Railway Protection Movement
The Railway Protection Movement (
Background
From the 1890s to 1905, nearly all
In 1905, Sichuan Province established the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company.
Meanwhile, the Qing government, impatient with the progress of locally funded railway projects, returned to foreign lenders. At the time, the Qing authorities were under the financial pressure of having to pay back huge debts under the terms of the
Railway Protest Movement
The nationalization order drew strong opposition across southern China, especially Sichuan, which had the largest public shareholding in the Sichuan-Hankou Railway venture. Investors were unhappy that they would only be partially compensated with government bonds, rather than silver.[13]
The amount offered to Sichuan was much lower than all other provinces.[7] Pu Dianjun and other influential members of the Sichuan Provincial Assembly organized the Railway Protection League on June 17, and made public speeches against the plan, which was widely regarded as a seizure of valuable economic assets by the Manchu court and conversion of local property to foreign control.[14]
Bloodshed in Chengdu
On August 11–13, more than 10,000 protesters held a rally against the proposal in Chengdu and organized a series of strikes and boycotts by students and merchants.[7] On September 1, the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company adopted a shareholders' resolution calling on the Sichuan public to withhold the payment of grain taxes to the Qing government. On September 7, the Governor-General of Sichuan, Zhao Erfeng had Pu Dianjun and other leaders arrested and closed the company.[15] Enraged protesters then marched on the Governor-General's office in Chengdu demanding Pu's release.[15] In what became known as the Bloody Chengdu Incident,[16]: 286 Zhao ordered troops to open fire and dozens of protesters were killed.[15] In Chengdu there were 32 deaths.[7] Authorities closed the Chengdu city gates and had them heavily guarded.[16]: 286 Protestors created "water telegrams" by carving a message on to oiled boards, which were smuggled out and floated downriver:[16]: 286
Butcher Zhao arrested Pu and Luo,
Then massacred the Sichuan people.
In all places, friends, arise, save and protect your land!
Bloodshed further inflamed the protests.[17] Underground anti-Qing groups including the Tongmenghui and Gelaohui initiated armed clashes with Qing troops in and around Chengdu.[16]: 286 On September 15, Wang Tianjie, head of the Gelaohui in Rong County south of Chengdu organized the Comrades' Army and led 800 followers to march on Chengdu, vowing to topple Zhao Erfeng. As tensions escalated in Sichuan, the Qing government removed Zhao Erfeng from the governorship and offered full compensation to investors.[18] But armed groups numbering as many as over a hundred thousand were overwhelming government authorities in Sichuan.[19] Gelaohui militants were the majority of armed combatants against Qing soldiers and Sichuan government militias.[16]: 286–287
In one of Xinhai Revolution's first major battles, Zhao's modernized New Army soldiers opened fire from Chengdu's gates onto Gelaohui fighters, killing more than a thousand.[16]: 287 The New Army forces were equipped with repeating weapons and artillery.[16]: 287 They pushed back the rebel siege of Chengdu.[16]: 287 Continued fighting over the next two months required Qing leaders to divert troops from central China to Sichuan.[16]: 287
New Army orders and mutiny
The Qing court also ordered the Governor-General of Hubei and Hunan, Duanfang, to reinforce Sichuan with troops from Hubei. The situation in Hubei and Hunan was slightly different; elites in those provinces were not as outraged as elites in Sichuan over the nationalization of the provincial railways.[20] The press together with radical students in both provinces reproached local elites for their perceived passivity and servility, and compared them unfavorably to the protesters in Sichuan.[21] As Joseph Esherick has explained, it was in this atmosphere of heated rhetoric that the public mood in both provinces began to radicalize: "[T]he general belief that the Manchu dynasty was coming to an end ... was slowly transformed into a wish that the dynasty would fall."[21]
In turn, the mobilization of New Army troops from Hubei forced underground revolutionary groups there to expedite their planned uprising. The diversion of New Army troops weakened defenses in Wuhan but also took away some of the army units sympathetic to the revolutionaries.[17] Nonetheless, the diversion of Qing troops from central China to fight in Sichuan was a major reason why the Wuchang Uprising, which began on October 10, 1911, was successful.[16]: 287
Aftermath
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, uprisings and clashes in Sichuan between loyalists and revolutionaries continued into November. Duanfang was killed by Liu Yifeng after a mutiny by the New Army. On November 14, Zhao Erfeng released Pu Dianjun from prison and negotiated an agreement to hand over power to a newly established Great Han Military Government of Sichuan.[22] On November 27, Pu Dianjun declared Sichuan's independence from the Qing dynasty.[23] Zhao Erfeng was subsequently accused of fomenting a coup that briefly swept Chengdu in December and was executed by the revolutionaries on December 28.[22][23]
Ironically, the Sichuan–Hankou Railway, the underlying cause of all this trouble, remained unbuilt for decades due to political turmoil, warfare, inadequate funding, and extremely difficult terrain. The
As late as 1983, over 300 American investors tried, unsuccessfully, to force the government of China to redeem the worthless Hukuang bonds.[24][25]
References
- ^ Gao: 55
- ^ Gao: 56
- ^ Wu: 84
- ^ Gao: 57
- ^ a b Gao: 58
- ISBN 978-0-393-30780-1. pg 250-256.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-419-22160-9. pg 277-278.
- ISBN 962-8792-89-X. p 86-89.
- ISBN 962-8885-29-4. pg 3-7.
- ^ Dillon: 138
- ^ Dillon: 139
- ISBN 978-0-7139-9832-0. pg 107, pg 116.
- ^ Cambridge History Vol 11, Part 2: 516, 521
- ^ Fogel & Zarrow: 133
- ^ a b c Wu: 110
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4780-1121-7.
- ^ a b Wu: 111
- ^ Cambridge History Vol 11, Part 2:522
- ^ Cambridge History Vol 11, Part 2:524
- ISBN 978-0-520-05734-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-05734-0. (emphasis in original).
- ^ a b Guo
- ^ a b Rhoads: 200-201
- ^ Mary Thornton, "U.S. Backs China's Move to Reopen 1911 Railroad Bond Case" Washington Post August 19, 1983.
- ^ Jackson v. People's Republic of China, 550 F. Supp. 869 Dist. Court, ND Alabama 1982
Bibliography
- Dillon, Michael (2010). China: a modern history. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-85043-582-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-22029-3.
- Fogel, Peter A.; Zarrow, Peter Gue (1997). Imagining the people: Chinese intellectuals and the concept of citizenship, 1890-1920. ISBN 978-0-7656-0098-1.
- Gao, James Zheng (1997). Meeting technology's advance: social change in China and Zimbabwe in the railway age. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-30095-0.
- Guo 郭, Qin 钦. 风雨欲来——重绘辛亥革命历史地图. 湖南人民出版社. Archived from the original on 2012-04-07. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
- Rhoads, Edward J. M. (2000). Manchus & Han: ethnic relations and political power in late Qing and early republican China, 1861-1928. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-98040-9.
- ISBN 978-0-89875-531-2.