Wang,a rival of Chiang Kai-shek and member of the pro-peace faction of the KMT,defected to the Japanese side and formed a collaborationist government in occupied Nanjing in 1940,as well as a concurrent collaborationist Kuomintang that ruled the new government. The new state claimed the entirety of China (outside the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo) during its existence,portraying itself as the legitimate inheritors of the Xinhai Revolution and Sun Yat-sen's legacy as opposed to Chiang's government in Chongqing,but effectively only Japanese-occupied territory was under its direct control. Its international recognition was limited to other members of the Anti-Comintern Pact,of which it was a signatory. The Reorganized National Government existed until the end of World War II and the surrender of Japan in August 1945,at which point the regime was dissolved and many of its leading members were executed for treason.
The state was formed by combining the previous Reformed Government (1938–1940) and Provisional Government (1937–1940) of the Republic of China,puppet regimes which ruled the central and northern regions of China that were under Japanese control,respectively. Unlike Wang Jingwei's government,these regimes were not much more than arms of the Japanese military leadership and received no recognition even from Japan itself or its allies. However,after 1940 the former territory of the Provisional Government remained semi-autonomous from Nanjing's control,under the name "North China Political Council". The region of Mengjiang (puppet government in Inner Mongolia) was under Wang Jingwei's government only nominally. His regime was also hampered by the fact that the powers granted to it by the Japanese were extremely limited,and this was only partly changed with the signing of a new treaty in 1943 which gave it more sovereignty from Japanese control. The Japanese largely viewed it as not an end in itself but the means to an end,a bridge for negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek,which led them to often treat Wang with indifference.
Names
The regime is informally also known as the Nanjing Nationalist Government (Chinese:南京國民政府;pinyin:Nánjīng Guómín Zhèngfǔ),the Nanjing Regime,or by its leader Wang Jingwei Regime (Chinese:汪精衛政權;pinyin:Wāng Jīngwèi Zhèngquán). As the government of the Republic of China and subsequently of the People's Republic of China regard the regime as illegal,it is also commonly known as Wang's Puppet Regime (Chinese:汪偽政權;pinyin:Wāng Wěi Zhèngquán) or Puppet Nationalist Government (Chinese:偽國民政府;pinyin:Wěi Guómín Zhèngfǔ) in Greater China. Other names used are the Republic of China-Nanjing,China-Nanjing,or New China.
Background and establishment
While Wang Jingwei was widely regarded as a favorite to inherit Sun Yat-sen's position as leader of the Nationalist Party,based upon his faithful service to the party throughout the 1910s and 20s and based on his unique position as the one who accepted and recorded Sun's last will and testament,he was rapidly overtaken by Chiang Kai-shek.[3] By the 1930s,Wang Jingwei had taken the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-shek. This put him in control over the deteriorating Sino-Japanese relationship. While Chiang Kai-shek focused his primary attentions against the Chinese Communist Party,Wang Jingwei diligently toiled to preserve the peace between China and Japan,repeatedly stressing the need for a period of extended peace in order for China to elevate itself economically and militarily to the levels of its neighbor and the other Great powers of the world.[4] Despite his efforts,Wang was unable to find a peaceful solution to prevent the Japanese from commencing an invasion into Chinese territory.
Wang Jingwei was head of the Reorganized National Government.
By April 1938,the national conference of the KMT,held in retreat at the temporary capital of Chongqing,appointed Wang as vice-president of the party,reporting only to Chiang Kai-shek himself. Meanwhile,the Japanese advance into Chinese territory as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War continued unrelentingly. From his new position,Wang urged Chiang Kai-shek to pursue a peace agreement with Japan on the sole condition that the hypothetical deal "did not interfere with the territorial integrity of China".[5] Chiang Kai-shek was adamant,however,that he would countenance no surrender,and that it was his position that,were China to be united completely under his control,the Japanese could readily be repulsed. On December 18,1938,Wang Jingwei and several of his closest supporters resigned from their positions and boarded a plane to Hanoi in order to seek alternative means of ending the war.[6]
From this new base,Wang began pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the conflict independent of the Nationalist Party in exile. In June 1939,Wang and his supporters began negotiating with the Japanese for the creation of a new Nationalist Government which could end the war despite Chiang's objections. To this end,Wang sought to discredit the Nationalists in Chongqing on the basis that they represented not the republican government envisioned by Sun,but rather a "one-party dictatorship",and subsequently call together a Central Political Conference back to the capital of Nanjing in order to formally transfer control over the party away from Chiang Kai-shek. In August,Wang secretly convened the 6th National Congress of the KMT in the city of Shanghai,effectively creating a new collaborationist Kuomintang with Wang as its leaders.[7] These efforts were stymied by Japanese refusal to offer backing for Wang and his new government. Ultimately,Wang Jingwei and his allies would establish their almost entirely powerless new government in Nanjing on 30 March 1940 during the "Central Political Conference",[7] in the hope that Tokyo might eventually be willing to negotiate a deal for peace,which,though painful,might allow China to survive.[8] The dedication occurred in the Conference Hall,and both the "blue-sky white-sun red-earth" national flag and the "blue-sky white-sun" Kuomintang flag were unveiled,flanking a large portrait of Sun Yat-sen.
On the day the new government was formed,and just before the session of the "Central Political Conference" began,Wang visited Sun's tomb in Nanjing's Purple Mountain to establish the legitimacy of his power as Sun's successor. Wang had been a high-level official of the Kuomintang government and,as a confidant to Sun,had transcribed Sun's last will,the Zongli's Testament. To discredit the legitimacy of the Chongqing government,Wang adopted Sun's flag in the hope that it would establish him as the rightful successor to Sun and bring the government back to Nanjing.
Wang and his group were damaged early on by the defection of the diplomat Gao Zongwu,who played a critical role in arranging Wang's defection after two years of negotiations with the Japanese,in January 1940. He had become disillusioned and believed that Japan did not see China as an equal partner,taking with him the documents of the Basic Treaty that Japan had signed with the Wang Jingwei government. He revealed them to the Kuomintang press,becoming a major propaganda coup for Chiang Kai-shek and discrediting Wang's movement in the eyes of the public as mere puppets of the Japanese.[9]
History
Shanghai as de facto capital,1939–1941
With Nanjing still rebuilding itself after the devastating assault and occupation by the Japanese Imperial Army,the fledgling Reorganized Nationalist Government turned to Shanghai as its primary focal point. With its key role as both an economic and media center for all China,close affiliation to Western Imperial powers even despite the Japanese invasion,and relatively sheltered position from attacks by KMT and Communist forces alike,Shanghai offered both sanctuary and opportunity for Wang and his allies' ambitions.[10] Once in Shanghai,the new regime quickly moved to take control over those publications already supportive of Wang and his peace platform,while also engaging in violent,gang-style attacks against rival news outlets. By November 1940,the Reorganized Nationalist Party had secured enough local support to begin hostile takeovers of both Chinese courts and banks still under nominal control by the KMT in Chongqing or Western powers. Buoyed by this rapid influx of seized collateral,the Reorganized Government under its recently appointed Finance Minister,Zhou Fohai,was able to issue a new currency for circulation. Ultimately however,the already limited economic influence garnered by the new banknotes was further diminished by Japanese efforts to contain the influence of the new regime,at least for a time,to territories firmly under Japanese control like Shanghai and other isolated regions of the Yangtze Valley.[10]
Wall bearing a government slogan that proclaims:"Support Mr. Wang Jingwei!"Water Resource Committee of Wang Jingwei's puppet government
Efforts to expand Japanese recognition
Advertisement of congratulation towards the establishment of the new Nationalist government on Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shimpō
While Wang had been successful in securing from Japan a "basic treaty" recognizing the foundation of his new party in November 1940,the produced document granted the Reorganized Nationalist Government almost no powers whatsoever. This initial treaty precluded any possibility for Wang to act as intermediary with Chiang Kai-shek and his forces in securing a peace agreement in China. Likewise,the regime was afforded no extra administrative powers in occupied China,save those few previously carved out in Shanghai. Indeed,official Japanese correspondence regarded the Nanjing regime as trivially important,and urged any and all token representatives stationed with Wang and his allies to dismiss all diplomatic efforts by the new government which could not directly contribute to a total military victory over Chiang and his forces.[11] Hoping to expand the treaty in such a way as to be useful,Wang formally traveled to Tokyo in June 1941 in order to meet with prime minister Fumimaro Konoe and his cabinet to discuss new terms and agreements. Unfortunately for Wang,his visit coincided with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union,a move which further emboldened officials in Tokyo to pursue total victory in China,rather than accept a peace deal. In the end,Konoe eventually agreed to provide a substantial loan to the Nanjing government as well as increased sovereignty;neither of which came to fruition,and indeed,neither of which were even mentioned to military commanders stationed in China. As a slight conciliation,Wang was successful in persuading the Japanese to secure official recognition for the Nanjing Government from the other Axis Powers.[11]
Breakthrough,1943
Wang Jingwei at a military parade
As the Japanese offensive stalled around the Pacific,conditions remained generally consistent under Wang Jingwei's government. The regime continued to represent itself as the legitimate government of China,continued to appeal to Chiang Kai-shek to seek a peace deal,and continued to chafe under the extremely limited sovereignty afforded by the Japanese occupiers. Yet by 1943,Japanese leaders including Hideki Tojo,recognizing that the tide of war was turning against them,sought new ways to reinforce the thinly stretched Japanese forces. To this end,Tokyo finally found it expedient to fully recognize Wang Jingwei's government as a full ally,and a replacement Pact of Alliance was drafted for the basic treaty. This new agreement granted the Nanjing government markedly enhanced administrative control over its own territory,as well as increased ability to make limited self-decisions. Despite this windfall,the deal came far too late for the Reorganized government to have sufficient resources to take advantage of its new powers,and Japan was in no condition to offer aid to its new partner.[12]
War on Opium
As a result of general chaos and wartime various profiteering efforts of the conquering Japanese armies,already considerable illegal opium smuggling operations expanded greatly in the Reorganized Nation Government's territory. Indeed,Japanese forces themselves became arguably the largest and most widespread traffickers within the territory under the auspices of semi-official narcotics monopolies.[13] While initially too politically weak to make inroads into the Japanese operations,as the war began to turn against them,the Japanese government sought to incorporate some collaborationist governments more actively into the war effort. To this end in October 1943 the Japanese government signed a treaty with the Reorganized Nationalist Government of China offering them a greater degree of control over their own territory.[14] As a result,Wang Jingwei and his government were able to gain some increased control over the opium monopolies. Negotiations by Chen Gongbo were successful in reaching an agreement to cut opium imports from Mongolia in half,as well as an official turnover of state-sponsored monopolies from Japan over to the Reorganized Nationalist Government.[15] Yet,perhaps due to financial concerns,the regime sought only limited reductions in the distribution of opium throughout the remainder of the war.
The Nanjing Government and the northern Chinese areas
Area of control of the invading Japanese forces
The Tongzhou administration (East Ji Anti-Communist Autonomous Administration) was under the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Northern China Area Army until the Yellow River area fell inside the sphere of influence of the Japanese Central China Area Army. During this same period the area from middle Zhejiang to Guangdong was administered by the Japanese North China Area Army. These small, largely independent fiefdoms had local money and local leaders, and frequently squabbled.
Wang Jingwei traveled to Tokyo in 1941 for meetings. In Tokyo the Reorganized National Government Vice President Zhou Fohai commented to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that the Japanese establishment was making little progress in the Nanjing area. This quote provoked anger from Kumataro Honda, the Japanese ambassador in Nanjing. Zhou Fohai petitioned for total control of China's central provinces by the Reorganized National Government. In response, Imperial Japanese Army Lt. Gen. Teiichi Suzuki was ordered to provide military guidance to the Reorganized National Government, and so became part of the real power that lay behind Wang's rule.
With the permission of the Japanese Army, a monopolistic economic policy was applied, to the benefit of Japanese zaibatsu and local representatives. Though these companies were supposedly treated the same as local Chinese companies by the government, the president of the Yuan legislature in Nanjing, Chen Gongbo, complained that this was untrue to the Kaizō Japanese review. The Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China also featured its own embassy in Yokohama, Japan (as did Manchukuo).
Wang Jingwei nominally ruled the government as the Chairman of the Central Political Committee, Chairman of the National Government Committee, and President of the Executive Yuan (commonly called the Premier), until his death in 1944, after which Chen Gongbo succeeded him until Japan's defeat in 1945. His collaborationist Kuomintang was the sole-ruling party.[7] The supreme national ruling body was officially the Central Political Committee (Chinese:中央政治委員會), under which was the National Government Committee (Chinese:國民政府委員會). The administrative structure of the Reorganized National Government also included a Legislative Yuan and an Executive Yuan; they were respectively led by Chen Gongbo and Wang Jingwei until 1944.[7] However, actual political power remained with the commander of the Japanese Central China Area Army and Japanese political entities formed by Japanese political advisors. A principal goal of the new regime was to portray itself as the legitimate continuation of the former Nationalist government, despite the Japanese occupation. To this end, the Reorganized government frequently sought to revitalize and expand the former policies of the Nationalist government, often to mixed success.[13]
International recognition and foreign relations
Wang Jingwei, Japanese ambassador Abe Nobuyuki, and Manchukuo ambassador Zang Shiyi sign the joint declaration, 30 November 1940Wang Jingwei with ambassador Heinrich Georg Stahmer at the German embassy in 1941Unused example of a Wang Jingwei regime passport, circa 1941
The Nanjing Nationalist Government received little international recognition as it was seen as a Japanese puppet state, being recognized only by Japan and the rest of the Axis powers. Initially, its main sponsor, Japan, hoped to come to a peace accord with Chiang Kai-shek and held off official diplomatic recognition for the Wang Jingwei regime for eight months after its founding, not establishing formal diplomatic relations with the National Reorganized Government until 30 November 1940.[16] The Sino-Japanese Basic Treaty was signed on 20 November 1940, by which Japan recognised the Nationalist Government,[17] and it also included a Japan–Manchukuo–China joint declaration by which China recognized the Empire of Great Manchuria and the three countries pledged to create a "New Order in East Asia."[18][19][20] The United States and Britain immediately denounced the formation of the government, seeing it as a tool of Japanese imperialism.[17] In July 1941, after negotiations by Foreign Minister Chu Minyi, the Nanjing Government was recognized as the government of China by Germany and Italy. Soon after, Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Denmark also recognized and established relations with the Wang Jingwei regime as the government of China.[21][22][23] China under the Reorganized National Government also became a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact on 25 November 1941.[24]:671–672
After Japan established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1942, they and their ally Italy pressured Pope Pius XII to recognize the Nanjing regime and allow a Chinese envoy to be appointed to the Vatican, but he refused to give in to these pressures. Instead the Vatican came to an informal agreement with Japan that their apostolic delegate in Beijing would pay visits to Catholics in the Nanjing government's territory.[25] The Pope also ignored the suggestion of the aforementioned apostolic delegate, Mario Zanin, who recommended in October 1941 that the Vatican recognize the Wang Jingwei regime as the legitimate government of China. Zanin would remain in the Wang Jingwei regime's territory as apostolic delegate while another bishop in Chongqing was to represent Catholic interests in Chiang Kai-shek's territory.[26] Following Axis-aligned Vichy France's increasing yielding to Japanese pressure, such as granting them economic and military facilities and privileges in Indochina and handing over in July 1943 the keys of Shanghai's French concession to Mayor Chen Gongbo, appointed by the Wang Jingwei government, Chiang Kai-shek broke diplomatic relations with Vichy the same month and moved closer to the Free French.[27]
The Reorganized National Government had its own Foreign Section or Ministry of Foreign Affairs for managing international relations, although it was short on personnel.[28]
On 9 January 1943, the Reorganized National Government signed the "Treaty on Returning Leased Territories and Repealing Extraterritoriality Rights" with Japan, which abolished all foreign concessions within occupied China. Reportedly the date was originally to have been later that month, but was moved to January 9 to be before the United States concluded a similar treaty with Chiang Kai-shek's government. The Nanjing Government then took control of all of the international concessions in Shanghai and its other territories.[29] Later that year Wang Jingwei attended the Greater East Asia Conference as the Chinese representative.
Wang Jingwei's government promoted the idea of pan-Asianism[32]:18 directed against the West after Japan's pivot towards joining the Axis powers (which included signing the Tripartite Pact), an idea aimed at establishing a "New Order in East Asia" together with Japan, Manchukuo, and other Asian nations that would expel Western colonial powers from Asia, particularly the "Anglo-Saxons" (the U.S. and Britain) that dominated large parts of Asia. Wang Jingwei used pan-Asianism, basing his views on Sun Yat-sen's advocacy for Asian people to unite against the West in the early 20th century, partly to justify his efforts at working together with Japan. He claimed it was natural for Japan and China to have good relations and cooperation because of their close affinity, describing their conflicts as a temporary aberration in both nation's history. Furthermore, the government believed in the unity of all Asian nations with Japan as their leader as the only way to achieve their goals of removing Western colonial powers from Asia. There was no official description of which Asian peoples were considered to be included in this, but Wang, members of the Propaganda Ministry, and other officials of his regime writing for collaborationist media had different interpretations, at times listing Japan, China, Manchukuo, Thailand, the Philippines, Burma, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Arabia as potential members of an "East Asian League."[33]
From 1940 onwards, the Wang Jingwei government depicted World War II as a struggle by Asians against the West, more specifically the Anglo-American powers. The Reorganized National Government had a Propaganda Ministry, which exerted control over local media outlets and used them to disseminate pan-Asianist and anti-Western propaganda. British and American diplomats in Shanghai and Nanjing noted by 1940 that the Wang Jingwei-controlled press was publishing anti-Western content. These campaigns were aided by the Japanese authorities in China and also reflected pan-Asian thought as promoted by Japanese thinkers, which intensified after the start of the Pacific War in December 1941. Pro-regime newspapers and journals published articles which cited instances of racial discrimination towards immigrant Asian communities living in the West and Western colonies in Asia. Chu Minyi, the minister of foreign affairs of the Nanjing Government, asserted in an article written shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor that the Sino-Japanese conflict and other wars among Asians were the result of secret manipulation by the Western powers. Lin Baisheng, the minister of propaganda from 1940 to 1944, also made these claims in several of his speeches.[34]
Since Japan was aligned with Germany, Italy, and other European Axis countries, the Nanjing Government's propaganda did not portray the conflict as a war against all white people and focused on the U.S. and Britain in particular. Their newspapers like Republican Daily praised the German people as a great race for their technological and organizational advancements and glorified the Nazi regime for supposedly transforming Germany into a great power over the past decade. The publications of the Nanjing Government also agreed with the anti-Jewish views held by Nazi Germany, with Wang Jingwei and other officials seeing Jews as dominating the American government and being conspirators with the Anglo-American powers to control the world.[35]
The government also took measures to ban the spread of Anglo-American culture and lifestyle among Chinese people in its territory and promoted traditional Confucian culture. Generally it considered Eastern spiritual culture to be superior to the Western culture of materialism, individualism, and liberalism. Christian missionary schools and missionary activities were banned, the study of English language in schools was reduced, and the usage of English in the postal and customs system was gradually reduced as well. Vice minister of education Tai Yingfu called for a campaign against the Anglo-American nations in education. Zhou Huaren, vice minister of propaganda, blamed Chinese students that studied in the West for spreading Western values among the population and disparaging traditional Chinese culture. Wang Jingwei blamed communism, anarchism, and internationalism (which Wang considered Anglo-American thinking) for making other peoples despise their own culture and embracing the Anglo-American culture. He believed it was necessary to promote Confucianism to oppose Anglo-American "cultural aggression." At the same time, Zhou Huaren and others also thought that it was necessary to adopt Western scientific advancements while combining them with traditional Eastern culture to develop themselves, as he said Japan did in the Meiji Restoration, seeing that as a model for others to follow.[36]
In addition to its pan-Asianism, nationalism was part of the regime ideology.[32]:18
President Wang Jingwei at a military parade on the occasion of the third anniversary of the establishment of the governmentType 94 tankettes on parade (note the driver's Stahlhelm and the KMT blue and white sun emblem on the tanks)
During its existence, the Reorganized National Government nominally led a large army often called the "Nanjing Army" that was estimated to have included 300,000 to 500,000 men, along with a smaller navy and air force. Although its land forces possessed limited armor and artillery, they were primarily an infantry force. Military aid from Japan was also very limited despite Japanese promises to assist the Nanjing regime in the "Japan–China Military Affairs Agreement" that they signed. All military matters were the responsibility of the Central Military Commission, but in practice that body was mainly a ceremonial one. In reality, many of the army's commanders operated outside of the direct command of the central government in Nanjing. The majority of its officers were either former National Revolutionary Army personnel or warlord officers from the early Republican era. Thus their reliability and combat capability was questionable, and Wang Jingwei was estimated to only be able to count on the loyalty of about 10% to 15% of his nominal forces. Among the reorganized government's best units were three Capital Guards divisions based in Nanjing, Zhou Fohai's Taxation Police Corps, and the 1st Front Army of Ren Yuandao.[37][38]
The majority of the government's forces were armed with a mix of captured Nationalist weaponry and a small amount of Japanese equipment, the latter mainly being given to Nanjing's best units. The lack of local military industry for the duration of the war meant that the Nanjing regime had trouble arming its troops. While the army was mainly an infantry force, in 1941 it did receive 18 Type 94 tankettes for a token armored force, and reportedly they also received 20 armored cars and 24 motorcycles. The main type of artillery in use were medium mortars, but they also possessed 31 field guns (which included Model 1917 mountain guns)—mainly used by the Guards divisions. Oftentimes, the troops were equipped with the German Stahlhelm, which were used in large quantities by the Chinese Nationalist Army. For small arms, there was no standard rifle and a large variety of different weapons were used, which made supplying them with ammunition difficult. The most common rifles in use was the Chinese version of the Mauser 98k and the Hanyang 88, while other notable weapons included Chinese copies of the Czechoslovakian ZB-26 machine guns.[38][39]
Along with the great variation in equipment, there was also a disparity in sizes of units. Some "armies" had only a few thousand troops while some "divisions" several thousand. There was a standard divisional structure, but only the elite Guards divisions closer to the capital actually had anything resembling it. In addition to these regular army forces, there were multiple police and local militia, which numbered in the tens of thousands, but were deemed to be completely unreliable by the Japanese.[40] Most of the units located around Beijing in northern China remained, in effect, under the authority of the North China Political Council rather than that of the central government. In an attempt to improve the quality of the officer corps, multiple military academies had been opened, including a Central Military Academy in Nanjing and a Naval Academy in Shanghai. In addition there was a military academy in Beijing for the North China Political Council's forces, and a branch of the central academy in Canton.[41]
A small navy was established with naval bases at Weihaiwei and Qingdao, but it mostly consisted of small patrol boats that were used for coastal and river defense. Reportedly, the captured Nationalist cruisers Ning Hai and Ping Hai were handed over to the government by the Japanese, becoming important propaganda tools. However, the Imperial Japanese Navy took them back in 1943 for its own use. In addition there were two regiments of marines, one at Canton and the other at Weihaiwei. By 1944, the navy was under direct command of Ren Yuandao, the naval minister.[42] An Air Force of the Reorganized National Government was established in May 1941 with the opening of the Aviation School and receiving three aircraft, Tachikawa Ki-9 trainers. In the future the air force received additional Ki-9 and Ki-55 trainers as well as multiple transports. Plans by Wang Jingwei to form a fighter squadron with Nakajima Ki-27s did not come to fruition as the Japanese did not trust the pilots enough to give them combat aircraft. Morale was low and a number of defections took place. The only two offensive aircraft they did possess were Tupolev SB bombers which were flown by defecting Nationalist crews.[43]
The Reorganized National Government's army was primarily tasked with garrison and police duties in the occupied territories. It also took part in anti-partisan operations against Communist guerrillas, such as in the Hundred Regiments Offensive, or played supporting roles for the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA).[44] The Nanjing Government undertook a "rural pacification" campaign to eradicate communists from the countryside, arresting and executing many people suspected of being communists, with support from the Japanese.[45]
Japanese methods of recruiting
During the conflicts in central China, the Japanese utilized several methods to recruit Chinese volunteers. Japanese sympathisers including Nanjing's pro-Japanese governor, or major local landowners such as Ni Daolang, were used to recruit local peasants in return for money or food. The Japanese recruited 5,000 volunteers in the Anhui area for the Reorganized National Government Army. Japanese forces and the Reorganized National Government used slogans like "Lay down your guns and take up the plough", "Oppose the Communist Bandits" or "Oppose Corrupt Government and Support the Reformed Government" to dissuade guerrilla attacks and buttress its support.[46]
The Japanese used various methods for subjugating the local populace. Initially, fear was used to maintain order, but this approach was altered following appraisals by Japanese military ideologists. In 1939, the Japanese army attempted some populist policies, including:
land reform by dividing the property of major landowners into small holdings, and allocating them to local peasants;
providing the Chinese with medical services, including vaccination against cholera, typhus, and varicella, and treatments for other diseases;
ordering Japanese soldiers not to violate women or laws;
dropping leaflets from aeroplanes, offering rewards for information (with parlays set up by use of a white surrender flag), the handing over of weapons or other actions beneficial to the Japanese cause. Money and food were often incentives used; and
dispersal of candy, food and toys to children
Buddhist leaders inside the occupied Chinese territories ("Shao-Kung") were also forced to give public speeches and persuade people of the virtues of a Chinese alliance with Japan, including advocating the breaking-off of all relations with Western powers and ideas.
In 1938, a manifesto was launched in Shanghai, reminding the populace the Japanese alliance's track-record in maintaining "moral supremacy" as compared to the often fractious nature of the previous Republican control, and also accusing Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek of treason for maintaining the Western alliance.
In support of such efforts, in 1941 Wang Jingwei proposed the Qingxiang Plan to be applied along the lower course of the Yangtze River. A Qingxiang Plan Committee (Qingxiang Weiyuan-hui) was formed with himself as chairman, and Zhou Fohai and Chen Gongbo (as first and second vice-chairmen respectively). Li Shiqun was made the committee's secretary. Beginning in July 1941, Wang maintained that any areas to which the plan was applied would convert into "model areas of peace, anti-communism, and rebuilders of the country" (heping fangong jianguo mofanqu). It was not a success.
Political boundaries
Map of the Republic of China that was controlled by the reorganized national government in 1939 (dark green) Mengjiang was incorporated in 1940 (light green)
In theory, the Reorganized National Government claimed all of China with the exception of Manchukuo, which it recognized as an independent state. In actuality, at the time of its formation, the Reorganized Government controlled only Jiangsu, Anhui, and the north sector of Zhejiang, all being Japanese-controlled territories after 1937.
Thereafter, the Reorganized Government's actual borders waxed and waned as the Japanese gained or lost territory during the course of the war. During the December 1941 Japanese offensive the Reorganized Government extended its control over Hunan, Hubei, and parts of Jiangxi provinces. The port of Shanghai and the cities of Hankou and Wuchang were also placed under control of the Reformed Government after 1940.
The Japanese-controlled provinces of Shandong and Hebei were de jure part of this political entity, though they were de facto under military administration of the Japanese Northern China Area Army from its headquarters in Beijing. Likewise, the Japanese-controlled territories in central China were under military administration of the Japanese Sixth Area Army from its headquarters in Hankou (Wuhan). Other Japanese-controlled territories had military administrations directly reporting to the Japanese military headquarters in Nanjing, with the exception of Guangdong and Guangxi which briefly had its headquarters in Canton. The central and southern zones of military occupation were eventually linked together after Operation Ichi-Go in 1944, though the Japanese garrison had no effective control over most of this region apart from a narrow strip around the Guangzhou–Hankou railway.
The Reorganized Government's control was mostly limited to:
Jiangsu: 41,818sqmi (108,310km2); capital: Zhenjiang (also included the national capital of Nanjing)
According to other sources, total extension of territory during 1940 period was 1,264,000km2.
In 1940 an agreement was signed between the Inner Mongolian puppet state of Mengjiang and the Nanjing regime, incorporating the former into the latter as an autonomous part.[47]
Economy
The North China Transportation Company and the Central China Railway were established by the former Provisional Government and Reformed Government, which had nationalised private railway and bus companies that operated in their territories, and continued to function providing railway and bus services in the Nanjing regime's territory.
After its 1941 declaration of war against the United States and the United Kingdom, Japan moved into the foreign areas of the city that it had not previously occupied after the Battle of Shanghai.[48]:11–12 It seized most of the banks in these areas of Shanghai (and occupied Tianjin) and declared that the Nationalist currency fabi had to be exchanged for bank notes of the Wang Jingwei regime at a mandated rate of 2:1 before June 1, 1942.[48]:15 For most Chinese in these occupied areas, the exchange meant that their fabi lost half its value and a major blow to the economy of the lower Yangzi resulted.[48]:15
Japanese under the regime had greater access to coveted wartime luxuries, and the Japanese enjoyed things like matches, rice, tea, coffee, cigars, foods, and alcoholic drinks, all of which were scarce in Japan proper. However, consumer goods became more scarce after Japan entered World War II. In Japanese-occupied Chinese territories the prices of basic necessities rose substantially as Japan's war effort expanded. By 1941, these prices in Shanghai increased eleven-fold.
Daily life was often difficult in the Nanjing Nationalist Government-controlled Republic of China, and grew increasingly so as the war turned against Japan (c. 1943). Local residents resorted to the black market in order to obtain needed items or to influence the ruling establishment. The Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police Corps), Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu (Special Higher Police), collaborationist Chinese police, and Chinese citizens in the service of the Japanese all worked to censor information, monitor any opposition, and torture enemies and dissenters. A "native" secret agency, the Tewu, was created with the aid of Japanese Army "advisors". The Japanese also established prisoner-of-war detention centres, concentration camps, and kamikaze training centres to indoctrinate pilots.
Since Wang's government held authority only over territories under Japanese military occupation, there was a limited amount that officials loyal to Wang could do to ease the suffering of Chinese under Japanese occupation. Wang himself became a focal point of anti-Japanese resistance. He was demonised and branded as an "arch-traitor" in both KMT and Communist rhetoric. Wang and his government were deeply unpopular with the Chinese populace, who regarded them as traitors to both the Chinese state and Han Chinese identity.[49] Wang's rule was constantly undermined by resistance and sabotage.
The strategy of the local education system was to create a workforce suited for employment in factories and mines, and for manual labor. The Japanese also attempted to introduce their culture and dress to the Chinese. Complaints and agitation called for more meaningful Chinese educational development. Shinto temples and similar cultural centers were built in order to instill Japanese culture and values. These activities came to a halt at the end of the war.
Chen Gongbo: President and Head of State after the death of Wang. Also, President of the Legislative Yuan (1940–1944) and Mayor of the Shanghai occupied sector.
Zhou Fohai: Vice President and Finance Minister in the Executive Yuan
Ren Yuandao: Minister of the Navy (1940–1945) & Chairman of the National Military Council (1940–1942)
Xiao Shuxuan: Minister of Military Affairs (1945) & Chairman of the National Military Council (1942–1945)
Yang Kuiyi: Chief of General Staff (1940–1942) & Chairman of the National Military Council (1945)
Bao Wenyue: Minister of Military Affairs (1940–1943) & Chief of General Staff (1943–1945)
Ye Peng: Minister of Military Affairs (1943–1945) & Chief of General Staff (1942)
Xiang Zhizhuang: Commander of the 5th Group Army, Commander of the 12th Army, Governor and Commander of Security in Zhejiang Province, Governor of Jiangsu Province
Rong Zhen: Chief of the Committee for Subjugation Communists, Governor of Hebei Province (1945)
Kou Yingjie: Councilor of the General Staff office
Wang Yintai: Governor of the General Office for Business, Governor of the General Office for Agriculture, Chairperson of the North China Political Council
Having died before the war had ended, Wang Jingwei was unable to join his fellow Reorganized Nationalist Government leaders on trial for treason in the months that followed the Japanese surrender. Instead he, alongside his presidential successor Chen Gongbo (who was tried and sentenced to death by the victorious Nationalists) and his vice president Zhou Fohai (who had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment), was given the title Hanjian meaning arch-traitor to the Han people. In the following decades, Wang Jingwei and the entire reputation of the collaborationist government have undergone considerable scholastic debate.
Characterizations of the regime are a matter of historical debate.[32]:2 In general, evaluations produced by scholars working under the People's Republic of China have held the most critical interpretations of the failed regime, Western scholars typically holding the government and Wang Jingwei especially in a sympathetic light, with Taiwanese scholars falling somewhere in the middle.[50] The Western characterization of the regime is generally as collaborationist, while Chinese sources have often characterized it as illegitimate.[32]:2
In popular culture
Lust, Caution is a 1979 novella by Chinese author Eileen Chang which was later turned into an award-winning film by Ang Lee. The story is about a group of young university students who attempt to assassinate the Minister of Security of the Reorganized National Government. During the war, Ms. Chang was married to Hu Lancheng, a writer who worked for the Reorganized National Government and the story is believed to be largely based on actual events.
The 2009 Chinese film The Message is a thriller/mystery in the vein of a number of Agatha Christie novels. The main characters are all codebreakers serving in the Reorganized National Government's military, but one of them is a Kuomintang double-agent. A Japanese intelligence officer detains the group in a castle and attempts to uncover which of them is the spy using psychological and physical coercion, uncovering the protagonists' bitter rivalries, jealousies, and secrets as he does so.
The TV series Sparrow is a spy genre thriller. During Shanghai's Reorganised Government, communist agent Chen Shen infiltrates the Japanese' base and adopts the code name "Sparrow". His mission is to obtain the "zero" intel, a secret plan that could destroy China. To do so, he becomes the assistant of Bi Zhongliang, the leader of the Special Operations Team under the Public Security Bureau.
Wang Zhaoming, widely known by his pen name Wang Jingwei, was a Chinese politician who was president of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang (KMT), leading a government in Wuhan in opposition to the right-wing Nationalist government in Nanjing, but later became increasingly anti-communist after his efforts to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party ended in political failure.
The German Empire established diplomatic relations with the Republic of China in October 1913. After World War I and the creation of the Weimar Republic, Germany followed a policy of friendship towards China. Nazi Germany and the Nationalist government of the Republic of China maintained bilateral relations between 1933 and 1941. The Chinese Nationalists sought German military and economic support to help them consolidate control over factional warlords and resist Japanese imperialism. Germany sought raw materials such as tungsten and antimony from China. During the mid-1930s, thousands of Chinese soldiers were trained by German officers and German economic investment made its way into China. However, Joachim von Ribbentrop strongly favored an alliance with Japan over one with China, and starting with the 1936 Anti-Comintern Pact, Germany began to realign its East Asia policy. After Japan invaded China in 1937 and Ribbentrop became Foreign Minister the following year, German aid to China was cut off. In July 1941, Nazi Germany severed relations with Nationalist China and transferred their recognition to the Japanese-controlled Wang Jingwei regime. Nonetheless, China did not officially declare war on the Axis Powers until after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Huang Fu was a general and politician in early Republic of China.
Pang Bingxun was a high-ranking nationalist military commander who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army and Chinese Communist Army. He stopped the IJA 5th Division led by General Seishirō Itagaki, one of the principal architects of the 1931 Manchurian incident, from capturing Linyi and converging with General Rensuke Isogai's IJA 10th Division at Tai'erzhuang District, foiling their plan to assault Xuzhou.
The Provisional Government of the Republic of China was a Chinese puppet state of the Empire of Japan that existed from 1937 to 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It had been formed largely on the initiative of Imperial Japanese Army commanders in north China, before securing approval from Japanese government authorities in Tokyo. Thus the Provisional Government had nominal authority in Japanese occupied zones in north China, while to the south the Central China Expeditionary Army established the Reformed Government of the Republic of China in 1938, which had authority in the Yangtze River area. Both essentially served as a local organ of the Japanese military authorities, due to the presence and extensive powers of Japanese advisors within the Provisional Government over native Chinese bureaucrats, and because it never made any attempt to secure international recognition, even from Japan.
Liang Hongzhi; was a leading official in the Anhui clique of the Beiyang Government, later noted for his role as in the collaborationist Reformed Government of the Republic of China during World War II.
The term Collaborationist Chinese Army refers to the military forces of the puppet governments founded by Imperial Japan in mainland China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. They include the armies of the Provisional (1937–1940), Reformed (1938–1940) and Reorganized National Governments of the Republic of China (1940–1945), which absorbed the former two regimes.
The Presidential Palace in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, housed the Office of the President of the Republic of China from 1927 until the capital was relocated to Taipei in 1949. It is now a museum called the China Modern History Museum. It is located at No.292 Changjiang Road, in the Xuanwu District of Nanjing.
Wang Kemin was a leading official in the Chinese republican movement and early Beiyang government, later noted for his role as in the collaborationist Provisional Government of the Republic of China and Wang Jingwei regime during World War II.
Zhou Fohai was a Chinese politician and the second-in-command of the Executive Yuan in Wang Jingwei's collaborationist Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Chen Gongbo was a Chinese politician, noted for his role as the second and final president of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of Japan.
The term Free China, in the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War, refers to those areas of China not under the control of the Imperial Japanese Army or any of its puppet governments, such as Manchukuo, the Mengjiang government in Suiyuan and Chahar, or the Provisional Government of the Republic of China in Beiping. The term came into more frequent use after the Battle of Nanking, when Chiang Kai-shek evacuated the government of the Republic of China to Chungking. It was also sometimes referred to as the Chungking Government or simply "Chungking," such as in the surrender speech of Hirohito to the Japanese military.
During the Second Sino-Japanese war, the invading Japanese established a variety of puppet governments such as the Provisional Government of China and the Reformed Government of China which used the flag of Five Races Under One Union even though the legitimate Chinese Government had switched to the current day modern flag of the Republic of China.
Hu Yukun was a military leader in the Republic of China. He belonged to the Fengtian clique, and was Zhang Xueliang's confidant. Eventually he became an important commander during the Wang Jingwei regime. His courtesy name was Lingchen (凌塵). He was born in Haicheng, area of control of the General of Shengjing.
Cai Pei was a diplomat and politician in the pre-World War II Republic of China. He held a number of important posts during the collaborationist Reorganized National Government of China, and successively held the positions of Mayor of Nanjing Special City and Ambassador to Japan. His courtesy name was Ziping (子平).
Ye Peng was a Chinese lieutenant general who fought for the Republic of China and later became a key figure in the Nanjing Nationalist Government of Wang Jingwei.
Gao Zongwu was a Chinese diplomat in the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was best known for playing a key role in negotiations between China and Japan from 1937 to 1940 that initially intended to bring about a peace agreement between them, but which led to the defection of prominent statesman Wang Jingwei and the establishment of the pro-Japanese collaborationist Reorganized National Government of China. Disillusioned with the harsh terms imposed on the collaborationist regime by the Japanese, he released the full documents of the outline of the Basic Treaty that Japan demanded as the basis of its relations with the new regime, which was a major propaganda coup for Chiang Kai-shek and a blow for Wang's fledgling government that had just been exposed as just another puppet state. Gao had originally been slated to serve as the vice foreign minister of the Wang Jingwei regime before his defection back to Chiang in January 1940.
Li Shiqun was a politician in the Republic of China. During the Japanese occupation, he was the head of the secret police Tèwu of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist regime.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Wang Jingwei, former Premier of the Republic of China and Vice Director-General of the Kuomintang, split from the party in 1939 and established a new Kuomintang in Nanking. Wang, who collaborated with the Japanese, intended to distance the new party from the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek in Chungking. It was the sole ruling party of the Wang Jingwei regime, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan.
The Konoe statements refer to three diplomatic statements made by Fumimaro Konoe's cabinets in the early stages of the Second Sino-Japan war, aimed at establishing a new order in East Asia together with China. The Japanese archives during the period of the invasion of China explicitly record and categorise these three Konoe's declarations:
1 2 3 4 高雲昉 (1994). "汪偽國民黨"六大""["Sixth Party Congress" of Wang's Puppet Kuomintang]. China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Archived from the original on 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
↑ Smyth, Howard M.; etal., eds. (1970). 15. September bis 11. Dezember 1941. Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik 1918-1945 (in German). Vol.D-13-2. Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht.
↑ Wakeman, Jr., Frederic (2000). "Hanjian (Traitor) Collaboration and Retribution in Wartime Shanghai". In Wen-hsin Yeh (ed.). Becoming Chinese: Passages to Modernity and Beyond. Berkeley: University of California Press. p.322. doi:10.1525/california/9780520219236.003.0009. ISBN9780520219236.
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