The past fifty years were the most turbulent in Chinese history. Even for China, a country with probably the longest uninterrupted history in the world, there has been no other period with as many wars and drastic changes. From a self-contained, self-centered empire that remained the same century after century, China was plunged into the modern world. Her people could not understand the foreign ways. Her government broke down. Her economy disintegrated. Old cultural values were thrown away, and new, imported ideas failed to take their place. For a while, China lost all her dignity and self-respect, and still is on the road to recovery and to the place she deserved earlier in the 20th century.
More has happened to China in the fifty years since 1911—when the Republic was found—than in any 500 years of the old Cathay. It is perhaps more difficult to understand what happened to China in these 50 years than to grasp the essential points of ancient Chinese history. Many eminent historians have tried but none has claimed success. The following is not a documented, scholastic study of modern Chinese history, but an attempt to present it on a popular basis for the busy reader.
Forces at Work
There have been many forces at work to bring about the China of today.
First, there was the Manchu court and its mandarins. They represented what was considered foreign domination over China and its multitudes of people.
Then, there were the foreign imperialists who created spheres of interest in China. Only the interplay of rivalry and jealousy prevented either unilateral annexation or joint dismemberment of China. While China maintained its political identity, it was not a sovereign and independent state.
In the words of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Republic of China: "China's is a fate worse than that of a colony. China, alas, is a subcolony."
Then, there were the poorly organized and poorly financed revolutionaries. Drawing their inspiration and strength mainly from the intellectuals, they managed to fire that first shot on the fateful day of October 10 in Wuchang in 1911. In five months, Pu Yi, the baby emperor, abdicated, and the Republic of China was born.
Then, there was the powerful Yuan Shih-kai who perverted the Revolution. A man of extraordinary ability and ambition, Yuan was toppled from his Olympus of a presidency simply because he tried too hard to become emperor.
Then, there were the warlords, variously known as governors or tuchuns, who turned China upside down. Some of them did creditably well in bringing transient peace and prosperity to localities they governed. But most only exploited the people ruthlessly.
Then, there was the spectacular Northward Expedition by the Kuomintang, the party Dr. Sun founded but scarcely directed. A young general, Chiang Kai-shek, finally unified the country.
Then, there were the Communists. They grew from an afternoon tea party of 50 intellectuals to a fanatic group devoted to turning China into a land where Marxism rules supreme. They joined force with the Kuomintang in the early stage of the Northward Expedition. But after their plot to take over the Government was bared, they turned against the Kuomintang.
Then, there were the eight years of war with Japan. Militarist Japan, worried by the reforms and nationalistic buildup in a China under the Kuomintang, started the war. This action unified and united China. China won the war when Japan bowed to the Allied forces and the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Then, there were the Communists again. Skilful application of propaganda and psychological warfare, clever strategy and tactics, and ruthless utilization of the many ceasefires and agreements finally saw them victorious in 1949. The postwar chaos on the mainland, plus the uncertain attitude of the United States helped underwrite that Communist triumph.
Then, the National Government, led by President Chiang, retreated to Taiwan with its Constitution and the determination to restore the mainland to the rule of the Three Principles of the People. The Principles were, for the first time since Dr. Sun conceived them, translated into realities on the island of Taiwan.
On the mainland of China, the Chinese Communists entered the costly Korean War with little justification. They later introduced agricultural cooperatives. Ultimately, the cooperatives were replaced by the people's commune which, in essence, meant the liquidation of all traditional Chinese social and political mores and systems.
This is a brief sketch of the first half century of republican China. The Revolution of 1911 opened the sluices for many epochal events.
Asia's First Republic
The Revolution created Asia's first republic. Unlike the Tai Ping rebels, the revolutionaries did not preach pseudo-religion or try to establish a new dynasty. The Revolution was unique to China because it ended not only 267 years of Manchu rule, but also 4,000 years of monarchies.
The Revolution was nationalistic. True, the outcry against the foreign imperialistic powers was barely audible over the sound of battle in 1911. The wrath was primarily directed at the Manchu rulers.
The Revolution was aimed at bringing democracy to China. Democratization had been the ethos of the country for some time. The revolutionaries wanted a republican democracy. The royalists wanted a constitutional monarchy. Even the Manchu court decreed in its waning years a gradual introduction of a constitutional government. The Revolution quickened the tempo of China's quest for democracy.
Any study of the 1911 Revolution and the subsequent 50 years would not be complete without pertinent references to what preceded these events.
The Manchus, lineal descendants of the nomadic Nϋchengs, crossed into China proper from Manchuria and became the masters of China in 1644. The regime called itself the Ching Dynasty.
These horsemen from Manchuria saw that their own culture was no match for China's. They would be stepping into the boots of Genghiz Khan and Kublai Khan if they tried to force the Manchurian systems on the Chinese people.
The Manchus took over the Chinese political system with little change. They took over Confucius, the scholar bureaucrats, the tax methods, the measurements and the monetary standards. China's agricultural society was meticulously preserved.
The political and social structures and functions of China underwent little change. There was still the emperor. There were still the triennial scholastic examinations for the young men of letters.
The emperor remained absolute but not totalitarian; despotic but somewhat paternal. He headed a centralized government in Peking. He sent out viceroys and lesser officials to the provinces, tao and hsien. These officials did not think everything should be ordered for the people. The people were left very much alone. The village or township became a kind of an administrative or taxation unit. The village elders, who in most cases were clan patriarchs, saw to it that order was kept and taxes paid.
To say that this was democracy is an overstatement. The emperor's words were law. Death awaited those made irreverent remarks about the emperor. The mandarins, as administrators, were bound by neither regulations nor precedents. As judges they also assumed the functions of prosecutor and jury.
In society, agricultural thinking, which had dominated China since the 12th Century B.C., continued to condition Manchu China. Industry, which has made a feeble start two centuries before the birth of Jesus, still was undeveloped. Industrial undertakings were considered an evil, sometimes necessary, but certainly to be avoided.
This was Manchu China in the early years. There was an absolute monarchy which left the people almost alone. There were the Manchus who as conquerors soon found themselves the conquered. There were many aggressive or defensive wars waged by China on all its borders fought not for territorial aggrandizement but for cultural expansion. And there was that static agricultural society which broke down in times of natural calamity and then recovered by itself again.
Foreign Gunboats
It was the foreign powers that injected a new element into the Chinese society. Their new ideas arising from the Industrial Revolution, their missionary zeal, their equally zealous desires for trade and their ultimate recourse to "gunboat diplomacy" sowed on Chinese soil the first seeds of' a parting of ways with monarchic, agricultural and socially stagnant China.
Foreign traders came to China at a relatively early time. The Nestorian traders settled in Changan (later called Sianfu, and now Sian). Marco Polo came as a tourist and Matteo Ricci came as a Catholic missionary during the Yuan (Mongolian) Dynasty. The Portuguese were given Macao as a trading post in the Ming Dynasty, which immediately preceded the Manchu rule.
In the 19th century the foreign traders came in force. Canton in South China was the center of their activities. The Manchu court confined all foreign traders to a small base of operations and told them to conduct business through the Chinese Cohongs.
The Chinese still considered themselves masters of the universe and owners of the only civilization in the world. Their attitude towards foreigners was arrogant and condescending. The British, Dutch and Portuguese were indiscriminately called "barbarians", which bracketed them with the less civilized Tartars, Uigurs or Tibetans.
No more bitter experience could be recalled by a Chinese than that of the Opium War, 1839-1842. This war between China and Great Britain, though localized, proved China was weak and invited the future imperialistic inroads.
The war was fought when a far-sighted but arrogant Chinese viceroy, Lin Tzu-hsu, confiscated and burned British opium, imposed stiff punishment on the traders and demanded signed pledges that they would no longer deal in it. China lost the war and Lin was exiled to Sinkiang.
China also promised to hand over to the British huge reparations. Five Chinese ports were opened to foreign traders. Consular jurisdiction was granted.
After these arrangements were made between China and Britain, France obtained a treaty in 1844. The United States followed suit the same year. The Russians began nibbling away at Chinese territories north of the Amur River and incorporated them into the Maritime Provinces. Further inroads were made in Outer Mongolia and Sinkiang.
China had two more wars with Britain and France from 1856 to 1860. Access to hinterland China was granted. The scope of consular jurisdiction was widened. Large indemnities were imposed.
The British took Hongkong. The French took Indochina. The Japanese seized the Ryukyus. Chinese suzerainty over northern Burma was lost to Britain. Chinese suzerainty over Korea ended when the Japanese moved in after the war of 1894.
Spheres of interest began to appear. The Russians eyed with suspicion any French or British moves in Manchuria. The French considered Southwest China as its area. The British consolidated its claims over all rights in East and South China. Germany, a late comer who took Tsingtao, cordoned off Shantung.
The Boxer Incident was preceded by the war between China and Japan in 1894. Also an Asiatic country, Japan was considered a small nation beside the giant of China. But China lost the war. This was a humiliation which finally established the fact China wars the "sick man" of the Far East.
Eight powers sent punitive forces to China during the Boxer Incident. Again, China was defeated. From then on, the powers obtained the right to concessions or settlements in most ports and cities of China. The consular jurisdiction now covered all people, Chinese or foreign, living in these concessions. The powers also obtained mining and railway rights.
Later the powers agreed, although only tacitly, that it would be a good thing to have a Manchu court in Peking as the symbolic master of China. They knew they could not make China an outright colony. They virtually stopped the process of detachment of Chinese territories and turned their attention to economic exploitations.
"Open Door" Policy
Early in this century, the United States, with the backing of Great Britain, sought an international agreement on an "open door" policy in China. The policy would respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China but would leave the nations free to pursue their profitable economic gains. This international entente worked for more than a generation until Japan upset it.
Domestically, the Manchu court was not without serious troubles. Between 1786 and 1839, many rebellions took place. The rebellions, staged either by minority races in border areas, or by peasants under religious influences, were signs that the society in China was at the breaking point.
The Tai Ping Revolution was the most spectacular. The revolution, which raged between 1848 and 1865, was led by Hung Hsiu-chuan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ. About twenty million Chinese perished in the battles which once seriously threatened the Manchu Dynasty. But the revolts did not stop. The Nien revolt and other sporadic rebellions continued.
The popular cry for political reforms began to be heard. Enlightened mandarins suggested adoption of Western means, although not the principles. Kang Yu-wei got the ear of the emperor and pushed a 100-day reform in 1898. Kang had to escape when the empress dowager put an end to the reform, and placed the emperor under house arrest.
Nevertheless, the need for reform, like the national agony, did not abate. The Manchu court had to give way step by step. One decree after another was issued proclaiming new efforts at democratization, with a constitutional monarchy as the ultimate objective. But the court was playing a delaying game. It did abolish the examination system to make room for modern schools. It established the New Army to enlist educated and young Chinese. The parliamentary system was introduced in several localities.
But these measures and proclamations came too late. Even Kang Yu-wei's monarchists termed them "sham gestures." The intellectuals of China were determined that something more than a court-prescribed dosage of reform was needed. The stage was set for the Double Tenth Revolution in 1911.
Sun Yat-sen
The shot fired at Wuchang in 1911 was by no means the first from a revolutionary gun. Earlier, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the acknowledged revolutionary leader on whose head the Manchus put a large reward had staged ten path-finding, albeit abortive, revolts.
Dr. Sun has been proclaimed the father of the Republic of China. His Three People's Principles (San Min Chu I) have been made part of the Chinese Constitution. His name inspires respect among all Chinese. Even the Chinese Communists have to concede that Dr. Sun "began" China's revolution.
Born November 12, 1866 into a farmer's family at Hsiangshan hsien in Kwangtung Province, Dr. Sun moved with his mother to Honolulu when he was 13. His elder brother had established a prosperous plantation there. After a short sojourn in the Oahu College, Dr. Sun returned to China in 1883. The same year, he went to Hongkong to resume his schooling. He started to study medicine at the age of 21 at the Canton Hospital. Later he transferred to Queen's College in Hongkong. He was graduated in July 1892 at the head of his class.
Dr. Sun, while practicing in Macao and Canton, was already dedicated to the revolution. He had been known as a radical. The Sino-Japanese war in 1894 convinced him that the Manchu Government must be overthrown if China was to be preserved.
He went to Honolulu and established the Hsin Chung Hui, the great grandfather of today's Kuomintang. The society (literally meaning China Rejuvenation Society) had only one purpose—the overthrow of the Manchu imperial government. Dr. Sun proceeded from Honolulu to Hongkong. There he got in touch with the secret societies and decided upon an armed rebellion the next year.
That rebellion in Canton failed. Dr. Sun had to leave for Hongkong, then Japan, then the United States and the United Kingdom. In London, he was kidnapped by the Chinese legation and was about to be shipped back to China when his teacher, Sir James Cantlie, got a message from Dr. Sun and obtained his release through the good offices of the British Government.
Dr. Sun returned to Japan in 1897 and resumed his revolutionary activities. He not only had to fight off the apathy of the Chinese there but counter the challenge of Kang Yu-wei's royalist constitutionalists. The constitutionalists, also in exile, were active in overseas countries where there were large Chinese communities. Their interests crossed with Dr. Sun's. In 1900, Dr. Sun attempted a second revolt, also in South China. He again failed. However, Dr. Sun had become prominent throughout the world. He had also won the allegiance of China's secret societies.
In 1905, Dr. Sun's following had expanded to such an extent that a bigger organization was required. He established the Tung Meng Hui (United League) in Tokyo. This organization, with an initial membership of over ten thousand, was dedicated to the task of "overthrow of the Manchus, restoration of China, establishment of a republic and the equalization of land ownership." The Tung Meng Hui manifesto reflected Dr. Sun's democratic and socialistic ideas. Its salient points were later elaborated and have become the Three People's Principles.
The Tung Meng Hui staged eight more shortlived revolts in South China, the last one in Canton on March 29, 1911, only seven months before the Wuchang Revolution. Seventy-two revolutionaries lost their lives. They were buried at Huanghuakang, which has been made a national shrine.
Dr. Sun's Tung Meng Hui stood out among all the revolutionary groups. It was well organized with a political platform. Its agents roamed over China, supplying arms and money to local groups. One branch of the Tung Meng Hui, known as Kung Ching Hui and located in Wuchang and Hankow, played a prominent role in the Wuchang Revolution.
Dr. Sun was in the United States when the Revolution occurred. He went to England and France seeking international support for the revolutionary force. Upon his return, he found most parts of China in the hands of the revolutionaries who, however, could not agree on a leader. Dr. Sun's return settled the issue. He was chosen the first Provisional President, a post he occupied for a little more than two months.
Provisional President
As Provisional President, Dr. Sun found himself frustrated. The realities of politics were stacked against him. His followers, while agreeing on the aims of the revolution, disagreed on practically everything else. The country wanted a peaceful transition, but the well-trained Manchu forces under Yuan Shih-kai were giving the revolutionary army a bloody nose, retaking Hanyang and Hankow in November. Yuan passed word along that he would switch his allegiance to the revolutionary side and end the fighting at a price—that he be made the president of the new republic.
After Dr. Sun gave up the presidency to Yuan Shih-kai, his Tung Meng Hui supporters organized the Kuo Min Tang (Nationalist Party) and plunged immediately into parliamentary politics. Dr. Sun was made the titular head. He wanted to get his plans for railway construction under way, but he was rebuffed as a daydreamer, an idealist and a thinker. Later when Yuan's ambition to make himself the emperor became well known, the Kuo Min Tang refused to listen to his call for an early break with Yuan. When it did raise its arms against Yuan, it was crushed.
In disgust, Dr. Sun went to Japan and organized the Chung Hua Ke Ming Tang (China Revolutionary Party), along the revolutionary lines of the Tung Meng Hui, and continued with the fight to fulfill the aims of the revolution. Later on, he rechristened his party the Chung Kuo Kuo Min Tang (Chinese Nationalist Party), which is the Kuomintang of today.
The 14 years after the establishment of the republic saw Dr. Sun's fortunes at the lowest ebb. He faced one desertion after another. Twice, he was forced to leave the base in Canton which he secured with the help of the navy. He was almost heartbroken when his protege Chen Chiung-ming rebelled as he was on the point of directing a military march toward the north.
He did not live to see the day when his Kuomintang unified the country and vindicated his ideas by making the Three People's Principles part of the national belief and by translating his phased democratization proposal into reality. On March 12, 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen died in Peiping where he was trying to negotiate a peaceful unification formula with the Tuan Chi jui government.
Dr. Sun left behind him many political programs: In essence, the Three People's Principles calls for nationalism (China for the Chinese), democracy (with the rights of the people and of the government clearly defined) and social wellbeing (land to the tiller and restriction of capital.) His nationalistic views would have all Chinese realize the dangers posed by the imperialistic powers and seek salvation through reviving China's own identity and entity. In democracy, he proposed a government with executive, legislative, judicial, control and examination (personnel) powers and the vesting of the rights of election, recall, initiation and referendum in the hands of the people.
His principle on the people's livelihood is socialistic. He proposed state ownership of the major industries and a curb on private capital. He suggested ambitious state undertakings to reconstruct the country. For the farmers, he called for land reform so that ownership could be equalized.
The republic and the San Min Chu I (Three People's Principles) are Dr. Sun's legacies. Much misunderstood and often wronged, Dr. Sun proved himself the only inspiration for a wayward China at the time of the revolution, and in the years since. In spite of the trust he sometimes misplaced and the belatedness of his final triumph, Dr. Sun in the final analysis was a great man with a mission and of a vision.
The Wuchang Uprising
Bitter memory of the ten unsuccessful uprisings still haunting them, leaders of the Tung Meng Hui did much intensive soul searching. One of their conclusions was that over-emphasis on South China was no longer advisable.
The situation in Wuhan—the collective name for the cities of commercial Hankow, industrial Hanyang, and strategic Wuchang in Central China—seemed conducive to a new revolt. The New Army, then the beehive of revolutionary activities, was there and two organizations dedicated to the overthrow of the Manchu rule decided to cooperate. The Tung Meng Hui's Shanghai headquarters started to pump leadership, money, arms and inspiration into the Wuhan complex.
The Tung Meng Hui branch in Wuhan, locally known as the Kung Ching Hui, had established close contact with the secret societies as well as other revolutionary intellectuals. It also entered in 1911 into an entente with the Wen Hsueh Sheh (Literary Society) which had 3,000 members in the New Army.
October 14 was set as the date for the uprising. It was timed against the back ground of popular unrests in Szechuan and in some other provinces against the Manchu Government's nationalization of private railways. The New Army was under orders to move into Szechuan to help suppress the riots. Its own revolt must be staged as soon as possible.
But the Revolution came even sooner. A home-made bomb went off in an underground factory in Wuchang, wounding Sun Wu, leader of the Kung Ching Hui. Manchu police raided the site and got the name of all the revolutionaries. Consequently, more than thirty of them were arrested, three were summarily executed and several prominent leaders went into hiding. The worried revolutionaries were forced to start the rebellion the night of October 10, 1911. That day has since been known to the Chinese as the Double Tenth.
The New Army at that time had been ordered to hand in all their cartridges. Hsiung Ping-kun, a sergeant in an engineering battalion, fired the first shot. The artillery unit joined immediately. They shelled and stormed the office of the viceroy. The viceroy fled. Other lesser Manchu officials fled. Wuhan easily became the first city taken by the revolutionaries.
The revolutionaries found themselves in a predicament. Their leaders were either wounded or in hiding. Somebody of established social standing and popular appeal must be found to assume leadership. They turned to Colonel Li Yuan-hung, moderate New Army regimental commander.
Li had heard of the fermentation in his barracks. He ignored it. However, he did banish some revolutionaries when they were sought by police. He did nothing to help the Revolution. When the revolutionaries were looking for him, he was hiding in a friend's house.
He was persuaded at gunpoint to become the "governor of the Hupeh Army of the military government of the Republic of China," a name which did not carry as much significance then as it did later on.
Li issued in the next few days eight messages, all dated as in the 4,609th year of Huang Ti (Yellow Emperor) who was generally believed as the first emperor of the Chinese. One message declared that the purpose of the Revolution was the restoration of Chinese rule. Another abolished all taxes except the essential ones. A note to foreign governments committed the revolutionary government to recognition of all previous treaties and agreements but warned the powers they should not assist the Manchus in any form and must recognize the "military government".
A long letter was dispatched to Peking. Li asked the Manchu emperor to abdicate. In return, he promised, "you are going to keep your old home of Manchuria and receive our protection as a vassal if you choose to abdicate and return to your age-old status as a Chinese dependency."
The revolutionaries promised a republican government of, for and by the Chinese.
The Manchus were outraged. In desperation, they turned to Yuan Shih-kai, a viceroy put into official deep freeze because of his strong military following. In mid-November, Yuan was made the viceroy for Central and South China and commander-in-chief of all anti-revolutionary forces.
Yuan launched a strong offensive against Wuhan. His well-trained troops took Hanyang but got no further during a month of fighting. Meanwhile the provinces of Hunan, Shensi, Shansi, Kiangsi, Yunnan, Kweichow, Chekiang, Kwangsi. Kwangtung, Anhwei and Szechuan declared independence and joined the Revolution. Taken from the Manchus by force were the key cities of Shanghai, Soochow and Nanking. The Tung Meng Hui succeeded in mobilizing nationwide forces and virtually created a new country south or the Yangtze.
Yuan Shih-kai proved himself a master strategist. On one hand, he showed the revolutionaries his military prowess. On the other, he informed the Peking court that the revolutionaries were too strong and suggested a peace conference. A meeting was held in Shanghai between representatives of the Manchu court and the revolutionary government.
The revolutionaries saw the need for a coordination. First, representatives of the various provinces went to Wuchang to shape up the course of the republic. They decided on the formation of a provisional government. The delegates moved to Nanking which was declared the capital. They could not agree on many things, including the choice of the President. Huang Hsin of the Tung Meng Hui and Li Yuan-hung were both powerful contenders.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen made his timely return to China. With near unanimity, the delegates of the seventeen provinces elected him Provisional President of the Republic of China, Li Yuan-hung was later elected as vice president.
Dr. Sun assumed the presidency on January 1, 1912. The Republic of China was officially born.
The Gregorian calendar was adopted to replace the lunar calendar, and 1912 was officially declared as the first year of the Republic of China. The pigtail, a trade mark of the Manchus, was cut off. The Government vested its power in the President instead of a cabinet. A senate was to be the Legislature. The five-color flag, representing the five principal ethnic groups of China, was adopted. Dr. Sun's revolutionary flag, the Blue Sky and White Sun, was made the navy flag. The 18-star flag of the Wuhan military government was made the army flag.
When taking the oath of office, Dr. Sun pledged "to overthrow the despotic Manchu Government, to consolidate the Republic of China, to bring forth wellbeing to the people, to be subservient to the will of the people and to do my best for the country and for the people." Dr. Sun also promised to abdicate his provisional presidency on the day the Republic of China was recognized by all world powers and peace and republicanism had been established in China.
It was apparent the governmental system emerging from the chaos of revolution was not in line with that advocated by Dr. Sun. His suggestions often fell on the Senate's deaf ears.
The Senate, however, decided on a provisional constitution which tended to put parliament above the presidency. The two-chamber parliament was modeled after the United States Congress.
Yuan Shih-kai
The peace talks in Shanghai almost went aground when the republican government was formed. Yuan Shih-kai, then the Manchu prime minister, sent out feelers that he could persuade the young Manchu emperor to abdicate if he would replace Dr. Sun.
For the sake of national unity, Dr. Sun said he would willingly step down if Emperor Pu Yi would abdicate and Yuan Shih-kai would announce his wholehearted subscription to the republic.
Yuan readily agreed. General Tuan Chi-jui, who was to play a prominent role in politics later on, led Yuan's generals in appealing to the Manchu court for abdication. On February 12, 1912, Pu Yi obliged, saying: "We are satisfied that the honors of our family should not be put over the will of the people." In return, the republican government promised to respect him as a foreign sovereign, keeping all his titles, palaces and treasures in Peiping, which was now the new name for Peking.
After the abdication of the Manchus, Dr. Sun led the republican government in a ceremony proclaiming complete success of the revolution. Then, he relinquished the provisional presidency.
Yuan Shih-kai immediately broke his promises. He staged a mutiny in North China. Then, he said he could not leave Peiping for Nanking. Instead, the Senate and government moved to Peiping, again renamed Peking.
The Revolution had succeeded. But it was only a partial success because the revolutionaries compromised too much with the old elements. In their eagerness to establish a republican form of government, they repudiated the ideas of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The country was unified only in name. The stage was set for the warlords.
Dr. Sun promised to take a new job and construct a vast railway network throughout China. At the same time, his Tung Meng Hui was reorganized into the Kuomintang with party reins held by Sung Chiao-jen. The party subscribed to Dr. Sun's equalization of landownership policy and seriously engaged itself in parliamentary politics.
Yuan Shih-kai became so powerful that he started to nourish second thoughts on republicanism. His dictatorial methods alienated the parliament. As the Kuomintang was the majority party, Yuan had Sung Chiao-jen assassinated in Shanghai.
The Kuomintang staged what was called the Second Revolution. But the uprisings in Shanghai, Kiangsi and Anhwei were crushed. Once again, Dr. Sun was in exile. Yuan Shih-kai began actively to prepare himself for the role as emperor. He changed the provisional constitution and later was elected President through the promulgation of a new constitution.
He soon abolished the constitution, replacing it with another provisional constitution, vesting in him authoritarian powers.
All of a sudden, there arose an organization calling for restoration of the imperial system with Yuan as the emperor. The organization appeared at about the time Japan put China before 21 stiff demands.
Yuan Shih-kai negotiated with the Japanese. Finally, on May 25, 1915, a treaty was signed. China bowed to of part the Japanese demands which tended to make China Japanese vassal. The other powers were so engaged in the First World War that they had no time to protest. Japan also took the German-held port of Tsingtao by military force without consulting China.
The inevitable happened in the same year. Yuan Shih-kai, after three ceremonial refusals, finally "acceded to the ex pressed will of the people" and proclaimed himself the emperor of China. But when General Tsai o raised an army in remote Yunnan Province against him, Yuan's power and backing vanished almost overnight. He said he would go back to the presidency. The offer was refused. He had to discard his empire and his career. After 83 days as emperor, Yuan died. Li Yuan-hung became the President.
Although Yuan was exposed, the generals he groomed for power and prominence were still present. General Tuan Chi-jui, leader of the Anhwei clique or Anfu Club, was in and out as premier or chief executive. General Feng Kuo-chang, leader of the Chihli clique, was President for some time. His protege, Tsao Kun, also became President later by bribery. Tsao's chief lieutenant, Wu Pei-fu, was once the virtual power behind the throne although he was merely a nominal divisional commander.
Decade of Confusion
The decade after the death of Yuan Shih-kai was marked by confusion, endless wars among the contending generals, the appearance of minor warlords in all provinces known as tuchuns, the merry-go-round of politicians in Peking and a complete breakdown of the parliamentary and republican system.
Li Yuan-hung, the man of moderation saw his luck end abruptly by a coup d'etat staged by the "pigtailed braves" of General Chang Hsun who brought Pu Yi back to the throne. A few days later, General Tuan defeated Chang. Back to his Forbidden City went the stripling emperor in 1917. Tuan managed to keep Li out of government and declared war on Germany.
Then came the peace conference at Paris. Tsingtao, rights in Shantung and abrogation China's delegation fought hard to regain of many of the privileges Japan had managed to get from China. China did not succeed. In disgust, the Chinese delegation walked out and refused to sign on the Versailles Treaty. China, nevertheless, joined the League of Nations.
In 1926, the situation stood something like this: In Manchuria, Marshal Chang Tso-ling, a former "red beard" (brigand), held power. He controlled Peking and some other North China provinces. Marshal Wu Pei-fu, headquartered in Hankow, was the overlord for Central China. Marshal Sun Chuang-fang controlled Kiangsu, Chekiang, Kiangsi, Anhwei and part of Shantung. Minor warlords were found in Yunnan, Szechuan, Hunan, Shansi, and Shensi. Tuan Chi-jui, without an army of his own, was the figurehead chief executive in Peking.
Throughout these chaotic years, militarism was the last and first word. Some warlords were praised because they proved to be the lesser evils. There was no unity, no cohesion and nothing to give the people hope for a better tomorrow. Nevertheless, education became better and more popular. The youth of China, like the angry Asian young men of today, became fiery champions of nationalism and democracy. The nationalism advocated by the revolutionaries of Wuhan was broadened. China, the young men insisted, must seek equality among world nations and cut off the shackles imposed by foreign powers.
The May 4 Movement of 1919, a student riot against pro-Japanese ministers in Peking, was an expression of this sentiment.
The people of China were aroused in 1926. They had learned to assert their nationalistic aims through a boycott of foreign trade and by nationwide demonstrations. On May 30, 1925, the British police in Shanghai fired at Chinese demonstrators protesting Japan's schemes on China. Many were shot down. Promptly, the students in Canton demonstrated outside of the British concession at Shameen. The British again fired at the crowd, killing more people.
The Chinese boycott of British goods lasted two years and caused great damage to British trading and prestige.
Like the revolutionaries of 1911, the people of China began to cast about for leadership. They found the National Government in Canton was the only organization with a doctrine, a program, good organization and popular appeal. The Kuomintang or Nationalists had avowed purposes. They did not improvise. Moreover, the Kuomintang was not guilty of warlord ism.
One of the many things Dr. Sun did in Canton was the creation in 1924 of the military academy at Whampoa, and the appointment of young General Chiang Kai-shek as its first commandant. The academy, later known as the army academy and commonly called Whampoa Academy, provided the officers who finally unified China.
In campaigns to consolidate the National Government's rule in Canton, General Chiang demonstrated his military ability and soon found himself in the innermost councils of the National Government. Dr. Sun sent him to make an inspection of Russia. He came back convinced that Dr. Sun's Three People's Principles was the thing for China.
Northward Expedition
After the death of Dr. Sun, the National Government decided that only a Northward Expedition aimed at national unification could save China. An expedition force was organized and General Chiang appointed commander-in-chief.
On July 9, 1926, General Chiang and his troops took the expedition oath which singled out the foreign imperialists as the enemy. The immediate enemy was Wu Pei-fu. Marshal Wu had started a campaign of his own against General Feng Yu-hsiang's troops in the north, leaving the Hunan battle to his second string commanders. Wu could not have been more wrong.
On July 10, the expeditionary forces took Changsha, the capital of Hunan. By August 15, General Chiang was in Hupeh ready for the capture of Wuhan. Marshal Wu rushed back and the first big battle of the Northward Expedition was fought. Marshal Wu was routed. By September, he was no longer a national figure.
Marshal Sun was next to be vanquished. The expeditionary forces entered Kiangsi Province in late September and by early November, Sun's best soldiers were gone. He retreated from Kiangsi. In January, Chekiang Province fell to the expeditionary forces, then Nanking and Shanghai. By the end of March 1927, all China south of the Yangtze was under the control of the expeditionary forces.
But intra party strife developed and General Chiang had to step down. A group of leftwing Kuomintang members set up its own version of the National Government in Wuhan against General Chiang's National Government in Nanking. The Chinese Communists had won virtual control of the Wuhan government. They threatened to take military action against Nanking.
This split was mainly over policy toward the Chinese Communists. The Communists, who had been allowed to join the Kuomintang, had a program of their own. They organized city strikes and farm revolts. The notorious Nanking pillage in which foreign properties were ransacked was a Communist masterpiece. The foreign powers moved troops into Shanghai and their warships in Nanking opened fire against the Northward Expedition forces.
General Chiang found the Communists were getting out of control. His troops were winning the victories for the Communists, while the Communist policy of terrorism impaired the revolutionary cause.
On May 5, 1927, the Kuomintang decided to break with the Communists. Communists were rounded up and many were executed. But the Wuhan government continued to tolerate the Communists until July 15 when Wang Ching-wei turned against the Communists who had staged a series of bloody revolts in Kwangtung and Hunan. The Wang faction then sought a reconciliation with Nanking. For party unsty, General Chiang retired from his post. He soon married Miss Mayling Soong in Shanghai.
With unity achieved, the National Government called on Generalissimo Chiang to resume the Northward Expedition. On January 1, 1928, he decided to answer the call. Two months later, his troops stabbed northward almost without resistance. On May 1, the provincial capital of Shantung, Tsinan, was secured.
The Japanese chose to attack Tsinan without provocation. On May 3, some 5,000 Japanese troops started the notorious Rape of Tsinan, killing or injuring more than 11,000 Chinese:
Generalissimo Chiang did not want to engage in a war with Japan at that time. He ordered the utmost moderation. His troops were detoured, but the march northward continued.
A Unified China
Peking surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang. In December, the young marshal brought Manchuria under the National Government. China was again unified. The capital remained in Nanking. Peking, again called Peiping, became the educational and cultural center.
China was confronted with two strong enemies, in different guises but common in their purpose to take over China. One was the Chinese Communists. The other was Japan.
The Communists, since parting with the Kuomintang, staged a series of revolts in Canton, Changsha, Nanchang, Haifeng, Lufeng and other Central China or South China cities. Their hold was temporary but they remained a strong force. Gradually, they established the "Soviet Socialist Republic of China" in the rural areas of Central China with straggling pockets in Kiangsi, Kwangtung and other provinces. Mao Tse-tung, who joined the Communist Party in 1921, the year the party was founded, became the undisputed leader.
Generalissimo Chiang was determined that the Communists must be uprooted before the nation could embark on an effective programs aimed at resisting Japanese encroachment. "To defend ourselves against foreign aggression," he declared, "the house must be made secure first."
In 1933, he launched a fifth great campaign against Mao Tse-tung's Communist troops in Kiangsi. In November 1934, Juichin was taken and the Communist remnants fled to Yen an in northern Shensi.
One indication of the devastation wrought by the Communists can be found in the population statistics for Kiangsi Province, the main base of the Communists in the early 30s. In 1927, Kiangsi had 27,500,000 people. Seven years of Communist occupation cut it down to 14,000,000.
The National Government was not idle. Its organization was fashioned after the five-yuan system advocated by Dr. Sun—Executive Yuan in charge of administration, Legislative Yuan as the parliamentary body, Control Yuan acting as modern day heirs of the imperial censors of yore, Examination Yuan as the final voice in civil service personnel and Judicial Yuan in charge of the courts.
Giant economic construction works were undertaken. The li chin was abolished to end the last trace of Manchu misgovernment. Currency was unified. Paper money was issued. Railway and highway projects were pushed with vigor. Irrigation systems were established. Education was made compulsory at the primary level and encouraged on higher levels. Reclamation projects were introduced. The monetary reforms gave a "new look" to China.
The National Government won promises from foreign governments to abolish the unequal treaties. Several territories were returned to China.
These were the best years in China's domestic administration. Some people who had looked askance at the National Government began to subscribe to the Kuomintang cause.
Japan was alarmed. In China, a new government was functioning with determination and dedication. The other foreign powers had begun to see the futility of continuing the old policy of "gunboat diplomacy." If things continued to develop along these lines,
Japan's special privileges in China would be endangered. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese army launched a surprise campaign and occupied Mukden and south Manchuria. China complained to the League of Nations which chose to restrict its condemnation of Japan to paper protests. Japan took north Manchuria, and Soviet Russia sold its railway rights there to Tokyo.
On January 28, 1932, the Japanese attacked Shanghai. They met a stone wall of Chinese defense. The Japanese won after months of bitter fighting. Pu Yi, the baby emperor of the Manchus, was smuggled out of Peiping. The Japanese put him on the throne and declared the creation of the Manchukuo.
Japan soon moved into the Great Wall, taking Jehol Province. Smuggling was done in flagrant violation of all international conventions. Japanese troops fired at the Chinese at will. They attacked and took Chahan Province.
The National Government signed two humiliating treaties with Japan—the Tangku agreement and the Ho-Umeki agreement, each with concessions to Japan. Generalissimo Chiang did not want to fight the Japanese then. He said China was not militarily ready. He repeatedly emphasized that once the war began, it would not stop until one side was vanquished.
But he was misunderstood. There was a popular outcry against the Government's "policy of non-resistance." The Communists, through their propagandists, whipped up anti-government sentiment. Only the personal popularity of Generalissimo Chiang managed to keep the situation under control.
War Against Japan
On July 7, 1937, the Japanese started the Marco Polo Bridge Incident near Peiping. Generalissimo Chiang told the nation the moment had come. He called for general mobilization and an allout war against the Japanese. It was the beginning of the eight years War of Resistance.
The Japanese attacked Shanghai on August 13, 1937. By the end of the year, they had taken Nanking and most of North China. The National Government moved to Hankow. The Japanese rolled up almost all Chinese territory north of the Yangtze river and occupied Hankow. The National Government moved to Chungking in Szechuan Province. The Japanese landed in Kwangtung and took Canton, plus a major portion of the province.
The Chinese Communists, at the onset of the war, closed ranks with the National Government. In return, they were given arms and other assistance. They moved from the Yenan area into Shansi and later into other points in North China, fighting a guerrilla war. Another Communist army was organized in East China with government blessing.
By 1940, China met with many difficulties. The free territory was landlocked with outside assistance denied access. The Japanese set up Wang Ching-wei as the head of a puppet regime in Nanking. But free China fought on. Generalissimo Chiang would not listen to Japanese peace feelers. When Prince Fumimaru Konoye, the Japanese premier, proposed a three-point settlement which would give National Government nominal existence, Generalissimo Chiang ignored it.
The Communists preferred to let the National Government bear the brunt of the war. They infiltrated into the rear of the Japanese troops and established guerrilla bases. A classic example was the Battle of Chengchow in Honan Province. The Japanese marched southward and took Kai-feng and Chengchow to line up with their forces in Hankow. The Government fought and lost. The Communists followed the trail of the Japanese, did no fighting, but occupied the countryside vacated by the government troops.
Pearl Harbor made China an ally of the United States and Great Britain, but free ·China could not get enough material support. The Allies concentrated their efforts in Europe against Hitlerite Germany. China was supplied over the Hump, the heights of the Himalayas, but the supply was negligible compared to the needs.
Chinese troops entered Burma and India to fight with the Allied forces. The bravery of the Chinese soldiers was soon recognized. The Flying Tigers of General Claire L. Chennault, who then was made commander of the 14th Air Force, wrested air supremacy from the hands of the Japanese.
The war came to an end in 1945. On September 9, Japan formally surrendered its forces in China at Nanking. Taiwan, ceded to Japan since the Treaty of Shimonoseki, was restored to China. Little did China know that its allies had sold Outer Mongolia and many rights in Manchuria to the Russians who entered the war against Japan a few days prior to the Japanese surrender.
China however became one of the big Five Powers and a founding member of the United Nations with the powers of veto. Meanwhile, under the persuasion of its allies, China signed a treaty with Russia recognizing Russia's right to repossess Port Arthur and Dairen and operate the Manchuria Railway.
Eight years of war had turned the Chinese society upside down. The cherished family system was breaking up. The clannish ideas were gone. Political conceptions changed too. Government authority no longer stayed at the hsien or prefecture level. It went down to the grassroots. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's introduction of the pao-chia system made the family, not a village or town, the basic political unit.
Red Rebellion
By the time Japan surrendered, the Chinese Communists had spread all over the country. They were found in North China, East China, Central China and South China. Word of Japan's surrender prompted the Communists to issue orders sending nine contingents of their troops to Manchuria to take over the rich provinces ahead of the Government troops.
The National Government found itself hampered by the lack of communication and transportation in getting to Japanese-occupied areas in time. The United States provided airlifts to get the Government troops to North and East China cities.
In October 1945, Mao Tse-tung went to Chungking, pledging his full support to the Government and voicing his willingness to settle peacefully all differences with Generalissimo Chiang.
At the same time, Russia started the "Rape of Manchuria" by dismantling all factory equipment and shipping it to Siberia. It was conservatively estimated Russia took at least three, hundred million U.S. dollars worth of machinery from Manchuria. Russia blocked the National Government's arrival in Manchuria by delaying the withdrawal of its occupation troops. While the government troops waited for Russian clearance, Communist soldiers took over Manchuria and obtained weapons and munitions from the Russians.
Meanwhile, the Communists intensified their propaganda offensive. Making good use of people's war-weariness, they posed themselves as political reformers. They demanded the formation of a coalition government and called for peaceful unification. All these were but an empty gesture. When a coalition government on their terms failed to materialize, the Communists started a full-scale rebellion and armed conflicts flared up.
At the end of 1946, the United States sent General George C. Marshall to China to mediate the civil strife. A cease fire was agreed upon. The Americans listened to pleas for a coalition government with interest, but they soon found out that sincerity was lacking and the ceasefire was only observed verbally by the Communists.
In January 1947, General Marshall declared his mission a failure and returned to Washington with "plague on both your houses" sentiments. Armed conflict was resumed.
The National Government at first enjoyed the upper hand. It cleared Kiangsu of all Communists, restored communications lines in East China, occupied the key Manchurian cities of Mukden, Kirin and Changchun and marched into North Shensi to take Yenan.
But the repeated cease fire orders provided time for the Communist forces to expand. The government troops in Manchuria found themselves isolated. First Changchun, then Chingchow and finally Mukden fell to the Communists.
The loss of Manchuria paved the way for eventual Communist takeover of the mainland.
The National Government had earlier announced the end of the period of political tutelage and the introduction of the constitutional democracy stage. On November 5, 1947, elections were held throughout the country for the National Assembly which was to write the Constitution and elect the President. The Communists and their fellow travelling Democratic League, however, boycotted the Assembly.
Chinese Constitution
The National Assembly, convened in March 1948, wrote the Constitution of the Republic of China. The Constitution declared the country a democratic nation of, for and by the people, in the image of the Three People's Principles. It provided all the freedoms for the people and committed China irrevocably to democracy.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was elected President and General Li Tsung-jen Vice President.
Meanwhile, the Communists launched an all-out campaign against the Government. By November of that year, the Communists drove into Chahar, capturing Kalgan, and isolated Peiping and Tientsin. One of its contingents stabbed into Kiangsu Province and took Hsuchow.
The tide of war began to turn against the National Government. On January 1, 1949, President Chiang Kai-shek said in a message that he would entertain the idea of starting peace negotiations with the Communists. He offered to step down from the presidency. The Communists took one week to make an ambiguous reply, and then occupied Tientsin on January 14.
On January 21, President Chiang retired temporarily from public life and went to Chikou, his birthplace. Li Tsung-jen took over as Acting President to start peace negotiations with the Communists.
On April 1, a five-man government delegation arrived in Peiping. They were given eight demands by the Communists. The terms were so harsh that the Government turned them down.
Three weeks from that day, the Chinese Communists crossed the Yangtze River. On April 23, Nanking fell. At this critical juncture, President Chiang Kai-shek, who had to emerge from retirement, rallied Government forces, first at Canton and later at Chungking and Chengtu and finally at Taipei. In December 1949, the National Government moved its seat to Taipei.
On October 1, 1949, the "People's Republic of China" was established in Peiping with Mao Tse-tung as Chairman.
The Chinese Communists, in addition to various domestic undertakings, joined the Korean War in November 1950 and were thus branded as an aggressor by the United Nations. Although the Communists might draw heart from the fact that they fought almost on equal terms with the United Nations, the repatriation of 14,000 Communist prisoners of war to Taiwan is a clear-cut verdict on Communism.
These war prisoners made their choice because the Communists had turned the mainland inside out. From 1950 to 1953, they pushed with great vigor what they called the new democracy or "people's democratic dictatorship."
In the "people's democratic dictatorship," the mainland saw a nationwide massacre of landlords and non-Communist elements for the realization of the Communist land reform program. Communist cadres virtually took over production in the farms and in the factories.
Beginning 1953, the Communists introduced what they called the first phase of socialism, meaning confiscation of private ownership in the farms and organizing the farmers into cooperative societies. The industrialists surrendered their nominal ownership of firms and factories to the Communists. Since 1950, trade has been nationalized. But in the second phase, even private dealings were restricted.
In 1956, the Communists invited frank criticisms known as "hundred flowers" but in 1957 they sent the critics to execution or to reform camps.
In 1958, the people's commune was introduced. The farmers, who lost their land in 1953, now lost their own identity in the commune. They were grouped together, worked 18 hours a day, paid little and drilled as militiamen. In the cities where the communalization program was yet to come, the workers found themselves sent to remote areas along the frontier.
Light industrial production was low. Food shortages and raw material shortages began to develop in 1958. The droughts, floods and other natural disasters, admitted by the Communists themselves as "worst in a century," brought famine and privations to the people on the mainland.
In 1961, the Communists ordered a further slowdown in the communal drive and in the so-called "great leap forward." But the 1961 production picture was a bleak one as the droughts and floods continued their relentless march.
Communism is totalitarian in thinking and practice. The Chinese Communists, except for the period when they were in the countryside, have been sticking to the teachings of Karl Marx. They believe in the inevitable war between Communism and capitalism and among the classes. And they believe in preparing the mainland people for that ultimate day of accounting.
Model Province
On the other hand, the National Government, since its retreat to Taiwan, has exerted every effort to build the island into a model province. The Government, after reviewing its mistakes, decided on new programs aimed at carrying out Dr. Sun's democratic and socialistic teachings within the frame of the Constitution.
The Government has had pronounced success. A land reform, in three phases but without bloodshed, was carried out to make every farmer in Taiwan a land owner. Industry was encouraged and private capital was protected and assisted. The policy to restrict capital was, however, not followed because the restrictions could only come after there was an abundance of private capital.
The military services were completely reorganized. Education was made compulsory for graders. Self-government, meaning local elections, was enforced with good results.
However, the National Government has several problems. First, Taiwan is a small island and its population has grown beyond the eleven million mark. Economic progress is marvelous and foreign trade favorable, but these will not be viable without American aid. Land reform has brought about economic justice, yet the small parcels of land actually are a handicap to mechanization of the farms.
These problems are obvious. The National Government therefore has made it plain the solution of all such problems lies in its recovery of the mainland. After all, the National Government and the Kuomintang were founded for the unification and democratization of all China.