China (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

China (Chinese: 中國 Zhōngguó), officially the Republic of China (Chinese: 中華共和國 Zhōnghuá Gònghéguó), is a sovereign state located in East Asia. China bordered with Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Manchuria to the north, with Uyghurstan to the west, with Tibet to the southwest, and with India, Burma, Laos and Vietnam to the south. The national capital of China is Nanjing, while the largest city is Beijing with a population of 19 million.

Chinese Revolution (1911-1912)
Disillusioned by the failure of the Qing Dynasty’s attempt to reform and modernize China, the revolutionary movement against the ruling dynasty emerged by the late 19th century. Different with other political organisations before the failed Hundred Days Reform, this movement advocated the overthrow of Manchu’s Qing rule and the restoration of Han Chinese rule in China. Many of early Chinese revolutionary movements were founded by overseas Chinese, such as the Furen Literary Society in Hong Kong and the Revive China Society in Hawaii.

In 1905, the Tongmenghui was founded in Tokyo after the merger between the Revive China Society, the China Revival Society, and the Restoration Society. Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙 Sūn Yìxiān), a republican and anti-Qing activist, was elected as its leader. This organisation soon was increasingly popular between the younger people, especially the students. When the Tongmenghui was established, more than 90% of its members were between 17 and 26 years of age. Tongmenghui was also popular among the overseas Chinese communities, especially in Malaya, who was financially funding the organisation.

A series of uprisings, started from the First Guangzhou Uprising in 1895, was launched by the revolutionaries against the Qing government. The uprisings prior to 1911 was always successfully suppressed by the government due to lack of the participants and a coordination. It was not until the Wuchang Uprising in Wuhan on October 10, 1911, the revolutionary wave swept throughout China and many people started to show their support to the revolutionaries.

Alerted by this situation, the Qing Court ordered Yuan Shikai on October 27, 1911 to lead his New Army to retake Wuhan. Outnumbered by the New Army, the revolutionaries retreated to Hanyang and, finally, to Wuchang where they would fight against the New Army for about 50 days. During this battle, more than a half of all Chinese provinces already declared its independence from Qing, including Tibet and Inner Mongolia. On November 1, 1911, the Qing Court appointed Yuan as new Prime Minister who would briefly led the short-lived Qing constitutional government.

With much of the provinces that declared its independence from Qing, Yuan sent Tang Shaoyi as his representative to negotiate with the revolutionaries in Wuhan where the revolutionaries choose Wu Tingfang as their representative. They agreed that Yuan Shikai would force the Emperor to abdicate in exchange for the southern provinces' support of Yuan as the president of the Republic. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, Sun Yat-sen agreed to Yuan's proposal to unify China under Yuan Shikai's Beijing government.

On January 1, 1912, Sun officially declared the establishment of the Republic of China and was inaugurated in Nanjing as the first Provisional President. On February 12, 1912, the child Emperor Puyi and Empress Longyu finally abdicated following the threat and pressure from Yuan. Following the agreement between him and Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shikai was sworn as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China in Beijing on March 10, 1912, starting the period of Beiyang Government

Beiyang Regime (1912-1928)
On August 25, 1912, the Nationalist Party (國民黨 Guómíndǎng), popularly known as the Kuomintang, was founded by Song Jiaoren, one of Sun's associates. It was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun's Tongmenghui. The 1912-1913 National Assembly elections gave over half the seats and control of both houses to the Kuomintang, where the second largest party was the Progressive Party (進步黨 Jìnbùdǎng), led by Liang Qichao. Song Jiaoren was a supporter for the parliamentary republic system and was widely regarded as a primary candidate as new Prime Minister after the election.

However, Song was assassinated while traveling with a group of friends to Beijing on March 20, 1913, less than two weeks before the assembly convened. An investigation showed the assassination was arranged by the incumbent Prime Minister, Zhao Bingjun. Amid Yuan's denial, the Nationalists still suspected Yuan has a higher responsibility to the assassination. Because of the lack of evidence, Yuan was never officially implicated.

However, the tensions between the Kuomintang and Yuan continued to intensify. Following Yuan's authorization of $100 million of "reorganization loans" from a variety of foreign banks to finance his Beiyang Army, the Kuomintang became highly critical of Yuan's use of power that independent from the Assembly. In July 1913, seven southern provinces rebelled against Yuan and the Second Revolution which was mainly staged by the Kuomintang faction under Sun Yat-sen's leadership was begun. Due for being ill-prepared, this revolution was unsuccessful and forced Sun to flee to Japan.

Through the bribes and threats from military that surrounded the Assembly building, the National Assembly finally elected Yuan as formal President of the Republic of China on October 10, 1913. Yuan then outlawed the Kuomintang on November 1913 and its members of parliament was expelled from the Assembly. Without a quorum after the expel of Kuomintang MPs, the Assembly was unable to convene and finally, was declared on permanent recess by Yuan on January 10, 1914. On May 1, 1914, Yuan convened his own Constitutional Conference that produced a "constitutional compact" that gave the presidency the unlimited powers. Yuan justified these actions by stating that representative democracy had been proven inefficient by political infighting.

On December 12, 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor of the newly established Empire of China under the era name of Hongxian. The universal opposition against Yuan now formed throughout China, not only from the old Kuomintang revolutionaries, but also from their former rival political organisation, the Progressives, under Liang Qichao, which already opposed Yuan's abuse of power since the ban on the Kuomintang in 1913.

The increasing centralization under the Imperial government by abolishing the provincial system also triggered the opposition from the local military governors. Following the advice from Liang Qichao, the Yunnan clique under former Yunnan governor, Cai E, declared the independence of Yunnan on December 25, 1915 which started the National Protection War (護國戰爭 Hùgúo Zhànzhēng) against Yuan's government. Similar anti-Yuan sentiment was also emerging even among Yuan's Beiyang clique in the north following Yuan's coronation.

Pressured by the widespread opposition, Yuan finally renounced his title as Emperor and restored the Republic on March 22, 1916. In June 5, 1916, Yuan died from uremia. Li Yuanhong appointed as new President of China and Duan Qirui as the Premier. However, Li and Duan soon had a conflict over China's entry to the World War I.

Duan insisted on joining the war while Li were opposed. Li Yuanhong removed Duan from office and called for national military support. With German funds and arms, a monarchist general, Zhang Xun, took the opportunity. He then occupied the capital and forced Li to dissolve parliament, in attempt to restore the Qing Dynasty on July 1, 1916. This restoration only to being repressed by Duan later. Li resigned as president and was succeeded by Feng Guozhang. Emerged as the the most powerful leader in China, Duan established the new government and organized the new senate along with Liang Qichao. China eventually entered the World War I as the part of Allies on August 1917.

Sun Yat-sen and and former parliament members that had been deposed during the Manchu Restoration responded Duan's unconstitutional action by forming a rival government in Guangzhou and organizing the Constitutional Protection Movement against the Beiyang Government with the backing of the Yunnan clique and the Old Guangxi clique.

When Duan's loans from foreign banks to finance his Anhui forces were exposed, the May Fourth Movement sparked throughout the country on May 4, 1919. The students, merchants, and workers in Beijing and other larger cities across China went on strike, protested against corruption and nepotism that hampered the government. The movement played a significant role in the history of China as it radicalized the Chinese intellectual thought such as the introduction of Marxism and rise of the New Culture Movement. During this period of national unrest, Sun Yat-sen re-established the Kuomintang on October 1919 in South China.

The conflict between Duan's Anhui clique and the rival Zhili clique under Cao Kun and Wu Peifu for control of the Beijing government led to the break of Zhili-Anhui War on July 14, 1920. The Anhui clique was defeated by the Zhili forces and their ally, the Fengtian clique from Manchuria. Duan stepped down from the power and retired as an ordinary citizen. Despite assumed the national power, the Zhili clique had an uneasy relationship with the Fengtian clique of Zhang Zuolin, led to their military conflicts in 1922 and 1924.

Meanwhile in the south, Sun Yat-sen proclaimed himself as the Grand Marshal of his own military government in 1921. Following the May Fourth Movement, Sun slowly also getting disillusioned with Western democracy. With assistance from the Soviet Union and the Comintern, Sun started to re-establish the Kuomintang as a Leninist party despite its non-Communist nature and also permitted the newly-rising Chinese Communist Party joined the party membership while maintaining their separate party identities. Sun was also able to develop the military power needed for against the North. He established the Whampoa Military Academy with Chiang Kai-shek as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army.

After Sun's death in March 12, 1925, Chiang launched the Northern Expedition in July 1926 and rapidly defeated the armies of Zhili clique. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from his National Revolutionary Army and caused a split between the Kuomintang's left and right wings. The leftists, led by Wang Jingwei in Wuhan, condemned Chiang's purge. Chiang, however, subsequently established his own government in Nanjing in April 1927 and the expedition was put on halt.

This situation gave Zhang Zuolin, the warlord of Fengtian clique, an opportunity to take control of the Beiyang Government personally as the Grand Marshal of the Republic of China in June 18, 1927. Under Zhang, the civil service began to improve and start functioning again. The navy and army ministries were merged to create the Ministry of Military Affairs.

Following the Nationalists’ defeat in Xuzhou, Chiang resigned from his position as the Chairman of the Nanjing Government and moved to Shanghai. Li Zongren as new leader of the Nanjing Government attempted to negotiate the possible reconciliation with the Wuhan Government. Wang Jingwei, upon the end of negotiations, ordered the purging of all Communists from his government, resulted to a military coup by the Communists in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. As a result, the Wuhan Government became destabilized and strengthened the Nanjing Government on the other side. On January 2, 1928, the Wuhan government finally reconciled itself with Nanjing and the Northern Expedition restarted in February 1928.

The Nationalists swept across the remains of Zhili Clique forces and reached the Yellow River in mid-April, 1928. Yan Xishan's forces successfully occupied Beijing in June, 1928 and renamed the city as "Beiping" or "Northern Peace". Zhang evacuated himself to Fengtian and retained a government in exile led by Premier Pan Fu. However, many of its civil servants, had already switched over to the Nationalist government. In December 1928, Zhang finally accepted the jurisdiction of the Nationalist Government by replacing all banners of the Beiyang Government in Manchuria to the Nationalist one. Zhang was appointed as the commander of the Northeast Army in return for his allegiance to the Nationalists.

Central Plains War (1930)
At the end of the Expedition, the NRA consisted of five army groups: Chiang's Whampoa clique, Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian clique, Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun, Yan Xishan's Shanxi clique, and Li Zongren's New Guangxi clique. Chiang did not have direct control of the other three so he considered them to be threats.

In February 1929, Li Zongren fired the pro-Chiang governor of Hunan but Chiang objected and the two clashed in March, leading to Li's defeat and temporary expulsion from the KMT. Feng Yuxiang tried to rebel against the government on May 19, only to find that half of his army defected through bribery. From October to February, fighting resumed with Zhang Zuolin, Wang Jingwei of left-wing Wuhan faction and Lin Sen of right-wing Western Hills faction of Kuomintang joining the opposition.

In May 1930, the Central Plains War erupted, pitting Chiang against the Beiping coalition of Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, Zhang Zuolin, and Wang Jingwei. Battles in the north were generally in Henan and Shandong and battles in the south were mainly in the area of Yuezhou, Changsha and Hunan province. With the assistance of its air force, Chiang's Central Army struck with several major offensives. The Northwest Army, crushed Chen Cheng and Chiang's forces in Gansu at the end of May, and Chiang was captured as he was inspecting the front line.

Brief Stability (1930-1937)
After the coalition's victory, Yan Xishan convened the Enlarged Party Conference and set himself as new Chairman of the National Government while Wang Jingwei being the Chairman of Executive Yuan. On other side, as the losing party, Chiang was expelled from the Party's leadership and was positioned as the Director of Whampoa Military Academy in December 1930.

During this decade, China entered a period of relative prosperity. The Nationalist Government started to modernize the legal and penal systems, stabilize prices, amortize debts, reform the banking and currency systems, build railroads and highways, improve public health facilities, legislate against traffic in drugs and augment industrial and agricultural production. On the other hand, political freedom was considerably curtailed due to the Kuomintang's political tutelage.

Although the Nanjing government claimed all of China proper, Mongolia, Tibet, Manchuria and Uyghurstan under its jurisdiction, in fact the government rule was only strongest in the eastern regions around the capital Nanjing. Large areas of China remained under the semi-autonomous rule of local warlords, provincial military leaders or warlord coalitions as Yan wanted to get the support from his fellow warlords. All cliques now wore the Zhongshan suit and had the Kuomintang party membership while ruling independently in the name of Kuomintang.

The regional cliques such as the Fengtian clique in Manchuria, Shanxi clique in Shanxi, Ma clique in the Northwest, and New Guangxi clique in the South retained considerable local authority, while other regions were independent from Nanjing and under control of foreign powers, such as the Soviet Union in Outer Mongolia and Uyghurstan and the British Empire in Tibet. Almost bankrupted after the Central Plains War, China had no choice other than retreated its forces from northern Korea and Manchuria following the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1932).

As Yan-Wang administration getting unpopular, Chiang Kai-shak re-emerged again to political arena with the backing from his Whampoa clique colleagues, the traditionalist Central Club clique, the technocratic Political Study Clique, and the Green Gang criminal organisation. CC and Political Study cliques itself were the main opposition against Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang that they viewed as "leftists" and financially backed by the Soviet. Yan resigned from his office on 1932 after China's defeat on the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chiang's influence was virtually restored.

However, Chiang was unable to get re-elected as the Chairman of National Government as Hu Hanmin's rightist Western Hills faction and Wang Jingwei's leftist Reorganizationist faction successfully placed the senior statesman, Lin Sen, as the new Chairman. Chiang instead became the Chairman of Executive Yuan, replacing Wang. However, Lin's lack of political ambition made him more as a figurehead, while Chiang exercised the actual power on government.

Chiang then started to accelerate the industrialization and modernize the military of China with the help of  Nazi Germany. Germany then sent some military advisers to help the development of the National Revolutionary Army. The anti-communist NSDAP and the anti-communist KMT were soon engaged in close cooperation with the Germans training Chinese troops and expanding Chinese infrastructure, while China opened its markets and natural resources to Germany.

By 1936, China had only about 16,000 miles (25,7495 km) of railways, far lower than the 100,000 miles (160,000 km) that Sun Yat-sen had envisioned for his ambition of a modernized China. In addition, half of these were in Manchuria, which was already lost to Japan and out of the Kuomintang control. However, the series of Sino-German agreements between 1934 and 1943 was greatly accelerating the railway construction in China. Major railroads were built between Nanchang, Zhejiang and Guizhou. These fast developments were made possible because Germany needed efficient transportation to export raw materials, and because the railway lines served the Chinese government's need to build an industrial center south of the Yangtze, in the south-central provinces.