty of Nanjing, China agreed to open five ports, including Canton, to foreign trade. However, the residents of Canton at first refused to allow Englishmen to enter the city and then attacked those already there. In early 1856, a French missionary was killed in Guangxi Province 廣西省. Later that year the Arrow Incident 亞羅號事件 occurred, in which the Arrow--a Hong Kong-registered ship under the protection of the English government--was searched in Canton by Ching soldiers and 12 of its sailors were arrested. These incidents eventually led to an Anglo-French expedition against Beijing in 1858 and the burning of the imperial summer palace by invading troops. The Ching court was thus compelled to make further concessions in the 1860 Treaty of Beijing 北京條約. The signing of these treaties led to a flood of Western merchants selling foreign goods: textiles, kerosene, lamps, cigarettes, and opium. Consequently, the old Chinese system collapsed, and the village economy that had served as the backbone of China's agricultural society and sustained Chinese civilization for several millennia was seriously disrupted. The proud imperial bureaucracy and the mandarin elite were woefully ill-equipped to deal with this onslaught. They were ignorant of the new forces to which China was being subjected. Their training had been in the old Chinese classics, and their experience had not prepared them to meet these new challenges. Reformers in the Ching court, however, were aware of the superiority of Western armaments. In 1861, Generals Tseng Kuo-fan 曾國藩, Li Hung-chang 李鴻章, and Tso Tsung-tang 左宗棠 were able to convince the Ching court to initiate a 30-year "self-strengthening" program. Under this new program, the Ching dynasty began to train translators, import Western military technology, and set up armories. The Tsungli Yamen 總理衙門 was established to manage foreign affairs. The self-strengthening program, however, came too late. Further controversies with Russia in the northwest and with England and France in the southwest jeopardized the stability of the Ching dynasty. A war with France ended with the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin (Tientsin) 天津條約 in 1885. In the latter half of the 19th century, China lost its suzerain rights and sovereignty over the Indo-China Peninsula and large areas of the northwest. During this period, Chinese and Japanese spheres of influence overlapped in Korea, and Japan was showing interest in taking over Taiwan. The Ching court sent Liu Yung-fu 劉永福 and his armies to safeguard the island. The military modernization undertaken during the self-strengthening program proved to be a complete failure when war between China and Japan finally broke out in 1894. Japan quickly breached the Chinese defenses and sank most of her northern navy. The Treaty of Shimonoseki 馬關條約 was signed the next year, compelling the Ching government to pay a huge indemnity, open its seaports, recognize the independence of Korea, and cede the Liaodong Peninsula 遼東半島, Taiwan, and the Pescadores to Japan. The repeated defeats suffered by China at the hands of foreign powers, the weakness and incompetence of the Ching court, and the success of the Meiji Reformation in Japan prompted many Chinese to take action. Under the leadership of Kang Yu-wei 康有為 and Liang Chi-chao 梁啟超, a reform movement was initiated in 1898. The Kuang Hsu Emperor 光緒 sympathized with this movement, but met with strong opposition from his aunt, the Empress Dowager Tzu-hsi 慈禧太后, as well as from other conservative elements in the Ching court. The movement came to an inglorious end after only 100 days and was followed by a coup d'etat in which the Kuang Hsu Emperor was imprisoned by the Empress Dowager and those who had played a leading part in the movement were executed or exiled. Popular discontent with internal misgovernment and anti-foreign sentiment aroused by the unequal treaties combined to spark the Boxer Uprising 義和拳之亂 in 1900. The Boxers laid siege to the foreign legation in Beijing, where a combined force of Japanese, French, British, Russian, and American troops held out for over a month. The siege was broken when the forces of eight foreign powers marched from Tianjin and scaled the walls of Beijing. The foreign powers then took the opportunity to loot Beijing in one of the most disgraceful episodes of modern diplomatic history. In the signing of the Treaty of Beijing the following year, China was disarmed and forced to pay large indemnities. This treaty was regarded as the most humiliating of all the unequal treaties. One of the foreign powers which sacked Beijing, Russia, also took this opportunity to occupy Manchuria. When the troops of the other foreign powers withdrew from Chinese territory, Russia refused to leave Manchuria, leading to conflicts with Japan and the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Through the Treaty of Portsmouth signed in 1905, a victorious Japan obtained complete control over Korea and rights and interests in southern Manchuria, leaving the north to Russia. Thereafter, Manchuria and Mongolia became flash points of further conflict between Japan and Russia, with China the biggest loser of the three.
The Birth of the ROCAfter decades of pain and frustration brought about largely by the weakness of the imperial government, many Chinese people were disillusioned with the Ching dynasty and began to take a keen interest in the revolutionary movement launched by Dr. Sun Yat-sen 孫中山 in the late 19th century. Dr. Sun set up a series of secret societies that operated in inland Chinese cities and overseas. In 1887, Dr. Sun even set up a secret society in Japanese-controlled Taiwan, from where he directed an uprising in Huizhou 惠州.In 1905, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had been exiled from China for his involvement in the anti-Ching movement, organized the Revolutionary Alliance 同盟會 (Tung-meng Hui) in Tokyo. This organization sponsored a network of revolutionaries inside China. On October 10, 1911, Dr. Sun's supporters in Wuchang 武昌, fearing their cover was blown by the recent arrest of one of their agents, seized the initiative and raised the standard of revolt in Hubei Province 湖北省. Drawing on a wellspring of popular support and the defection of numerous officers in the local garrison, the revolutionaries soon captured Wuhan 武漢. Two months later, revolutionaries fought and won a pitched battle in Nanjing 南京. On January 1, 1912, the Revolutionary Alliance, which by that time controlled 16 of the Ching dynasty's 22 provinces, established a provisional parliament in Nanjing and elected Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the provisional presidency of Asia's first democratic republic--the Republic of China. Northern China, however, was effectively controlled by Yuan Shi-kai 袁世凱, who had served the Ching dynasty in a variety of high posts. To break the deadlock and unify China, a three-way settlement was reached between revolutionaries in the south and the military strongman Yuan in the north. On February 12, 1912, the last Ching ruler, Emperor Hsuan Tung 宣統, gave up his throne. The rule of the Manchus had lasted 268 years and spanned the rule of ten emperors. Dr. Sun Yat-sen agreed to relinquish the provisional presidency of the Republic of China to Yuan Shi-kai, and Yuan promised to establish a republican government.
Shaky BeginningsThe first half of the 20th century in China saw the gradual disintegration of the old imperial order. Foreign political philosophies had halted the traditional dynastic cycle, and nationalism became the dominant force in China. Externally, China was still confronted by strong foreign powers and subject to the terms of unequal treaties. Domestically, the new republic was severely tested by its nominal leader Yuan Shi-kai.As the former governor-general of Zhili 直隸, Yuan had trained the elite, Western-style Beiyang Army 北洋軍. He coerced the newly established parliament into formally electing him to the presidency, and was inaugurated on October 10, 1913. Upon his ascension to China's highest political office, Yuan Shi-kai sought to disband Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance, which had been reorganized into the Kuomintang 國民黨. Yuan also dissolved the parliament and then assumed dictatorial powers. In an effort to appease China's rapacious neighbor in the northeast, Yuan Shi-kai agreed to Japanese demands, known as the Twenty-one Demands 二十一條款, for special rights and privileges in Shandong Province 山東省 in May 1915. As time passed, it became obvious that Yuan was planning to restore the imperial system with himself on the throne. Unmoved by the advice of foreign governments and opposition by the Kuomintang, Yuan Shi-kai declared himself emperor on December 12, 1915. That same month, Chen Chi-mei 陳其美 led a revolt against the incipient restoration of monarchy in China. More significant was a military revolt in Yunnan Province 雲南省 led by Governor Tang Chi-yao 唐繼堯 and General Tsai O 蔡鍔. Joined by Lee Lieh-chun 李烈鈞 and other revolutionary generals, these men established the National Protection Army 護國軍 and demanded that Yuan cancel his plan to reestablish monarchal rule in China. During the spring and early summer of 1916, one after another, provinces and districts declared independence from the Yuan regime. As fate would have it, however, Yuan Shi-kai fell gravely ill and died on July 6, 1916. General Li Yuan-hung 黎元洪, vice president of the democracy that Yuan Shi-kai had sought to dismantle, succeeded to the presidency, and General Tuan Chi-jui 段祺瑞 retained his post as premier. Highly ambitious and supported by many senior commanders from the old Beiyang Army clique, Tuan Chi-jui quickly began to strengthen his grip on power. In February 1917 when the American government severed diplomatic relations with Germany and pressed China to do the same, President Li Yuan-hung strongly opposed the move, but Premier Tuan and his supporters were able to push through China's declaration of war on Germany on August 14, 1917. Despite sending over 100,000 men to France during World War I, China reaped little benefit from its entry into the war. It was assured a seat at the Versailles Peace Conference, but the Chinese delegation was stunned to discover that Germany's holdings in China would not be returned to the Chinese people. Rather, the Western powers had agreed to Japanese claims to the German concession in Shandong Province. On May 4, 1919, students in Beijing protested the decision at the Versailles Peace Conference. A riot ensued and many students were arrested. Waves of protest spread throughout the major cities of China, merchants closed their shops, banks suspended business, and workers went on strike to pressure the government. Finally the government was forced to release arrested students and discharge some of the Chinese officials who had collaborated with Japan. Ultimately, the Chinese government refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. An intellectual revolution sparked by the events of May 4, 1919, referred to as the May Fourth Movement 五四運動, gained momentum during the first decade of the Republic of China. The movement was led by a new generation of intellectuals who scrutinized nearly all aspects of Chinese culture and traditional ethics. This new intelligentsia emerged in China after the traditional civil service examination system was suspended in 1905. New educational reforms enabled thousands of young people to study science, engineering, medicine, law, economics, education, and military science in Japan, Europe, and the United States. The "overseas students" returned to modernize China and, through their writings and lectures, exercised a powerful influence on the next generation of students. Guided by concepts of individual liberty and equality, a scientific spirit of inquiry, and a pragmatic approach to the nation's problems, the new intellectuals sought a more profound reform of China's institutions than what was accomplished by the self-strengthening movement of the late Ching dynasty or the republican revolution. Beijing University 北京大學, China's most prestigious institution of higher education, was transformed by its chancellor, Tsai Yuan-pei 蔡元培, who had spent many years in advanced study in Germany. Tsai made the university a center for scholarly research and inspired educators all over China. A proposal by Professor Hu Shih 胡適 that literature be written in the vernacular language rather than the classical style also won quick acceptance. Important economic and social changes occurred during the first years of the Republic. With the outbreak of World War I, foreign economic competition against native industries abated, and state-run light industries experienced brisk development. By 1918, the industrial labor force numbered 1.8 million workers. A large portion of capital flowed from the agricultural sector to new industries in China's coastal provinces, and modern Chinese banks with growing capital resources were able to meet expanding financial needs. In the 1920s the United States, Great Britain, and Japan seemed to be moving toward a new postwar relationship with China. At the Washington Conference (192122), the three major powers agreed to respect the sovereignty, independence, and territorial and administrative integrity of China; to give China the opportunity to develop a stable government; to maintain the principle of equal opportunity in China for the commerce and industry of all nations; and to refrain from taking advantage of conditions in China to seek exclusive privileges. The powers also agreed to take steps leading toward China's tariff autonomy and the abolition of extraterritoriality.
The Warlord EraFor a few years after the Washington Conference, foreign powers refrained from aiding particular Chinese factions in the recurrent power struggles. China was in turmoil; however, regional militarism was in full swell. During the first two decades of the Republic, China had been fractured by rival military regimes to the extent that no one authority was able to subordinate all rivals and create a unified and centralized political structure. The powerful Beiyang Army had split into two major factions: the Zhili faction led by Feng Kuo-chang 馮國璋 and the Anhui faction under Tuan Chi-jui. These two factions controlled provinces in the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys, and competed for control of Beijing. In Manchuria, Chang Tso-lin 張作霖 headed a separate army. Shaanxi Province 陜西省 was controlled by Yen Hsi-shan 閻錫山.Having witnessed the collapse of the fledgling central government he had worked so hard to create, Dr. Sun Yat-sen turned south to his home province of Guangdong 廣東省, where he established a military government in August 1917. In 1919, Dr. Sun reorganized his party into the present-day Chinese Kuomintang (KMT, also known as the Nationalist Party), and in 1921, Dr. Sun Yat-sen assumed the presidency of the newly formed southern government in Guangdong. When war between the northern warlords erupted the following year, Dr. Sun issued a manifesto urging the reunification of China by peaceful means. A political idealist, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was to be disappointed by more years of sporadic fighting between warlords. Finally, in 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his southern government moved to set up a military academy that would train an officer corps loyal to the Kuomintang and dedicated to the unification of China. Dr. Sun appointed Chiang Kai-shek 蔣中正 as commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy 黃埔軍校. On November 10, 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen called for the early convocation of a National People's Convention to bring each of China's regional leaders to the conference table. Two weeks later, Tuan Chi-jui became the provisional chief executive of the Beijing-based government and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, as head of the southern government, traveled north to hold talks with Tuan. While in Beijing, Dr. Sun succumbed to liver cancer and died on March 12, 1925, at the age of 59. His dream of a unified and democratic China freed of foreign constraint had yet to be realized. Dr. Sun's untimely demise left the southern government in the hands of a steering committee. This 16-member committee established a national government in July 1925 and some 11 months later appointed Chiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army 國民革命軍. In this capacity, Chiang Kai-shek launched a military expedition northward to eradicate various feuding warlords in central and northern China. This military campaign lasted three years and came to be known as the Northern Expedition 北伐. On March 22, 1927, the first troops of the National Revolutionary Army entered Shanghai and two days later, captured Nanjing. Despite a split between the right and left wings of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek was able to establish a new National Government in Nanjing on April 18, 1927, and the Northern Expedition continued without interruption.
The Japanese InvasionBy the spring of 1928, the National Revolutionary Army was approaching Jinan 濟南, the provincial capital of Shandong Province. Japan dispatched 3,000 soldiers to the city under the pretext of protecting Japanese residents. On May 3, two days after the National Revolutionary Army moved into Jinan, Japanese soldiers killed the Chinese negotiator Tsai Kung-shi 蔡公時. Thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were slaughtered by Japanese regulars in the ensuing massacre. Less than a month later, the Japanese followed this atrocity with the assassination of the Chinese warlord in northeast China, Marshal Chang Tso-lin, after he had expressed his intention to surrender Manchuria to the National Government. Manchuria was a huge and rich area of China in which Japan had extensive economic privileges. Japan dominated much of the southern Manchurian economy through a monopoly of the Southern Manchuria Railway 南滿鐵路. Manchuria's impending unification with the rest of China threatened Japan's economic privileges in central China and its domination in Manchuria.The Chinese government realized the Jinan massacre and the assassination of Chang Tso-lin were premeditated actions designed by the Japanese militarists to provoke war while China was still divided. Chiang Kai-shek thus ordered the National Revolutionary Army to continue its northward march but to avoid Japanese-controlled areas in northern China. This strategy frustrated the Japanese schemes and effectively unified China under the National Government based in Nanjing. Japanese militarists remained undaunted. Believing Manchuria to be strategically and economically vital to their plans for the conquest of all Asia, Japanese officers in Shenyang 瀋陽 (Mukden) sabotaged the Southern Manchuria Railroad on September 18, 1931, and ambushed the Northeastern Chinese Armies. On January 28, 1932, following a wave of murders and arson by their agents in Shanghai, Japanese armies attacked that city. Chinese defenders resisted heroically, thereby drawing international attention. To deflect world opinion, which had condemned their actions, the Japanese installed a puppet regime known as Manchukuo 滿洲國 in 1932. The "land of the Manchu" proved to be no more than another stepping stone for the extension of Japanese aggression. In 1933, the humiliating Tanggu Truce 塘沽協議 was signed, which in effect yielded eastern Hebei Province 河北省 to the Japanese-controlled Manchukuo. After long negotiations, Japan acquired the Soviet interests in the Chinese Eastern Railway 中東鐵路, the last legal trace of Russian influence in Manchuria. In 1935, Japanese armies attempted to detach Hebei and Jehol 熱河 provinces from Chinese control and threatened Shanxi, Suiyuan 綏遠, and Shandong provinces. The Japanese then set up the so-called East Hebei Anti-Communist and Self-Government Council 冀東反共自治會, another move after the Tanggu Truce to extend Japanese control over northern China.
The Rise of the Chinese CommunistsThe Japanese were not the only threat to the integrity of Chinese democracy. The Chinese communists, who had rebelled against the government of the Republic of China (ROC), established a provisional Soviet "government" in Jiangxi Province 江西省 on November 7, 1931, and created 15 rural bases in central China. The ROC launched five successive military campaigns to eradicate the communist threat to central authority. The communist armies were, in the end, forced to abandon their bases and retreat. Communist troops led by Mao Zedong 毛澤東, Zhu De 朱德, Zhou Enlai 周恩來, and Lin Biao 林彪 marched and fought their way across western China on the 6,000-mile Long March. By mid-1936, Nationalist forces had cornered the remnants of several communist armies in the impoverished area of Yenan 延安 in northern Shaanxi Province.At this point, the Chinese communists opted for a new "united front" strategy against Japan. The ROC government, however, believed that the communists must capitulate to central authority before China could effectively repel Japanese encroachment. This policy, therefore, was one of "unity before resistance against foreign aggression." While further Japanese transgressions made this policy a costly one, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was determined to carry on the anti-communist campaign. He ordered the Northeastern and Northwestern Armies to attack the communist forces in northern Shaanxi Province. When the Northeastern Army, commanded by Chang Hsueh-liang 張學良, disobeyed the order to pursue the war against the communists, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Xian 西安省 on December 12, 1936, to confront the general. Chang's army subordinates, however, shot Chiang Kai-shek's bodyguards and arrested the generalissimo. After a series of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Chang Hsueh-liang freed the generalissimo and escorted him back to Nanjing on December 25, 1936. The "Xian Incident" 西安事件 was a severe setback to Generalissimo Chiang's efforts to subjugate the communists.
The War Against JapanOn the eve of China's all-out war against Japan, the Japanese nation had a total of over 4.5 million soldiers. The total tonnage of its navy came to nearly two million, while its air force had 2,700 planes of various models. In comparison, the Chinese army had 1.7 million men, its navy had a total tonnage of 110,000, and its air force had 600 aircraft, only 305 of which were fighters.On July 7, 1937, a minor clash between Japanese and Chinese troops near Beijing finally led China into war against Japan. (In Chinese, this conflict is called the Eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan 八年抗日戰爭.) From this point on, Chinese resentment of over half a century of Japanese aggression was expressed in the form of overt, concerted, and armed resistance. The war against Japan unfolded in three stages: a first stage of undeclared war beginning with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident 七七事變 (or 蘆溝橋事變) on July 7, 1937; an intermediate stage beginning in late 1938; and a third stage that began with China joining the Allied Forces after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The war ended with Japan's surrender in 1945. During the first stage of the war, Japan won successive victories. Tianjin was occupied in July 1937 and Beijing in August. After three months of fierce fighting, Shanghai was captured by the Japanese on November 11, 1937. The ROC capital, Nanjing, fell in December. The fall of the capital is now known as the "Rape of Nanjing" because Japanese forces occupying the city killed some 300,000 people (defenseless civilians and Chinese troops that had already laid down their arms) in seven weeks of unrelenting carnage. The loss of Nanjing forced the ROC government to move its capital up the Yangtze River to the city of Chongqing (Chungking) 重慶, which was shielded by mountains. By the end of this initial phase of the war, the ROC government had lost the best of its modern armies, its air force and arsenals, most of China's modern industries and railways, its major tax resources, and all the Chinese ports through which military equipment and civilian supplies might be imported. However, China had won a major battle at Taierzhuang 臺兒莊 on April 6, 1938. In 1940, Japan set up a puppet government in Nanjing under Wang Ching-wei 汪精衛, but the Chinese people would not submit. Hundreds of thousands of patriotic Chinese continued to attempt the difficult trek to Chongqing. Students and faculties from most colleges in eastern China traveled by foot to makeshift quarters in distant inland towns. Factories and a skilled workforce were reestablished in the west. The government rebuilt its scattered armies and tried to purchase supplies from abroad; however, the supply lines were long and precarious. When war broke out in Europe, shipments became even more scarce. After Germany's conquest of France in the spring of 1940, Britain bowed to Japanese demands and temporarily closed Rangoon, Burma, to military supplies for China. In September 1940, Japan seized control of northern Indo-China and closed the supply line to Kunming 昆明. While Japan had more than 1,000 planes, China had only 37 fighter planes and 31 old Russian bombers that were not equipped for night flying. The United States, however, had by then sold the Republic of China 100 fighter planes--the beginning of an American effort to provide air protection to the ROC. By the summer of 1941, the United States knew that Japan hoped to end the undeclared war in China and was preparing for a southward advance toward British Malaya and the Dutch Indies, planning first to occupy southern Indo-China and Thailand, even at the risk of war with Britain and the United States. On July 23, 1941, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a recommendation that the US send large quantities of arms and equipment to China, along with a military mission to advise on their use. The military mission arrived in October 1941. By December 1941, the United States had implicitly agreed to help create a modern Chinese air force, to maintain an efficient line of communication into China, and to arm 30 divisions of soldiers. The underlying goal was to revitalize China's war effort as a deterrent to Japanese military and naval operations in the south. The logistics line for all foreign aid depended on the 715-mile Burma Road, which extended from Chongqing to Lashio, the Burmese terminus of the railway and highway leading to Rangoon. The third phase of the war against Japan began on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and shortly afterwards the United States and Britain declared war on Japan. China, which also formally declared war against Japan after four years of staunch resistance, joined the Allies in waging the Pacific War. On January 2, 1942, Generalissimo Chiang assumed the office of Supreme Commander of the China Theater of War. This escalation of the Sino-Japanese conflict raised Chinese morale, but also damaged China's strategic position. With the Japanese conquest of Hong Kong on December 25, 1941, China lost its only air link to the outside world and one of its principal routes for shipping supplies. By the end of May 1942, the Japanese held most of Burma, and China was almost completely blockaded. Following an initial grant of US$630 million in lend-lease supplies, the United States granted China a loan of US$500 million in February 1942, and Great Britain stated its willingness to lend 50 million pounds. This helped to stabilize the Chinese currency and provided China with better terms of trade. A solution to the supply problem was found in an air route from Assam, India, to Kunming in southwest China--the dangerous "hump" route along the southern edge of the Himalayas. In March 1942, the China National Aviation Corporation 中國航空公司 (CNAC) began freight service over the hump, and the United States began a transport program the following month. It was not until December 1943 that cargo planes were able to equal the tonnage carried over the Burma Road by trucks two years before, but China's needs for gasoline, arms, munitions, and other military equipment were still not adequately met. Both air force development and army modernization were pushed in early 1943. A training center was created near Kunming and a network of airfields was built in southern China. By the end of 1943, the China-based American Fifteenth Air Force had achieved tactical parity with the Japanese over central China, and began to bomb Yangtze River shipping. The Fifteenth Air Force even successfully raided Japanese airfields on Taiwan. China's determination was beginning to pay off. During November and December of 1943, the leaders of the Allied countries met in Cairo, Egypt. In the December 1st Cairo Declaration, the return of Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores was promised to China. The prewar system of extraterritoriality--whereby Chinese courts had no jurisdiction over any foreigner residing in China--was abolished. In addition, the Allies pledged themselves to "persevere in the prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan." On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later, a second was dropped on Nagasaki. The subsequent Japanese surrender was delivered to the Allies through Switzerland the next day, and on August 14, Japan announced its formal surrender in accordance with the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of July 1945 and declared that "the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out." The Japanese government accepted this in the instrument of surrender concluded on September 3, 1945, between Japan and the Allies. The Japanese armies on the Chinese mainland surrendered to the ROC government on September 9, 1945, in Nanjing.
Communist RebellionEven before Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's surrender was known, the commander of the Chinese communist armies, Zhu De, ordered his troops to move into Japanese-held territory and seize Japanese arms. The American general, Douglas MacArthur, then ordered all Japanese forces in China to surrender their arms only to forces of the ROC government. Despite MacArthur's request, the Chinese communists sent tens of thousands of political cadres and soldiers into Manchuria. The Chinese communists took over most of the arms of the 600,000-strong Japanese army in Manchuria that had previously been confiscated by the Russians. The Soviet army dismantled most of the industrial machinery in Manchuria. The valuable equipment, so crucial to China's postwar revival, was shipped to the Soviet Union while immovable objects were mostly destroyed.The government and the Chinese communists held peace talks that culminated in an agreement on October 10, 1945. The agreement called for the convening of a multiparty Political Consultative Council 政治協商會議 to plan for a liberalized postwar government and to draft a constitution for submission to a National Assembly 全國代表大會. When the Chinese communists continued to accept the surrender of Japanese garrisons, occupy cities, and confiscate property, Chiang Kai-shek ordered an offensive against them in November. Hostilities lasted throughout December and the early part of January 1946. Hoping to help end the fighting, US President Harry S. Truman dispatched George Marshall to China in December 1945. Marshall was able to negotiate several cease-fires during 1947, but a pattern of non-cooperation between the government and the communists soon escalated into open conflict. While ROC troops were busily suppressing the incipient communist rebellion, many citizens were working to implement true democracy. On January 1, 1947, the Constitution of the Republic of China was promulgated. Within the year, members of the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan 立法院, and Control Yuan 監察院 had been elected, despite all sorts of difficulties and problems. In April 1948, the new National Assembly elected Chiang Kai-shek to the presidency of the Republic of China. These moves toward democratic government, however, were overshadowed by a communist offensive that cut Manchuria off from the rest of China. The military setback in Manchuria was compounded by serious economic problems. Inflation continued unabated, caused principally by government financing of military and other operations, particularly for maintaining large garrison forces. Apart from the loss of millions of Chinese lives, the war against Japan had generated huge war debts, not to mention serious financial distress in the private sector. The government had run a budget deficit every year since 1928. Alarmingly, the money supply in China increased by 500 times between 1937 and 1945. Retail prices of daily necessities were so inflated that even middle-class families tottered on the brink of abject poverty. This unrestrained inflation triggered a national recession and alienated the public from its elected representatives. By 1948, communist forces had cut lines of communication and destroyed vital outposts along the Longhai 隴海 and Pinghan 平漢 railways, isolating many cities. In December, the pivotal battle for Xuzhou 徐州 was lost. This defeat was followed by the fall of Tianjin and Beijing on January 19, 1949. Other cities in northeastern China were lost by March. In early 1949, Chiang Kai-shek began deploying a force of 300,000 troops in Taiwan backed by a few gunboats and some planes. After the Chinese communists had successfully crossed the Yangtze River, the government of the Republic of China began relocating its offices to Taiwan. As the mainland was falling to the communist forces, around one and half million people (mostly young and unmarried soldiers) accompanied the ROC government to the island of Taiwan. (See Chapter 4 for information on the History of the ROC on Taiwan.)
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