Cao Rulin (Chinese:曹汝霖; Wade–Giles:Tsao Ju-lin; January 23, 1877 – August 1966, Midland, Michigan, United States) was Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Beiyang Government, and an important member of the pro-Japanese movement in the early 20th century. He was a Shanghai lawyer working in Beijing when he was appointed by the provisional president, Yuan Shikai, to a vacant seat in the National Assembly's senate in 1913. He represented Outer Mongolia because Mongolia boycotted the elections after declaring independence during the Xinhai Revolution. In 1915, he took Yuan Shikai's orders and signed the infamous "Twenty-One Demands" treaty with Japan. He later became the leader of the New Communications Clique.
Cao Rulin was part of the Chinese envoy attending the Paris Peace Conference. At the conference many former German concessions in China were handed to Japan instead of back to China. This caused a great deal of unrest in China resulting in a student demonstration on May 4, 1919 outside Tiananmen. This was the beginning of the May Fourth Movement.
The demonstration shifted and Cao Rulin's house, at 3 Front Zhaojialou Lane in the East City District, was burned down. Cao was helped to escape by his friend, Nakae Ushikichi, son of Nakae Chōmin.
Yuan Shikai was a Chinese general and statesman who served as Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet, the second provisional president of the Republic of China, head of the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1916 and Emperor of China from 1915 to 1916. A major political figure during the late Qing dynasty, he spearheaded a number of major modernisation programs and reforms and played a decisive role in securing the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor in 1912, which marked the collapse of the Qing monarchy and the end of imperial rule in China.
The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles decision to allow the Empire of Japan to retain territories in Shandong that had been surrendered by the German Empire after the Siege of Tsingtao in 1914. The demonstrations sparked nation-wide protests and spurred an upsurge in Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization away from cultural activities, and a move towards a populist base, away from traditional intellectual and political elites.
Xu Shichang was a Chinese politician who served as the President of the Republic of China, in Beijing, from 10 October 1918 to 2 June 1922. The only permanent president of the Beiyang government to be a civilian, his presidency was also the longest of the Warlord Era. Previously, he was Minister of the Cabinet of the Imperial Cabinet during the Qing Dynasty.
The history of the Republic of China began in 1912 with the end of the Qing dynasty, when the Xinhai Revolution and the formation of the Republic of China put an end to 2,000 years of imperial rule. The Republic experienced many trials and tribulations after its founding which included being dominated by elements as disparate as warlord generals and foreign powers.
The Twenty-One Demands was a set of demands made during the First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the government of the Republic of China on 18 January 1915. The secret demands would greatly extend Japanese control of China. Japan would keep the former German areas it had conquered at the start of World War I in 1914. Japan would be strong in Manchuria and South Mongolia. And, Japan would have an expanded role in railways. The most extreme demands would give Japan a decisive voice in finance, policing, and government affairs. The last part would make China in effect a protectorate of Japan, and thereby reduce Western influence.
The Beiyang Army, named after the Beiyang region, was a Western-style Imperial Chinese Army established by the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century. It was the centerpiece of a general reconstruction of the Qing military system in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion and the First Sino-Japanese War, becoming the dynasty's first regular army in terms of its training, equipment, and structure. The Beiyang Army played a major role in Chinese politics for at least three decades and arguably right up to 1949. It made the 1911 Revolution against the Qing dynasty possible, and, by dividing into warlord factions known as the Beiyang clique, ushered in a period of regional division.
Lu Zongyu was a pro-Japanese Chinese diplomat at the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. Because of subscribing the Twenty-One Demands supporting Japanese interests, along with Zhang Zongxiang and Cao Rulin, he was labeled as a Hanjian by students participating in the May Fourth Movement.
The Beiyang government was the internationally recognized government of the Republic of China between 1912 and 1928, based in Beijing. It was dominated by the generals of the Beiyang Army, giving it its name.
Zhang Shaozeng was a Beiyang Army general in charge of the 20th Division.
The Empire of China, also known in historiography as the Hongxian Monarchy, was a short-lived attempt by Chinese president Yuan Shikai from late 1915 to early 1916 to reinstate the monarchy in China, with himself as emperor. The attempt ultimately failed, set back the republican cause by several years, and led China into a period of fracture and conflict among various local warlords.
The Anhui clique was a military and political organization, one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique in the Republic of China's Warlord Era. It was named after Anhui province because several of its generals–including its founder, Duan Qirui–were born in Anhui.
The Constitutional Protection Movement was a series of movements led by Sun Yat-sen to resist the Beiyang government between 1917 and 1922, in which Sun established another government in Guangzhou as a result. It was known as the Fourth Revolution by the Kuomintang. The constitution that it intended to protect was the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China. The first movement lasted from 1917 to 1920; the second from 1921 to 1922. An attempted third movement, begun in 1923, ultimately became the genesis for the Northern Expedition in 1926.
The Shandong Problem or Shandong Question was a dispute over Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which dealt with the concession of the Shandong Peninsula. It was resolved in China's favor in 1922.
The Communications Clique was a powerful interest group of politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, businessmen, engineers, and labour unionists in China's Beiyang government (1912–1928). It is also known as the Cantonese Clique because many of its leaders hailed from Guangdong. They were named after the Ministry of Posts and Communications which was responsible for railways, postal delivery, shipping, and telephones as well as the Bank of Communications. This ministry earned five times more revenue for the government than all the other ministries combined.
The Bogd Khanate of Mongolia was a de facto country in Outer Mongolia between 1911 and 1915 and again from 1921 to 1924. By the spring of 1911, some prominent Mongol nobles including Prince Tögs-Ochiryn Namnansüren persuaded the Jebstundamba Khutukhtu to convene a meeting of nobles and ecclesiastical officials to discuss independence from Qing China. On 30 November 1911 the Mongols established the Temporary Government of Khalkha. On 29 December 1911 the Mongols declared their independence from the collapsing Qing dynasty following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution. They installed as theocratic sovereign the 8th Bogd Gegeen, highest authority of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, who took the title Bogd Khan or "Holy Ruler". The Bogd Khaan was last khagan of the Mongols. This ushered in the period of "Theocratic Mongolia", and the realm of the Bogd Khan is usually known as the "Bogd Khanate".
Duan Qirui was a Chinese warlord, politician and commander of the Beiyang Army who ruled as the effective dictator of northern China in the late 1910s. He was the Premier of the Republic of China on four occasions between 1913 and 1918, and from 1924 to 1926 he served as acting Chief Executive of the Republic of China in Beijing.
Tang Zaili, courtesy name Zhifu, was a Chinese civil servant and prominent military figure in the Qing dynasty and later the Republic of China. He was Military Counselor to Yuan Shikai, President of the Republic of China, and later served as China's Chief Military Delegate at the Paris Peace Accords in 1919.
Xu Qian or George Hsu was a Chinese politician and jurist. He made important contribution to the judicial system of modern China.
China participated in World War I from 1917 to 1918 in an alliance with the Entente Powers. Although China never sent troops overseas, 140,000 Chinese labourers served for both British and French forces before the end of the war. While neutral since 1914, Duan Qirui, Premier of the Republic of China, spearheaded Chinese involvement in World War I. Duan wanted to integrate China with Europe and the United States by declaring on the side of the Allies against the Central Powers. On 14 August 1917, China ended its neutrality, declaring war on the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Min Kuo Jih Pao, or the Republican Daily News, was a Chinese-language daily newspaper published from 1916 to 1947. It was founded in Shanghai by Chen Qimei and others on 22 January 1916, and had Ye Chucan and Shao Lizi as its chief editors. Initially, it served as the primary publication for the Chinese Revolutionary Party before transitioning to the official party newspaper of the Kuomintang (KMT). The newspaper pioneered a management model where the chief editor assumed full responsibility, breaking away from the traditional practice of newspaper operations being dominated by a managerial figure.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
