themessyrepublic1927-blog

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Abusing power

In 1927, Chiang launched a reign of terror against the wealthiest people of the city. Children of industrialists were arrested as “counterrevolutionaries” or “Communists” and were only released when their parents “donated” to the GMD. 2 examples would be when a cotton-mill owner gave 670,000 yuan and a wealthy indigo merchant who had to give 200,000 yuan.

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Never learnt macroeconomics?

The Nationalist government was apathetic to the land problem because they were never close to the peasants, thus could not care or understand the severity of the land problem and how much they were exploited. Moreover, the Nationalist government spent more than what they could get from the taxes (received only about 80% of their expenditure). Hsu says “strong on the outside but weak inside”. Higher taxes were also imposed on peasants when the GMD needed money for military campaigns and institutional and industrial rebuilding. Given the context that it was during the Great Depression, the peasants were even worse off due to a drastic fall in exports of cash crops and ruin of the local handicrafts.

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Reforms

The Nationalist government was quite neglectful in ignoring the old problem of landlordism and the terrible state of the peasants which made up 80% of the total population. This was an effect of Jiang’s rushed efforts in unifying China and defeating the warlords “by negotiating and absorbing them” into the GMD. The inclusion of warlords into the GMD was quite bad because the warlords did not even care about the welfare of the peasants. Furthermore, GMD generals and officials were only interest in land and thus did not want any reform to happen if it were to jeopardize their own position. The GMD had the mindset that if the peasants have been suffering for so long, what difference is a little while longer going to make for the reform to occur?

Peasants were also exploited to the limit. For example, they had to pay for their landlords’ regular land tax and surtax as well (varying from 35% to 350%). However, all the GMD did was try to reduce the land rent to 37.5% of the main crops in 1930.

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You can do anything, but not everything

David Allen

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Educating the population

Substantial progress was made in the field of education by the Nationalist government. Firstly, the Ministry of Education was tasked with reorganising and amalgamating several public universities, colleges and professional schools into 13 national universities, 5 technical colleges and 9 provincial universities. Furthermore, it extended subsidies to private institutions of higher learning for the purposes of establishing new professorships and purchasing equipment; of 20 private universities and 33 private colleges, 32 received such help in 1934 and 40 in 1936. This indicates the increased importance with which education was treated at the time, with commendable attempts being made to improve the educational system such that there would be an increased proportion of potential white-collared workers in China who would be of great benefit to the economy.

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Creating an “Obsidian Kingdom”

Photo by Mari Sheilbey

The Nationalist government achieved reasonable success in the field of industrial development, with there being a general recognition that economic development was essential to the creation of a modern state. This attitude was clear from how between 1927-1937, the total importation of industrial equipment reached Ch$500 million, which represented considerable effort in a country that at the time was war torn and poverty stricken. Despite the fact that no remarkable reforms were made in industrialisation, good progress was made in a number of light industries like cotton weaving, flour production, matches, cement and chemical manufacturing.

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The Nationalist government also experienced great success in improving the communication systems. Deliberate attempts were made to reform China’s communication systems, seen from how in 1928 a Ministry of Railways was established with the aim of improving existing lines and constructing new ones. The success of this new ministry is evident from how the accomplished the extension of the Lung Hai Railway to Sian in 1934 and to Pao chi in 1935 as well as the completion of the Canton Hankow Railway in 1936. Other efforts to improve the communication systems include the development of the ferry system at Nanking, the construction of the iron bridge over the Chientang River in 1937, highway construction and the initiation of modern airlines, such as the China National Aviation Corporation in 1930. Postal service and telecommunication also greatly improved under Jieng Jieshi’s government, with post office numbers increasing from about 10 000 over 400 000 li of postroads in 1921 to 14 000 over 584 00 li from 1935-1936. Telegraph lines underwent rapid restoration and construction and long distance telephone lines grew from 4000km in 1925 to 52200 in 1937. These reforms were particularly significant considering the large extent to which China was fragmented and decentralised during the Warlord period; the improvement in communication systems would allow for increased centralisation of the country, which was important especially in terms of governance as it would reduce the power of the provinces.

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Slowly but surely

Jiang Jieshi’s government experienced further success in terms of revoking several foreign municipal concessions. This is evident from how the British agreed to relinquish their concessions at Hankow and Kiukiang in 1927, Chinkiang in 1929 as well as Weihaiwei and Amoy in 1930. The removal of these concessions were significant in that it was a symbol of China’s progress in improving its international standing, given that these actions could be interpreted as a sign of respect from other nations for China’s increasing power. Additionally, getting rid of the foreign concessions would increase nationalism since they were viewed as reminders of past humiliation spanning a century.However, the success of the Nationalist government was limited in this regard because, while some foreign concessions were removed, there still existed unequal treaties with China, which were only abolished in 1943 by the United States and Britain.

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Tariff autonomy: another success?

A major success of Jiang Jieshi’s government was in granting tariff autonomy for the country. In  July 1928 the government proposed two guiding principles in which treaties and agreements that had expired would be replaced by new ones, while those not yet expired would be abolished and renegotiated according to legal procedures. This was highly significant for several reasons. Firstly, the removal of the tariff restriction would further exacerbate the rising nationalism in China, increasing the public’s confidence in the nationalist government since the restrictions were viewed as a hangover from China’s humiliating defeat in the Opium War, a symbol of defeat. Secondly, with powers such as Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Britain and Japan recognising China’s tariff autonomy and agreeing in principle to give up their consular jurisdiction, China’s international standing and diplomatic relationships received a major boost.

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The Nationalist government achieved great accomplishments in terms of its economic reforms,  one of which was the substitution of the silver dollar (yuan) for the tael(liang) and the introduction of paper as the legal tender. This reform was particularly significant because the tael was continuously used in commercial transactions despite the silver dollar being introduced as a basic unit of currency in 1914; this chaotic system caused much confusion and many complications since exchange rates varied. On April 1914, the government decisively abolished the tael and substituted for it the silver dollar at an exchange rate of 0.715 (tael) for 1 dollar to remedy this problem. 

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Is he really strong?

However, Jiang’s likelihood of succeeding may not have been very high as even though he had full control over the GMD, it does not really matter given the context that the GMD only controlled a very small part of the China, with the majority of the Northern and Central regions still under Warlord rule, thus without liberating these regions, the GMD and Jiang’s influence is still contained to only the Southern parts of China and are unable to unite China in order to advance its modernization and fully strengthen it. Furthermore, with a majority of China not under their rule, they are unable to gain government revenue from taxes and will make it much harder for the GMD to strengthen China as they need the funds to strengthen their army and implement social and economic policies to stabilize the economy and increase standards of living through social welfare for the people, thus keeping them dissatisfied with their way of life and less likely to work hard for the advancement of the nation under Jiang’s leadership, making it difficult for him to succeed in China’s unification and restrengthening.

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After the United Front was broken by the Shanghai Spring of 12th April 1927, where communists were massacred and chased out of China, Jiang had all the power in the GMD as the left wing of the GMD, led by Wang Jingwei, was greatly weakened due to the lack of CCP and Russian support, making it easier for Jiang to succeed in his rule as there are no more political opponents to hinder his actions and goals. Furthermore, anti foreign sentiment has been steadily increasing ever since the Treaty of Versailles and the Japanese 21 demands, where Japanese goods were boycotted during the May 4th movement during protests by students, intellectuals, and proletariat workers, thus the influence of Japan and other foreign powers were greatly reduced by this time, meaning that the general public are more likely to support him in order to reach the goal of a unified China and defend their country against foreign powers trying to take territory, like Japan taking Shandong, from them.

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The Warlords were still in power since Yuan Shikai’s death in 1916 and as seen from the May 4th Movement, nationalism and the urge for China’s reunification was rapidly rising, setting the perfect opportunity for Jiang Jieshi to use his complete control of the GMD’s military to go on the Northern Expedition to defeat or absorb any warlords into his government with the support of the peasants who cooked food for the soldiers on the side of the road as they travelled through the villages, showing that he had a great chance of success with the support of the people in his expedition to clear China of the warlord’s rule.

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Dig the well before you are thirsty

Chinese proverb