Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1937–1940)
Provisional Government of the Republic of China 中華民國臨時政府 Zhōnghuá Mínguó Línshí Zhèngfǔ Chūka Minkoku Rinji Seifu | |||||||||||
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| 1937–1940 | |||||||||||
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| Motto: Xinminism | |||||||||||
| Anthem: Song to the Auspicious Cloud (1937–1940)[a] | |||||||||||
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| Status | Unrecognized state Puppet state of the Empire of Japan | ||||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Beijing | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Chinese | ||||||||||
| Government | Dictatorship | ||||||||||
| President of the Executive Council[b] | |||||||||||
• 1937–1940 | Wang Kemin | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Reorganized National Government | 30 March 1940 | |||||||||
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The Provisional Government of the Republic of China
History
After the conquest of
The Provisional Government of the Republic of China was officially inaugurated by Wang Kemin, former Kuomintang Minister of Finance and Shanghai banker, on 14 December 1937, with its capital at Beijing. Wang was assisted by Tang Erho, who served as chairman of the Legislative Yuan and Minister of Education. Initially Major General Seiichi Kita, the head of the local Japanese special services and foremost "puppeteer" in north China on whose initiative the Provisional Government would be formed, wanted the head of state to be either Cao Kun or Wu Peifu, former warlords of the early republican period who had some national fame in China. But neither one took up the post because their price for collaboration was too high. In the end, the Provisional Government leadership did not include anyone of renown or fame. Many of its members were older bureaucrats whose careers spanned the early republican era (1910s and 1920s) and even the preceding Qing dynasty. Some had picked the wrong side during the warlord era and thus were bitterly anti-Kuomintang. The difficulty that Kita and other Japanese faced in recruiting members for the puppet regime caused a delay of its formation.[5]
Its activities were carefully prescribed and overseen by advisors provided by the
The Provisional Government was, along with the
Politics
The main source of its sovereignty was a constitution written by an unelected committee. The internal structure of the Provisional Government was similar to the
Its official ideology was
The Education Ministry and the "New People's Society" were in charge of spreading these aforementioned ideas through the usage of propaganda. The latter group had been established as the brainchild of Major General Seiichi Kita, modeled on the Concordia Association in neighboring Manchukuo. It was essentially a political organ that was designed to spread the government's ideas to the public and mobilize economic and military support for the Provisional Government and Japan. The New People's Society was not a mass organization with millions of members but a small tight-knit group that included many smaller sub-organizations. Among their activities ranged from training future civil servants, sending students to Japan, giving medical services to remote villages, providing disaster relief, establish free tea houses, promoting Chinese art and pilgrimages to Confucian temples, as well as discussing political events in their radio stations and official newspaper, the New People's Daily. The core values emphasized were Confucian virtues, familial piety, respect for authority, and devotion to scholarship. In the end, however, the organization failed to rally mass public support for the Provisional Government and Japan, being countered by the Communist Party's propaganda.[9]
Officials
| Minister | Post | Former Post in the Beiyang Government
| |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wang Kemin | 
|
President of the Executive Council Minister of Administration |
Minister of Finance |
| Tang Erho | 
|
President of the Discussion Council Minister of Education |
Minister of Finance |
| Dong Kang | 
|
President of the Judiciary Council | Minister of Justice Minister of Finance |
| Wang Yitang | 
|
Minister of the Interior | Minister of Interior Affairs |
| Qi Xieyuan | 
|
Minister of Security Commander-in-chief of the North China Pacification Army |
Military Inspector of Jiangsu |
| Wang Yintai | 
|
Minister of Industry | Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Justice |
| Jiang Chaozong | 
|
Mayor of the Beijing Special City | Infantry Commander |
| Gao Lingwei | 
|
Mayor of the Tianjing Special City | Minister of Interior Affairs Acting Premier |
Economy
In March 1938 the Japanese had the Provisional Government establish a "Federal Reserve Bank" with the primary intent of severing north China's financial structures from the rest of Kuomintang-controlled China, as well as to shatter the finances of the Kuomintang government by destabilizing its currency. The Provisional Government declared that the Chinese national currency used by the Nationalists could only remain in circulation for one year before its own Federal Reserve Bank notes would become the primary currency of the region. It allowed the regime to offset its lack of ability to collect tax revenues from its nominal territory, for a time.
However, it was not long before mass inflation began and neither Chinese merchants nor Japanese businessmen decided to accept the new bank notes. The Kuomintang currency remained in use everywhere outside of the Japanese military's immediate reach, while
The Federal Reserve Notes continued to be one of three separate currencies in the Japanese-occupied areas of China until the Japan's defeat.[11]: 95–96
The trafficking of
Transportation
In 1938 the Provisional Government nationalised railway and bus companies, and the North China Transportation Company was established to manage all railway and bus services in the government's territories.
Military
The security of the Provisional Government was at first based around a 5,000-man police force. The Provisional Government Army began to be organized in May 1938 with the organization of a Japanese-run military academy in
The order of battle as of September 1939 was as follows:[13]
- 1st Brigade 'Beijing' (Maj. Gen. Liu Fengzhi)
- 1st Regiment (Beijing)
- 2nd Regiment (Tongzhou)
- 2nd Brigade 'Baoding' (Maj. Gen. Huang Nanbeng)
- 3rd Regiment (Baoding)
- 4th Regiment (Zhengding)
- 3rd Brigade 'Kaiping' (Maj. Gen. Lu Zhensheng)
- 5th Regiment (Kaiping)
- 6th Regiment (Tangshan)
- 7th Independent Regiment 'Tianjin' (Col. Sun Zhizhang)
- 8th Independent Regiment 'Jinan' (Col. Ma Wenzhi)
After the formation of the Nanjing Nationalist Government under Wang Jingwei, the troops that had formerly been under the Provisional Government effectively remained under the authority of the North China Political Council led by Wang Kemin. By 1940, it was reported that the local army in north China numbered some 26,000 men, which were increased to 41,000 due to a recruitment drive, organized into 22 regiments along with eight independent and training regiments. Local police forces numbered some 135,000 while local militia were around 200,000, but the latter were regarded as completely unreliable by the Japanese due to lack of training and weapons.[14]
See also
Notes
- ^ Modified version used in 1921–1928.
- ^ traditional Chinese: 行政委員會委員長; simplified Chinese: 行政委员会委员长; pinyin: Xíngzhèng Wěiyuánhuì Wěiyuánzhǎng
- ^ traditional Chinese: 中華民國臨時政府; simplified Chinese: 中华民国临时政府; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó Línshí Zhèngfǔ, or Japanese: 中華民国臨時政府, romanized: Chūka Minkoku Rinji Seifu
References
Citations
- ^ Jennings (1997), p. 92.
- ^ Brune (2002), p. 521.
- ^ a b Boyle (1972), pp. 83–85.
- ^ a b c d Boyle (1972), pp. 90–91.
- ^ Boyle (1972), pp. 88–89.
- ^ Black (2002), p. 34.
- ^ Li (2007), p. 166.
- ^ Boyle (1972), pp. 105.
- ^ Boyle (1972), pp. 92–95.
- ^ a b Boyle (1972), pp. 97–99.
- ISBN 978-1-009-29761-5.
- ^ Boyle (1972), pp. 100–103.
- ^ a b Jowett (2004), p. 44.
- ^ Jowett (2004), pp. 85–87.
Sources
- Books
- Black, Jeremy (2002). World War Two: A Military History. Routeledge. ISBN 0-415-30535-7.
- Boyle, John H. (1972). China and Japan at War, 1937-1945; The Politics of Collaboration. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804708002.
- Brune, Lester H. (2002). Chronological History of US Foreign Relations. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93916-X.
- Jennings, John (1997). The Opium Empire: Japanese Imperialism and Drug Trafficking in Asia, 1895-1945. Praeger. ISBN 0275957594.
- Jowett, Phillip S. (2004). Rays of the Rising Sun. Vol. 1. Helion & Co., Ltd. ISBN 1-874622-21-3.
- Wasserman, Bernard (1999). Secret War in Shanghai: An Untold Story of Espionage, Intrigue, and Treason in World War II. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-98537-4.
- Li, Lillian M.; Dray-Novey, Alison J.; Kong, Haili (2007). Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-60527-5.
External links
Media related to Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1937-1940) at Wikimedia Commons
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