International Entanglements before the Sino-Japanese War Feb. 26th, 2019 The Geopolitical Issue of Manchuria: Scope Russia ➢ 19th -20th Century: A contested borderland where China, Russia, and Japan were the main competitors; ➢ A liminal and indeterminate historical space being characterized by warfare, but also by opportunities for local elites who are able to play off one outside power against another; China Proper Japan The Geopolitical Issue of Manchuria: Historical Overview ➢ Qing Period (1644-1912) • Formation of the concept of “Manchuria” as a distinctive region; • Qing Frontier Policy: Ensuring the distinctive environmental (forests), socio-economic (ginseng, mushroom, and fur trade), and cultural (language and customs) features of this region; ➢ Late Nineteenth Century: Increasing Degree of Sinicization • Triggers: Famine in north China; Expansions of Russia and Japan; • Lift of the ban on immigration into this region from China Proper • Population: o 1787: 150,000 o 1907: 1.5 million, 81,000 were non-Chinese; The Geopolitical Issue of Manchuria: Russia and Japan Russia ➢ 1897 Built and maintained military & territorial control over the Chinese Eastern Railroad; Japan ➢ 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan demanded to cede the Liaodong Peninsula; ➢ 1900, After the Boxers, Controlled the entire Manchuria; ➢ 1905, The Treaty of Portsmouth : Lease on the Guandong Peninsula and the South Manchurian Road; ➢ 1915, 21 Demands, Privileged economic rights in southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia; ➢ 1903-1927 Economic Expansion: • Coal and iron mines, electric supply, railways, etc. • Manchurian share of Chinese foreign trade went from 3.5 to 32.5 percent, chiefly with Japan; • By 1927, 85 percent of the Japanese investment was in China, 80 percent of this was in Manchuria The Geopolitical Issue of Manchuria CER 1928 Nationalist Government Liaodong/Guandong Peninsula The Geopolitical Issue of Manchuria: The Mukden Incident ➢ Borderland Politics before 1928: • Zhang Zuolin (1875-1928): sided with different countries at different times; • 1911-1928 Cooperation between Zhang and Japan; • 1920s Gradual Independence of Zhang from Japanese Influence: 1) Zhang’s ambition at the position in Beijing; 2) Built up core civilian support in the Mukden clique; • 1928 Japanese feared Zhang’s increasing military involvement south of the Great Wall; Assassination of Zhang; ➢ The Nationalist Turn after 1928: • Zhang Xueliang (1901-2001) succeeded his father and declared his allegiance to the GMD of a unified China; • 1930 Extended his base into North China; • Railway Rights: Tried to take over the CER; Built and expanded railway lines to compete with the SMR; • Denial of landownership to Japanese nationals; The Geopolitical Issue of Manchuria: The Mukden Incident ➢ The Mukden Incident: • September 18, 1931, the Guandong Army set a bomb on an SMR line near Mukden; • Jiang Jieshi ordered Zhang Xueliang to withdrawal; • 1932 Japan occupied all of the Manchuria; establishment of the independent Republic of Manchukuo; ➢ The Manchukuo: • Puppet State: Puyi as the “chief executive;” The real power belonged to Japan; • Military Regime: Guandong army was the dominant army; • A Modern Developmental State: 1) development of an industrial base; 2) unified currency; 3) banking system; • A Brutal Regime: 1) monopolistic nature of the industrialization; 2) agricultural exploitation; 3) germ warfare experimentation; International Reactions to the Manchuria Issue ➢ Initial Attempts of the League of Nations: ➢ 1933 The Breakdown of the International Framework: • • Japan was unlikely to resume its responsible and peaceful U.S. actively proposed to internationalize the Manchuria Issue; • • 1931 The British Statesmen Lord Lytton • Global Trends to economic regionalism; ordered a commission to investigate the • 1933 Adjustment of American Foreign Policy: to prevent situations in Manchuria; The Lytton Report; war through direct negotiations with individual counties, General Attitude: Solve the Manchuria crisis rather than through the League of Nations; within the framework of international collaboration and without alienating Japan; • position; 1932 Henry Stimson proposed to Britain to join together in condemning Japanese acts; Britain did not respond; • The Soviet Union: Avoid premature clashed with Japan Responses of the Nationalist Government: Conceptualizations of World Order in the 1920s and 1930s ➢ The “Imperialism” Framework: Since the mid-19th Century • A system at diplomatic balance; • Implication: competition and rivalry among the imperialist powers could be manipulated for China’s benefit; ➢ Perception of the New World Order in the 1920s and 1930s: Hope for the International Approach: • The economic interests of the Anglo-American powers and Japan were incompatible; War between Japan and the Anglo-American powers were inevitable; • War between Soviet Union and Japan was also inevitable because of ideological and geopolitical reasons; • Chance for China to achieve international alliances against Japanese expansion; Responses of the Nationalist Government: Negotiations with Japan, 1933-1934 ➢ After 1933, The Gradualist Approach: Appease Japan while eradicating military-regional rival regimes; ➢ 1934 Preparation for a Settlement with Japan on the basis of status quo: • Negotiations: mail and railway systems, tariff revision, debt settlement; • China accepted the existence of Manchukuo as a separate entity; • Japan pledged not to undertake further territorial acquisition southward; Gradual Preparation for the War: Reversal of the Japanese Policy, 1935-1937 ➢ 1935-1937 Reversal of the Japanese Policy • General Doihara Kenji undermined the incipient structure of Chinese-Japanese accommodations; • New Policies: 1) Separate North China; 2) Remove GMD influences; 3) Establish provisional regimes controlled by Japanese forces; ➢ Secret Preparations of the Nationalist Government: • Military Affairs Commission: fortification plans for six cities in the lower Yangzi Region; • Constructions of batteries and other military facilities along the Yangzi River; • Plan to control the western provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan Gradual Preparation for the War: Potential Alliances ➢ The Nationalist Government and Soviet Union: • 1934 Preliminary Contacts: potential alliances against Japan; • 1935 Negotiations between Jiang Jieshi and the Soviet Ambassador Domitiri Bogomolov; ➢ The Nationalist Government and CCP: • 1936 Negotiations between Chen Lifu (GMD) and Zhou Enlai (CCP): 1) cooperation against Japan; 2) reorganization of the red armies; 3) future alliance with the Soviet Union; • After November, GMD position hardened—deadlock situation of the ongoing negotiations; ➢ 1936 The Xi’an Incident • Zhang Xueliang captured Jiang Jieshi and forced him to abandon the anticommunist campaigns and take an anti-Japanese stand; • Prelude to the full-scale allied fight against the Japanese; The Second Sino-Japanese War Feb.28th, 2019 Timeline of the Main Events ➢ 1937 Conflict at the Marco Polo Bridge (Near Beijing) ➢ 1937 Jiang Jieshi Shifted the Main Battleground from North China to Shanghai • A Strategic Gamble • The Military Base of Jiang Jieshi in Shanghai: Best German-trained military divisions; Jiang’s military forces outnumbered the Japanese by more than 10 to 1; • A Tough Battle: 250,000 Chinese Troops were killed or wounded; Jiang lost 60 percent of his finest forces; ➢ 1937 Japanese Occupation and Massacre at Nanjing • 30,000 fugitive soldiers were killed; 12,000 civilians were murdered; 20,000 women were raped; ➢ 1937 The Nationalist Government Retreated to Chongqing ➢ 1938 Japan Took Guangdong (Canton) and Wuhan ➢ 1938 Division of China: • Under the Control of Japan: Manchukuo, Inner Mongolia, Northeast China South of the Great Wall, East and Central China; • Under GMD Control: Chongqing • Under CCP Control: Yan’an (Shaanxi Province) ➢ 1940 The Nationalist Government Officially Moved Its Capital to Chongqing The Retreat in 1937: Trading Space for Time ➢ A Great Loss: • The nationalist government had lost de facto control over the whole eastern China; • Loss of the wealthy commercial and industrial cities & the most fertile farmlands; ➢ Deeper Strategic Concerns: • Jiang Jieshi: “Trading Space for Time” • Long-term planning for retreating into the remote hinterlands of southwestern China; Dilemma for Japan ➢ Japan: Limited Supplies of Resources • Huge cost of the war; • Demand for oil, rubber, and other raw materials—depended on the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands; • Vying for western colonies in Southeastern Asia; ➢ Tension between Japan and the U.S. • 1938 U.S.: banned the export of aeronautical materials; • 1939 Abrogation of the U.S.Japanese Trade Treaty • 1941 Japanese occupation of Indochina—US-Dutch-British export ban on oil and iron; • 1941 Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor—U.S. joined the war; • 1942-1943 Major military pressures on Japan from the U.S. Tasks for both GMD and CCP 1. How to protect their domains from further Japanese assaults; 2. How to establish some form of viable government structure; 3. How to strengthen the loyalty of those living in the areas they ruled; 4. How to build up support inside the Japanese dominated areas for future incorporations The Nationalist Government in Chongqing: Administrative and Military Penetration ➢ Nationalist Government in Chongqing: 1) Supreme National Defense Council; 2) Military Affairs Commission; ➢ • • • Reorganization of Military Forces: Cooperation with the Warlord in Yunnan; Inserted GMD cadres into the provincial armies; Rebuilt the central forces with newly trained officers and modern equipment; o Uneven allocation of new weapons and ammunitions; o Provincial militarists became unsatisfied; ➢ Military Supply: • Japanese Blocakge of Transportation Systems: 1) 1939 Seized Nanchang and cut the Zhejiang-Hunan Railway; 2) After occupying Guangdong, severed the railway line from Hanoi; 3) 1940 Occupied the northern part of French Indo-China; Closed the rail line between Hanoi and Kunming; • 1939 The Burma Road: China’s only link to military and gasoline Yunnan supplies; • U.S. Aid: By the end of the war, a total of a billion dollars, large cash credits amounting to 500 million dollars The Nationalist Government in Chongqing: Economic Planning and Management ➢ Economic Policies ➢ Relocation of Industries • Taxation: Centralized and • First Wave: Military simplified taxation; industries (airplane • Currency: Issued 30 million yuan assembly plants and of the new fabi note to redeem the arsenals) in Nanjing, local notes; Wuhan, and Guangdong; • Established monopolies in tobacco, sugar, salt, and matches; • Took over factories for war production; • Seized grain from peasants; • Price controls; • Iron and Steel factories, textile factories, and privateowned factories followed ➢ Rural Settlement • 1938, The government planned to resettle five million refugees to open land for grain cultivation; The Nationalist Government in Chongqing: Relocation of Universities ➢ Kunming’s Southwest Associated University: • Combination of Beijing, Tsinghua, and Nankai Universities; • Center for criticism of the regime; ➢ Other Universities followed: • By 1939, only six high-education institutions remained in Japanese-occupied territory; • 52 educational institutions had fled into the interior; ➢ Returned freedom of speech, assembly, and the press; CCP in Yan’an: Construction of Base Areas ➢ Border Region Government: 1) Shaan/Gan/Ning: Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia; • Center of CCP • End of the long march—1947; • The rise of Maoism; 2) Jin/Cha/Ji: Shanxi, Chahar, Hebei; ➢ Military Forces: • Eighth Routh Army; New Fourth Army; • Local Forces: armies remaining in its own territorial jurisdiction; • Militia: armies equipped with broadswords and farm tools; 1935 End of the Long March CCP in Yan’an: Ideological Control and the Rectification Campaign of 1942-1944 ➢ Motivations: ➢ Maoism: • Expansion of CCP membership: By 1942, • Nationalistic Impulse: the real enemy was foreign over 700,000; • Necessity of party discipline: 1) some imperialism; • Thought Reform: correct thought was the students and intellectuals were too essential prerequisite for effective revolutionary independent; 2) to discipline peasant action; activists who might abuse their power; 3) improve the basic literacy of party members; • To cement Mao Zedong’s position within the party; • To explore an ideological basis of the CCP; • Mass Line: 1) The ultimate goal of rectification was not to work for the masses but to become one within them; 2) assumed a sovereignty lay in people, but a sovereignty at some distance from the actual instrument of power; CCP in Yan’an: Ideological Control and the Rectification Campaign of 1942-1944 ➢ Effect and Legacy: ➢ Format of the Campaign: ❖ Tend to reduce the gap between the leaders and the led: ❖ Study Groups: small groups of cadres participated in study • Use mass line to mitigate bureaucratic control from sessions that were devoted to examining Maoist documents and to self-criticism; ❖ Hunt for Spies and Enemies within the Communist Camp: • Some people were beaten or driven to suicide; • Esp. targeted at intellectuals and artists; the above; • Insistence on political structures that were responsive to local needs and conditions; • Demanded Party cadres, government officials, and intellectuals to participate in labor; ❖ Rigid dogmas and orthodoxies in political and cultural life ❖ Foreshadowed the political, economic, and educational life during the PRC period; 
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