Wang Jingwei regime
The Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China (Chinese: 中華民國國民政府; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ) was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in eastern China. It existed alongside the Nationalist government of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek, which was fighting Japan along with the other Allies of World War II. The country functioned as a dictatorship under Wang Jingwei, formerly a high-ranking official of the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT). The region it administered was initially seized by Japan during the late 1930s at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Republic of China-
- 中華民國 (Chinese)
- Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó
- Postal Romanization: Chunghwa Minkuo
- Japanese: Chūka Minkoku
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- 中華民國 (Chinese)
- Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó
- Postal Romanization: Chunghwa Minkuo
- Japanese: Chūka Minkoku
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[edit]
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.
History[edit]
Shanghai as de facto capital, 1939–1941[edit]
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 appoint 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]
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:
According to other sources, total extension of territory during 1940 period was 1,264,000 km2.
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[edit]
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
Local administration:
Foreign representatives and diplomatic personnel:
Legacy[edit]
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