China in the 1930’s

By | January 8, 2022

According to relationshipsplus, Chang Kai-shek has tenaciously continued, under the aegis of the Kuomintang, his work of unification and reconstruction. According to Whang Ching Wei, former head of the executive, China still suffers “from general weakness, in the internal situation and in its capacity for development, from heart weakness, due to the lack of political and financial strength of the central government, and from gangrenous tumors., due to interference and foreign invasions “. It is in the heart of this sick mass that Chang Kai-shek had to and must work: but many and powerful are the opponents of a strong central government, because they should obey it and send the proceeds of the provinces. The rural masses still do not respond to the call of the new China: the problem of daily nourishment dominates every other act and every other feeling. Chang Kai-shek’s task was therefore extremely difficult; but it is nevertheless fair to acknowledge a certain success of his efforts, without falling into the exaggerations that recent events have shown to be unsubstantiated. The reforms in the various branches of the administration, especially the financial reform, the technical advances, the limitation of provincialism, the new spirit of the army, a certain moral elevation and the development of hygiene in the population, all of this is real, and the major powers have taken note of this, raising their diplomatic representations in rank. The contribution of foreign experts was also of great performance, brought in large numbers from all over the world (we remember the Italians: Dragoni for agriculture, Mari for sericulture, De Stefani for finances, in addition to military missions). Parallel to this action, the campaign against Communist banditry continued, which required the use of large forces and exceptional expenses. Two movements, which could have had fatal consequences for the republic, were quickly liquidated. The first, the political tension manifested in the southern provinces (Kwang-tung and Kwang-si) in the summer of 1936 also caused the displacement of large military forces in the Ho-nan, to face those amassed by some generals of the nationalist government. -radical of Canton. Crushed within a few weeks, the reason for this sudden move by the Southerners, after the death of their leader Huhan-min, has not yet been known. Among the many suppositions formulated (and among them those of Japanese and Soviet complicity) the most credible attributes the movement, rather than to pressure on the central government, to provoke its vigorous resistance to Japan, to a supreme longing for Southern affirmation towards Nanjing. Its sinking should have resulted in a harsh lesson for the opponents of national unity. Just three months later, however, another extraordinary event occurred: the coup d’état of Sian-fu. Chang Hsu-liang, the ex-lord of Manchuria, sent to the north against the communist gangs, revolted with his troops against the central government and captured in that city the generalissimo, who had come quietly and without an escort, to inspect the course of the operations, which were slow.

The abolition of extraterritorial privileges, enjoyed by foreigners, has practically not taken any steps, after the solution in favor of the Chinese postulates theoretically given by the various powers.

In its relations with foreign countries, China has drawn up new directives for its policy with the USSR since 1932. The world saw the emergence of a military alliance, possibly active against the supposed common enemy of the East, namely Japan. But everything was limited, as far as we know, to the resumption of normal diplomatic relations (interrupted in 1927), without China being able to get Moscow to accept the proposal for a non-aggression pact, which was concluded only in the ‘ August 1937, along the lines of the Briand-Kellogg pact. However, the reestablishment of relations did not hold back the USSR so much from negotiating directly with Man-chu kwo the transfer of its rights on the Chinese eastern railway, regardless of China, as from grabbing outer Mongolia.mongolia, App.) and the de facto Sovietization of Sin-kiang (Chinese Turkestan), now dependent on Moscow, despite the hostility of the population.

With Japan, the truce (or armistice) of Tanghu (see japan, App.) Had put an end to the hostilities that broke out between the two countries for Manchuria. No serious incident, other than the agitation caused by the Japanese proclamation of a Monroe doctrine for East Asia in favor of Tōkyō, seriously disturbed their relations for over a year and a half. Several demonstrations, which took place in that interval, made them think they were heading towards a reasonably friendly settlement. But the conflict of interests, substantially divergent, and the inevitable consequences derived from it, has brought them back to their former state. Chinese suspicions of excitement at a separatist movement in the northern provinces; Japanese reaction to the Chinese anti-Japan campaign and all its more or less violent manifestations; Tōkyō’s suspicions about Nanking agreements with England (mission of Sir F. Leith Ross) for Anglo-Chinese or international financial cooperation, to the detriment of the preponderant Japanese economic penetration in China; requests and impositions, difficult to evade, by the Japanese military for the cessation of Chinese activities in the north (Ho-Umetsu agreement, v.Japan, App.) Caused its rapid and continuous worsening. In order to remove them from local influences and frame them, given their importance, in the politics of the central government, Chang Kai-shek, deeply convinced of the advisability of an agreement with Japan as a keystone for the reconstruction of the country, decided to invoke a Nanjing the discussion of the various disputes, promising (his statements to the Kuomintang) to discuss them in a spirit of conciliation to the extreme. His provisions initially aroused the exasperation of the most ardent nationalists, manifested by attacks on the prime minister and his deputy minister. Subsequently, the gradual tightening of the generalissimo’s policy, initiated under the irresistible pressure of the impetuous nationalist currents, resistance at any cost, for the first time brought him the adhesion and collaboration of elements hitherto hostile to him: an attitude which was increasingly accentuated, at the same time as the disappearance of communist military activity, but which inevitably led to irreparable tightening of relations with Tōkyō. In this atmosphere, full of dangers, and made more threatening by the concentration of troops on both sides, the Lu-ku-ciao incident took place on July 17, 1937, the starting point of the bloody conflagration. ongoing between the two countries; real war, without having the juridical name (v. starting point of the bloody conflagration that is taking place between the two countries; real war, without having the juridical name (v. starting point of the bloody conflagration that is taking place between the two countries; real war, without having the juridical name (v.Japan, App.).

China has always been loyal to the League of Nations and believed it had to strictly apply the sanctions imposed against Italy, promulgating a series of measures for this purpose. For its part, the Company has been generous with assistance in the technical field. In the political field, however, things have taken on an aspect that certainly does not correspond to the expectations of that country. The result of her appeals in Geneva against Japanese action in Manchuria should not have encouraged her to renew them, on the occasion of the current conflict with the same nation. China thought it appropriate instead of doing it: and the outcome was even more negative. Since (apart from the moral condemnation pronounced against Japan in the motion of the assembly, which went so far as to invite the members of the Society “.

China in the 1930's