China: From Empire to People's Republic 1900-49

The Qing abdication, February 1912

• Sun Yatsen, aware of how weak his Nationalist Party was, expressed willingness in early February to hand over the presidency to Yuan Shikai.
• Yuan presented an ultimatum to the Manchu dynasty: abdicate or be overthrown.
• Feb 12th 1912 - Longyu, the Dowager Empress, issued a formal abdication decree on behalf of the five-year-old Emperor Pu Yi.
• Yuan Shikai was given full powers to organize a provisional Republican government.

1911-12: a very Chinese revolution

• The mandate of heaven passed from the Qing to the new Republic.
• The imperial family was allowed to remain in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
• 1911 was only a partial revolution; representative government failed to emerge.
• A parliament appeared, but the representative principle was never genuinely adopted.
• Corruption and factionalism remained dominant features of Chinese public life.
• The Wuhan rising was essentially the work of the military.
• Interpretation: a revolution of the provinces against the centre.
• The 'Double Tenth' was a triumph of regionalism.

The Japanese model

• Japan had responded to Western interference by remodeling their nation along Western lines.
• Chinese revolutionaries saw Japan as a model, despite its exploitation of China.
• Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 was a powerful example.

Warlords, Nationalists and Communists 1912-28

• Sun Yatsen's Nationalists were unable to stop Yuan Shikai holding power between 1912 and 1916.
• Yuan's death in 1916 ushered in the chaotic warlord era.
• The 4 May Movement began in 1919.
• 1921 - The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded.

The Rule of Yuan Shikai 1912-16

• Sun Yatsen's Alliance League adopted the name Guomindang (GMD).
• Sun conceded the presidency to Yuan Shikai.
• Sun's hope was Yuan would come south to Nanjing.
• Yuan was determined to stay in Beijing, his power base in the north.
• Sun Yatsen's Republicans had been outmanoeuvred.
• The GMD continued to operate as the secret society it had been, collaborating with underworld gangs.

China's foreign loan 1913

• In 1913, Yuan negotiated a large foreign loan, accepting demands of an international banking Consortium.
• Loan was for $100 million (£25 million).
• Terms: China had to pledge future tax revenues as security.
• Concessions: Recognition of Britain's control of Tibet and Russia's of Outer Mongolia.

The Second Revolution 1913

• In 1913, the GMD tried to organize armed resistance in the southern provinces.
• Yuan's army rapidly crushed the resistance.
• Sun Yatsen fled to Japan in November 1913.
• Yuan consolidated authority by:
  • Permanent suspension of parliament.
  • Outlawing parties, including the GMD.
  • Abolition of regional assemblies.

Japan's 21 Demands 1915

• Outbreak of First World War in 1914 gave Japan opportunity. China did not enter war until 1917.
• In 1915, Japan presented Yuan Shikai with the '21 Demands'.
• Demands included:
  • Chinese assent to Japan's rights in Shandong Province.
  • Employ Japanese as advisers in political, financial, and military affairs.
  • Police departments to be jointly administered.
  • China to purchase 50% or more of munitions from Japan.
• Yuan gave in, creating a violent outburst of anger, demonstrations, and strikes.

Yuan becomes emperor 1916

• Yuan announced late in 1915 he would restore the imperial title.
• Enthroned as emperor on New Year's Day 1916.
• Aroused fierce opposition; provinces rose in revolt, and Yuan's own generals defected.
• Yuan renounced the throne in March 1916.
• Died in June 1916.

The Warlord Era 1916-27

• After Yuan's death, General Duan Qirui emerged as premier.
• General Zhang Xun failed in attempt to restore Qing dynasty in June 1917.
• Central authority in China became enfeebled.
• Republican government split between rival factions (Anhui, Fengtien, Chihli).
• Local regions fell under domination of private armies.
• Military commanders or warlords became autocrats with their own legal, financial, and taxation systems.
• Examples of warlords:
  • Zhang Xun (Shandong): the 'pigtailed general', a staunch Manchu supporter.
  • Yan Xishan (Shanxi): the 'model governor', had progressive policies.
  • Feng Yuxiang: the 'Christian general', baptized troops with a hosepipe.
  • Zhang Zongzhang (Shandong): depraved bandit, killed by 'splitting melons' (slicing heads).
• Warlord authority strengthened by competition between Sun Yatsen's government in Guangzhou and the Republican government in Beijing.
• Some positive features:
  • Economic: Zhang Zuolin started industrial development in Manchuria. Yan Xishan introduced industrial training in Shanxi.
  • Political: Disunity intensified nationalist feelings.
  • Cultural: China's literary and intellectual renaissance peaked in the 1920s.

The 4 May Movement 1919-25

• Sustained resentment against Japan and imperialist occupiers.
• Triggered by demonstration in Beijing after China's humiliation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.
• At Versailles Conference (April 1919), Allies transferred Germany's rights in Shandong to Japan.
• News caused explosion of anger; protests and anti-Japanese boycotts in Beijing and Shanghai.
• Protests spread to 20 provinces and over 100 towns and cities.

The Nationalists (GMD) Under Sun Yatsen 1912-25

• Sun Yatsen returned to China in 1917, set up rival government in Guangzhou (Canton).
• In 1919, declared Guomindang reformed. 1920 - Guangzhou became major southern base of GMD.

The 'Three Principles of the People'

• Formally enunciated by Sun Yatsen in 1923.
• National sovereignty: Restore nationalism, eliminate imperialism.
• Democracy: Struggle for national freedom, not personal freedom.
• People's welfare: Solve poverty by developing national capital (government-owned enterprises).

Reforming of the GMD

• Sun Yatsen knew GMD needed to be militarily strong.
• 1924 - Founding of Whampoa Military Academy to train GMD army.
• Chiang Kaishek was a product of the Academy.
• Sun co-operated with the Comintern and China's Communist Party.

The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1921

• University of Beijing center of intellectual revolution; Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao challenged Confucian ideas.
• Model of the Russian Revolution of 1917
  • Attraction intensified by Bolshevik success in October Revolution.
  • Bolshevik defeat of foreign interventionists (1918-20) was living example.
• Marxism-Leninism explained the 'imperialist phase of capitalism'.
• New Soviet state renounced Russia's claim to Chinese territories.
• Comintern sent agents to China.
• Flaw: Lenin's theory required a proletariat, which China lacked.
  • Scarcely 3 million industrial workers in 500 million population.
• Comintern agents Grigor Voitinsky and Henk Sneevliet helped set up CCP in July 1920.
• Twenty representatives met in Shanghai; Chen Duxiu elected secretary general.
• 1921 - Mao Zedong joined the party. Official date given as July 1921 out of reverence for Mao.

The GMD-CCP United Front 1924-7

• CCP had only 50 members in 1921.
• Failed railway stoppage in 1923 convinced Comintern that CCP must ally with GMD.
• 1923 - Comintern agents Joffe and Borodin offered GMD money and military supplies.
• Sun Yatsen willing to respond; admired Bolshevik Party structure.
• Outcome: pact of friendship between Moscow and GMD in 1923.
• Soviet Union's seizure of Outer Mongolia in 1924.
• 1924 - Borodin drafted new GMD constitution based on Leninist democratic centralism.
• Chen Duxiu (CCP) was uneasy; GMD aims too imprecise, too many moneyed bourgeois elements.
  • 90% of GMD funding from Shanghai.
• Comintern instructed CCP to join; United Front formed in 1924.

The 30 May Incident 1925

• Shanghai, May 30 1925, crowd protested shooting of Chinese workers by Japanese guards.
• British commander ordered forces to fire; 12 deaths.
• Revealed intense anti-foreigner sentiments.
• Chief beneficiary: Chiang Kaishek.
• Chiang became leader of GMD after death of Sun Yatsen in March 1925.
• Sun's death released anti-Communist forces within the GMD.
• Chiang's conviction: Communists represented an internal challenge that had to be crushed.

The Northern Expedition 1926-8

• July 1926 - Chiang Kaishek speech marked beginning of Expedition.
• Three main warlord targets: Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zuolin.
• By summer 1927, United Front captured Wuhan and Shanghai.
• Chiang built 250,000 man army to defeat Sun Chuanfang in 1928.
• Zhang Zuolin driven out in 1928.
• GMD announced it was legitimate government of China, ruling from new capital Nanjing.
• Mao Zedong, as Front organiser in Hunan, used peasant associations to help.
• Chiang had two aims: break warlords, destroy Communists.
• By 1927, Chiang began purge: dismissed CCP officials, arrested Comintern advisers, removed rival Wang Jingwei.
• Results: Defeat of warlordism was only partial; Nationalists came to terms with warlords, allowing them to keep private armies.

The White Terror ('The Shanghai Massacre') 1927

• Climaxed in Shanghai in April 1927.
• Shanghai had strong trade union movement under Zhou Enlai.
• Chiang turned on Communists, backed by industrialists, merchants, and international settlements.
• Used information from triads and Green Gang.
• 5,000 known Communists and sympathisers executed.
• In Mao's province of Hunan, death toll was around 250,000.
• In Changsha, over 3,000 butchered in one day.

The Autumn Harvest Rising, August-September 1927

• Belated CCP resistance led by Mao Zedong in Hunan.
• Was deliberate defiance of Moscow's order to maintain United Front.
• Mao raised only a third of hoped-for 10,000 man army.
• Troops scattered; convinced Mao of need for guerrilla tactics.
• By end of 1927, CCP was overwhelmed.
• Communists survived by fleeing to mountains of Jiangxi province.

Nationalist China 1928-37

• 1928 - Nanjing officially replaced Beijing as capital.
• Chiang claimed China was at Sun Yatsen's second stage of development: GMD dominance (tutelage), justifying authoritarian control.
• Chiang's reforms:
  • Civil service modernized.
  • Banks brought under central control (Bank of China).
  • National Resources Commission set up.
  • Opium trade brought under government control.
• German influence:
  • Chiang turned to Germany to modernize army.
  • Chief adviser General Hans von Seeckt (1934-35) suggested 60 trained divisions.
  • Nazi Germany supplied most GMD weaponry until 1936.
  • Secret police (Blue Shirts) organized on Gestapo lines.
  • Dai Li ('the Chinese Himmler') ran secret police; had 1800 agents by mid-1930s.

The New Life Movement

• Launched by Chiang in 1934.
• Rejection of Communism and Western capitalism; reassertion of Confucian values.
• Weakness: Government compromised by dealing with disreputable elements.
• Illicit GMD funding came from gangster groups like the Green Gang.
• Gangs had helped Chiang launch the White Terror in 1927.

GMD's Basic Problems

• Could never be a mass party; represented minority interests (merchants, businessmen).
• Little sympathy for rural peasants; failed to introduce land reforms.
• GMD power was limited:
  • Never controlled more than 1/3 of China or 2/3 of population.
  • Warlords still held sway.
  • Restricted after 1931 Japanese occupation of Manchuria.
• Failures: Powerless to prevent widespread famine in 1934-5, which caused 30 million deaths.

The Jiangxi Soviet 1928-34

• Mao and refugees reached Jinggang mountains in 1928, organized first Chinese soviet.
• Mao's view: Revolution must be rural, not urban.
  • Based on peasants, who were 88% of population.
  • 'The peasants are the sea; we are the fish.'
• This put Mao at variance with orthodox urban Communists (Li Lisan, Chen Duxui) following the Moscow line.

The Futian Incident 1930

• Mao conducted violent two-month purge of rival unit in Jiangxi Red Army.
• Suspected them of being GMD agents or supporters of Li Lisan.
• Ordered torture and execution of nearly 3,000 officers and men.

Party struggles at Jiangxi

• Mao's challengers: Wang Ming and Bo Gu (the 'Wang Ming faction' or 'Twenty-eight Bolsheviks').
• Core challenge: Mao was ignoring Comintern instructions, especially on urban risings.

The GMD's encirclement campaigns 1929-34

• Chiang adopted encirclement campaigns (on German advice) to deny resources to Reds.
• Methods: aerial bombing, pillboxes, and manned blocks.
• By 1934, defeats convinced Mao it was suicidal to stay.
• Collective decision made to break out.

The Long March 1934-5

• Main body set off in October 1934.
• Began as a rout, ended as a legend.
• Journey took a year (October 1934 - October 1935).
• Reached sanctuary in Yanan in Shaanxi province.