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87-584: In Taiwan, 14 August is celebrated as its Air Force Day, in honour of this battle. On 7 July 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident , after years of encroachment and expansion in northern China. On 9 August, a Japanese naval officer, demanding Chinese troops to leave the area, opened fire on Chinese guards in Shanghai, and was killed by Chinese guards.The Battle of Shanghai began on 13 August 1937. On 14 August,

174-595: A war of attrition between the Japanese army and the Kuomintang. However, he himself still considers this less likely than the "accidental shot" hypothesis, that the first shot was fired by a low-ranking Chinese soldier in "an unplanned moment of fear". In comparison to their Japanese counterparts, the 29th Route Army, and generally all of the NRA for that matter, was poorly equipped and under-trained. Most soldiers were armed only with

261-508: A Japanese naval officer was shot in Shanghai , escalating the skirmishes and battles into full scale warfare. The 29th Army's resistance (and poor equipment) inspired the 1937 " Sword March ", which with reworked lyrics became the NRA's standard marching cadence and popularized the racial epithet guizi to describe the Japanese invaders. The heightened tensions of the Marco Polo Bridge incident led directly to full-scale war between

348-605: A cavalry division under the Muslim General Ma Biao to be sent east to battle the Japanese. The Turkic Salar people made up the majority of the first cavalry division sent by Ma. In 1987, the bridge was renovated and the People's Anti-Japanese War Museum was built near the bridge to commemorate the anniversary of the start of the Sino-Japanese War. There is debate over whether the incident could have been planned like

435-698: A client state, Manchukuo , with Puyi , the deposed Qing dynasty emperor, as its chief of state. After the invasion, Japanese forces extended their control further into northern China, seeking to obtain raw materials and industrial capacity. A commission of inquiry from the League of Nations published the Lytton Report which was critical of the Japanese, resulting in Japan quitting the League. The Kuomintang (KMT) government of China refused to recognize Manchukuo but did agree to

522-616: A coalition government. The two parties agreed to open multiparty talks on post-World War II political reforms via a Political Consultative Conference . This was included in the Double Tenth Agreement . This agreement was implemented by the Nationalist Government, who organized the first Political Consultative Assembly from 10 to 31 January 1946. Representatives of the Kuomintang, CCP, Chinese Youth Party , and China Democratic League , as well as independent delegates, attended

609-545: A dual-party state apparatus under the ideology of Dang Guo , effectively making it a one-party state ; however, existing parties continued to operate and new ones formed. After the end of the Second World War, and particularly after the passage of the constitution in 1946, the National Government was reconstituted to include multiple parties, in preparation for a full democratic government to come. In February 1928,

696-685: A major detachment in Beijing to protect the Japanese embassy. Nationalist Government The Nationalist government , officially the National Government of the Republic of China , refers to the government of the Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party. Following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution , revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen

783-783: A major factor in the government's failure. The communist land redistribution movement was an important factor in the Nationalists' defeat, particularly because it linked the interests of peasants in the north and northeast to the Communists' success. In 1949, the People's Liberation captured Beijing and later Nanjing as well. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing on 1 October 1949. The Republic of China central government relocated to Taipei on 7 December 1949, to Taiwan where Japan had laid an educational groundwork . Almost all of

870-538: A massive decline in Chinese agricultural prices (which were cheaper) and thus the income of rural farmers. In 1932, agricultural prices were 41 percent of 1921 levels. Rural incomes had fallen to 57 percent of 1931 levels by 1934 in some areas. Under this peculiar context for rural China, the Chinese Rural Reconstruction Movement was implemented by some social activists who graduated as professors of

957-447: A message from the Japanese demanding permission to enter Wanping to search for the missing soldier; the Chinese refused. Private Shimura later returned to his unit; he claimed to have sought immediate relief in the darkness from a stomach ache and become lost ); according to Peter Harmsen, he had visited a brothel. By that time both sides were mobilizing, with the Japanese deploying reinforcements to surround Wanping . Later that night,

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1044-409: A month. The war was estimated to have killed between 20 and 25 million Chinese and destroyed all that Chiang had built up in the preceding decade. Development of industries was severely hampered after the war by devastating conflict as well as the inflow of cheap American goods. By 1946, Chinese industries operated at 20 percent capacity and had 25 percent of the output of pre-war China. One effect of

1131-477: A provisional constitution that established the one-party rule of the KMT and promised eventual democratization. In practice, this meant that Chiang Kai-Shek was able to continue authoritarian rule. Even had it been the KMT's intention, historians such as Edmund Fung argue that they may not have been able to establish a democracy under the circumstances of the time.( Fung 2000 , p. 30) Despite nominal reunification,

1218-549: A range exceeding 4,000 kilometres. The Japanese military planned to deploy these newly designed bombers in their first long-distance air raid to target and destroy the hangars, repair workshops, ammunition depots, and aircraft stationed on the tarmacs at the Jianqiao, Guangde, and Qiaosi airfields. At 12:55 p.m., a squadron of 9 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers of the Kanoya Air Group took off from Taipei , Taiwan, which entered

1305-680: A rifle and a dao (a single-edged Chinese sword similar to a machete ). Moreover, the Chinese garrison in the Lugouqiao area was completely outnumbered and outgunned; it consisted only of about 100 soldiers. The Japanese China Garrison Army was a combined force of infantry, tanks, mechanized forces, artillery and cavalry, which had been stationed in China since the time of the Boxer Rebellion . Its headquarters and bulk for its forces were in Tianjin, with

1392-427: A stopover at Guangde . When the first two Chinese squadrons, namely the 21st and 23rd squadrons, arrived at Jianqiao, they received emergency signals, prompting them to make an emergency landing for refuelling. One of the Japanese bombers, advancing from the northeast, targeted the airport's maintenance centre before veering right. It was then pursued closely by Chinese planes until it crashed near Banshan. Another bomber

1479-504: A unit of Japanese infantry attempted to breach Wanping's walled defenses but were repulsed. An ultimatum by the Japanese was issued two hours later. As a precautionary measure, Qin Dechun , the acting commander of the Chinese 29th Route Army, contacted the commander of the Chinese 37th Division, General Feng Zhi'an , ordering him to place his troops on heightened alert. At 02:00 on 8 July, Qin Dechun , executive officer and acting commander of

1566-521: Is now known as the February 28 Incident . Mainstream estimates of casualties range from 18,000 to 30,000, mainly Taiwanese elites. The 28 February Incident has had far-reaching effects on subsequent Taiwanese history . From 1945 to 1947, under United States mediation, especially through the Marshall Mission , the Nationalists and Communists agreed to start a series of peace talks aiming at establishing

1653-716: Is still celebrated in Taiwan. Marco Polo Bridge Incident [REDACTED]   Japan Taishō period Shōwa period The Marco Polo Bridge incident , also known as the Lugou Bridge incident or the July 7 incident , was a battle during July 1937 in the district of Beijing between the 29th Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army . Since

1740-702: The Academia Sinica and the Central Bank of China . In 1932, China for the first time sent teams to the Olympic Games . The Nationalists faced a new challenge with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, with hostilities continuing through the Second Sino-Japanese War , part of World War II , from 1937 to 1945. The government of the Republic of China retreated from Nanjing to Chongqing . In 1945, after

1827-399: The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, there had been many small incidents along the rail line connecting Beijing with the port of Tianjin , but all had subsided. In this incident, a Japanese soldier was temporarily absent from his unit opposite Wanping , and his commander demanded the right to search the town for him. When this request was refused, units on both sides were alerted and

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1914-667: The Jin dynasty and later restored during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1698. It gained its Western name from its appearance in Il Milione , Marco Polo 's record of his travels. It is also known as the "Lukouchiao", "Lugouqiao", or 'Lugou Bridge incident' from the local name of the bridge, derived from a former name of the Yongding River . This is the common name for

2001-576: The Nanjing -based government led by Chiang Kai-shek , which after the Northern Expedition governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the legitimate representative of China. The Nationalist government would then experience many challenges such as the Second Sino-Japanese War , and the Chinese Civil War . The government

2088-403: The National Revolutionary Army . Chiang Kai-shek was appointed as the first Chairman of the National Government , a position he would retain until 1931. The Organic Law also stipulated that the Kuomintang, through its National Congress and Central Executive Committee, would exercise sovereign power during the period of political tutelage, and the KMT's Political Council would guide and superintend

2175-627: The Political Tutelage of the Kuomintang. However, periodic famines continued: in Northern China from 1928 to 1930, in Sichuan from 1936 to 1937, and in Henan from 1942 to 1943. In total, these famines cost at least 11.7 million lives. GDP growth averaged 3.9 per cent a year from 1929 to 1941 and per capita GDP about 1.8 per cent. Among other institutions, the Nationalist Government founded

2262-527: The Qing dynasty and ending nearly three thousand years of imperial rule in China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing Decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) under an authoritarian one-party state . At

2349-582: The Second Sino-Japanese War against the Imperial Japanese Army , and in the Chinese Civil War against the People's Liberation Army . During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the armed forces of the CCP were nominally incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army (while retaining separate commands), but broke away to form the People's Liberation Army shortly after the end of the war. With

2436-512: The Tanggu Truce with Japan in 1933. Subsequently, there were various "incidents", or armed clashes of a limited nature, followed by a return to uneasy peace. The significance of the Marco Polo Bridge incident is that, following it, tensions did not subside again; instead, there was an escalation, with larger forces committed by both sides and fighting spreading to other parts of China. With hindsight, this small incident can, therefore, be regarded as

2523-454: The " retrocession " of Taiwan to the Republic of China and established a provincial government on the island. The military administration of the ROC extended over Taiwan, which led to widespread unrest and increasing tensions between local Taiwanese and mainlanders. The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered an island-wide unrest, which was brutally suppressed with military force in what

2610-551: The Chiang's Nationalist Government relied heavily on the support of warlords such as Ma Hushan , Yan Xishan , and Chang Hsueh-liang to exert control on the provinces. The loyalty of these figures was often highly suspect, and they frequently engaged in acts of open defiance, as in the Xi'an Incident of 1936, or even rebellion . In alliance with local landlords and other power-brokers, they blocked moderate land reforms that might have benefits

2697-863: The Chinese 29th Army was forced to withdraw. The Japanese captured Beiping and the Taku Forts at Tianjin on 29 and 30 July respectively, thus concluding the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin . However, the Japanese Army had been given orders not to advance further than the Yongding River. In a sudden volte-face , the Konoe government's foreign minister opened negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek 's government in Nanjing and stated: "Japan wants Chinese cooperation, not Chinese land." Nevertheless, negotiations failed to move further. On 9 August 1937,

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2784-502: The Chinese 29th Route Army, sent Wang Lengzhai, mayor of Wanping, alone to the Japanese camp to conduct negotiations. However, this proved to be fruitless, and the Japanese insisted that they be admitted into the town to investigate the cause of the incident. At around 04:00, reinforcements of both sides began to arrive. The Chinese also rushed an extra division of troops to the area. At 04:45 Wang Lengzhai had returned to Wanping, and on his way back he witnessed Japanese troops massing around

2871-476: The Chinese Army fired on the Japanese Army. However, the missing Japanese soldier had already returned to his lines. The Marco Polo Bridge incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War . In English, the battle is usually known as the "Marco Polo Bridge incident". The Marco Polo Bridge is an eleven-arch granite bridge, an architecturally significant structure first erected under

2958-561: The Chinese airspace near Yongjia , before splitting up to attack near Yongkang . The Japanese aircraft had to break into smaller groups or fly individually, due to poor weather conditions and thick cloud cover, before approaching Jianqiao at an altitude of approximately 500 metres at around 4:00 p.m. The Chinese air group was divided into three squadrons, each with nine planes, headed by Li Guidan, Huang Guanghan, Mao Yingchu, respectively. Starting to take off from Zhoujiakou at 1:00 p.m., two squadrons directly flew to Jianqiao, while one team made

3045-652: The Chinese army attacked the Japanese settlement in Shanghai. In response to the heightened Japanese threats, the ROCAF deployed he 4th Air Group from Zhoujiakou to Hangzhou to defend its Jianqiao Air Base. Since the Jianqiao Air Base housed the Central Aviation School , Japanese forces believed that by destroying this site, China would deplete its supply of trained pilots. The Mitsubishi G3M bombers were developed as part of Japan's Pacific War strategy, with

3132-526: The Communists, under recent orders from the Comintern, wanted to break from the United Front and get rid of the KMT. Chiang decided to strike first and purged the Communists , killing thousands of them. At the same time, other violent conflicts took place in the south of China where peasant associations supported by the CCP were attacking landlords and local gentry, who formed a base of political support for

3219-611: The Empire of Japan and the Republic of China, with the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin at the end of July and the Battle of Shanghai in August. In 1937, during the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin the government was notified by Muslim General Ma Bufang of the Ma clique that he was prepared to bring the fight to the Japanese in a telegram message. Immediately after the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Ma Bufang arranged for

3306-864: The Fourth Plenary Session of the 2nd Kuomintang National Congress held in Nanjing passed the Reorganization of the National Government Act. This act stipulated the national government was to be directed and regulated under the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, with the Committee of the National Government being elected by KMT Central Committee. Under the national government was seven ministries – Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Transport, Justice, Agriculture and Mines, and Commerce. There were also additional institutions such as

3393-541: The Japanese air force only managed to damage two tank trucks and a hangar in China. The Japanese military attributed the failure of this battle to adverse weather conditions and the dispersal of forces before the attack. The victory at Jianqiao boosted national morale among Chinese people. In September 1939, the Nationalist Government of China declared the date of this battle, 14 August, as the Air Force Day, which

3480-419: The Japanese aircraft arrived late at 4:30 to 4:40 p.m. The Chinese and Japanese aircraft saw each other, but did not engaged in war. The Chinese squadron then continued flying to Jianqiao and arrived at around 6:00 p.m. A Chinese pilot of 34th squadron began patrolling between Hangzhou and Guangde since 6:00 p.m. On seeing the Japanese squadron of 9 bombers at the northwest of Guangde, it began closely following

3567-612: The Japanese aircraft, with failed attempts to attack. The Japanese bombed only dropped a bomb over the edge of the Guangde Air Base, before it retreated to Hangzhou. The Chinese pilot had to give up chasing due to the nighttime and landed at Guangde at 7:10 p.m. On arriving over Hangzhou, one of Japanese bombers, noticing the approaching Chinese aircraft, retreated towards the Qiantang River estuary. The Chinese fighters at Jianqiao spotted it when passing over Wengjiabu Airfield, where

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3654-514: The KMT itself was disunified, with the pro-Chiang factions of the CC Clique , Political Study Clique, and fascist-inspired Blue Shirts Society opposed by a left-wing faction under Wang Jingwei and a right-wing faction influenced by Hu Hanmin . To control the opposing KMT factions, Chiang relied increasingly on the National Revolutionary Army . Economic growth and social improvements were mixed. The Kuomintang supported women's rights and education,

3741-611: The KMT right-wing and recruitment for Nationalist soldiers. These events eventually led to the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the CCP. Chiang Kai-shek pushed the CCP into the interior as he sought to destroy them, and moved the Nationalist Government to Nanjing in 1927. Leftists within the KMT still allied to the CCP, led by Wang Jingwei , had established a rival Nationalist Government in Wuhan two months earlier, but soon joined Chiang in Nanjing in August 1927. By

3828-418: The Kuomintang reunified the country in 1928, China entered a period of relative prosperity despite civil war and Japanese aggression. In 1937, the Japanese invaded and laid China to waste in eight years of war. The era also saw additional boycott of Japanese products . Chinese industries continued to develop in the 1930s with the advent of the Nanjing decade in the 1930s when Chiang Kai-shek unified most of

3915-502: The National Government in the execution of important national affairs and that the council has the power to interpret or amend the organic law. Authority within the Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang Kai-shek. All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval. According to historian Odd Arne Westad , "no other leader within the GMD had

4002-531: The Nationalist Party, while the Communists formed part of the Party's left-wing. Chiang led the Northern Expedition through China with the intention of defeating the warlords and unifying the country. The National Revolutionary Army received significant aid from the Soviet Union ; Chiang himself was surrounded by Soviet military advisors. Much of the Nationalist Party, however, became convinced, not without reason, that

4089-423: The Supreme Court, Control Yuan, and the General Academy. With the promulgation of the Organic Law of the National Government in October 1928, the government was reorganized into five different branches or Yuan, namely the Executive Yuan , Legislative Yuan , Judicial Yuan , Examination Yuan as well as the Control Yuan . The Chairman of the National Government was to be the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of

4176-403: The United States with tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economical, cultural, and educational equipment and mechanisms of rural regions. The social activists actively coordinated with the local governments in towns and villages since the early 1930s. However, this policy was subsequently neglected and canceled by the Nationalist government due to rampant wars and

4263-453: The United States. The Nationalist Government began drafting the Constitution of the Republic of China under a National Assembly, but was boycotted by the CCP. With the promulgation of the constitution, the Nationalist Government abolished itself and was replaced by the Government of the Republic of China . Following their loss of the Civil War, the Nationalist Government retreated and moved their capital to Taipei while claiming that they were

4350-449: The abolition of polygamy, and foot binding. The government of the Republic of China under Chiang's leadership also enacted a women's quota in the parliament with reserved seats for women. During the Nanjing Decade , the spread of education increased the literacy rate across China and promoted the ideals of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, and Chinese Nationalism based on

4437-423: The administration itself. As Chiang Kai-Shek told the state council: "Our organization becomes worse and worse ... many staff members just sit at their desks and gaze into space, others read newspapers and still others sleep." Corruption was endemic at all levels of government. The tension between Chiang's centralizing tendencies and the warlords who supported him led to friction and inconsistent direction. Even

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4524-423: The attack. The Chinese 219th regiment staged an effective resistance, and full scale fighting commenced at Langfang on 25 July. After launching a bitter and bloody attack on the Japanese lines on the 27 July, General Song Zheyuan was defeated and forced to retreat behind the Yongding River by the next day. On 11 July, in accordance with the Goso conference, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff authorized

4611-457: The authorities of other nations in China. By July 1937, Japan had expanded its forces in China to an estimated 7,000 to 15,000 men, mostly along the railways. This number of men, and the amount of concomitant matériel, was several times the size of the detachments deployed by the European powers, and greatly in excess of the limits set by the Boxer Protocol . By this time, the Imperial Japanese Army had already surrounded Beijing and Tianjin. On

4698-554: The authority to force through even the simplest decisions. The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with the formal authority of their position. Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority. The Nationalist government exercised relatively little control in China's border regions, where

4785-418: The bridge with the help of reinforcements, but suffered tremendous losses. At this point, the Japanese military and members of the Japanese Foreign Service began negotiations in Beijing with the Chinese Nationalist government. A verbal agreement with Chinese General Qin was reached, whereby: This was agreed upon, though Japanese Garrison Infantry Brigade commander General Masakazu Kawabe initially rejected

4872-415: The conference in Chongqing. However, shortly afterward, the two parties failed to reach an agreement and the civil war resumed. In the context of political and military animosity, the National Assembly was summoned by the Nationalists without the participation of the CCP and promulgated the Constitution of the Republic of China . The constitution was criticized by the CCP, and led to the final break between

4959-399: The country and brought political stability. China's industries developed and grew from 1927 to 1931. Though badly hit by the Great Depression from 1931 to 1935 and Japan's occupation of Manchuria in 1931, industrial output recovered by 1936. By 1936, industrial output had recovered and surpassed its previous peak in 1931 prior to the Great Depression's effects on China. This is best shown by

5046-452: The deployment of an infantry division from the Chosen Army , two combined brigades from the Kwantung Army and an air regiment composed of 18 squadrons as reinforcements to Northern China. By 20 July, total Japanese military strength in the Beiping-Tianjin area exceeded 180,000 personnel. The Japanese gave Song and his troops "free passage" before moving in to pacify resistance in areas surrounding Beijing and Tianjin. After 24 days of combat,

5133-444: The earlier Mukden incident , which served as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria . According to Jim Huffman this notion has been "widely rejected" by historians, as the Japanese would likely have been more concerned over the threat posed by the Soviets. Controversial conservative Japanese historian Ikuhiko Hata has suggested that the incident could have been caused by the Chinese Communist Party , hoping it would lead to

5220-467: The end of World War II in 1945, the Empire of Japan surrendered control of Taiwan and its island groups to the Allies , and Taiwan was placed under the Republic of China's administrative control. The legitimacy of this transfer is disputed and is another aspect of the disputed political status of Taiwan . After World War II, the civil war between the ruling Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) resumed, despite attempts at mediation by

5307-430: The event in Japanese ( 蘆溝橋事件 , Rokōkyō Jiken ) and is an alternate name for it in Chinese and Korean ( 노구교 사건 , Nogugyo Sageon ). The same name is also expressed or translated as the " Battle of Lugou Bridge ", "Lugouqiao", or "Lukouchiao". Tensions between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been heightened since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and their subsequent creation of

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5394-401: The following year, Chiang's army had captured Beijing after overthrowing the Beiyang government and unified the entire nation , at least nominally, marking the beginning the Nanjing decade . According to Sun Yat-sen's "Three Stages of Revolution" theory, the KMT was to rebuild China in three phases: the first stage was military unification, which was carried out with the Northern Expedition;

5481-445: The lack of resources following the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second Chinese Civil War . In 1937, Japan invaded China and the resulting warfare laid waste to China. Most of the prosperous east China coast was occupied by the Japanese, who carried out various atrocities such as the Rape of Nanjing in 1937 and random massacres of whole villages. In one anti-guerrilla sweep in 1942, the Japanese killed up to 200,000 civilians in

5568-415: The legitimate government of the mainland. After Sun's death on 12 March 1925, four months later on 1 July 1925, the National Government of the Republic of China was established in Guangzhou . The following year, as Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army, Chiang Kai-shek became the de facto leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party. He especially headed the right-wing of

5655-419: The lower sky was clear, and engaged it over the Cao'e River . With the oil tank damaged, the bomber landed off the Port of Keelung , which destroyed its hull, yet five crew members of this aircraft survived. Two Chinese aircraft crashed due to fuel depletion, resulting in one pilot's death and another being injured. With two planes missing, one crashed at the Port of Keelung, and one with damaged landing gears,

5742-497: The night of 7 July, the Japanese units stationed at Fengtai crossed the border to conduct military exercises. Japanese and Chinese forces outside the town of Wanping —a walled town 16.4 km (10.2 mi) southwest of Beijing—exchanged fire at approximately 23:00. The exact cause of this incident remains unknown. When a Japanese soldier, Private Shimura Kikujiro, failed to return to his post, Chinese regimental commander Ji Xingwen (219th Regiment, 37th Division, 29th Army) received

5829-419: The political fragmentation along ethnic lines that began after the fall of the Qing dynasty continued. The National Revolutionary Army ( NRA ) ( traditional Chinese : 國民革命軍 ; simplified Chinese : 国民革命军 ; pinyin : Guómín Gémìng Jūn ; Wade–Giles : Kuo-min Ke-ming Chün ), pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928 and 1947 as 國軍 or National Army

5916-425: The promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and the formal end of the KMT party-state, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces , with the bulk of its forces forming the Republic of China Army , which retreated to Taiwan in 1949 . Forced conscription campaigns were conducted by the military; they are described by Rudolph Rummel as such: Then there

6003-436: The ratification that not only would it not recognize the ROC constitution, but all bills passed by the Nationalist administration would be disregarded as well. Zhou Enlai challenged the legitimacy of the National Assembly in 1947 by accusing the KMT of hand-picking the members of the National Assembly 10 years earlier; claiming they thus could not legitimately represent the Chinese people. The National Government governed under

6090-547: The rural economy was hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s, in which an overproduction of agricultural goods lead to massive falling prices for China as well as an increase in foreign imports (as agricultural goods produced in western countries were "dumped" in China). In 1931, imports of rice in China amounted to 21 million bushels compared with 12 million in 1928. Other goods saw even more staggering increases. In 1932, 15 million bushels of grain were imported compared with 900,000 in 1928. This increased competition leads to

6177-426: The rural poor. Instead, the poor peasants remained a consistent source of recruits for the Communist Party. While weakened by frequent massacres and purges—historian Rudolph Rummel estimated that 1,654,000 people were killed by the KMT in anti-Communist purges during this period—the Communists were able to survive and posed a major latent threat to the regime. However, perhaps the biggest challenges came from within

6264-426: The second was " political tutelage  [ zh ] " which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage would be constitutional government.( Fung 2000 , p. 30) By 1928, the Nationalists claimed that they had succeeded in reunifying China and were beginning the second stage, the period of so-called "tutelage". In 1931, they promulgated

6351-485: The start of a major conflict. By the terms of the Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901, China had granted nations with legations in Beijing the right to station guards at twelve specific points along railways connecting Beijing with Tianjin. This was to ensure open communications between the capital and the port. By a supplementary agreement on 15 July 1902, these forces were allowed to conduct maneuvers without informing

6438-410: The town. Within five minutes of Wang's return, a shot was heard, and both sides began firing , thus marking the commencement of the Battle of Beiping-Tianjin , and, by extension, the full scale commencement of the Second Sino-Japanese War at 04:50 on 8 July 1937. Colonel Ji Xingwen led the Chinese defenses with about 100 men, with orders to hold the bridge at all costs. The Chinese were able to hold

6525-583: The trends in Chinese GDP . In 1932, China's GDP peaked at US$ 28.8 billion, before falling to $ 21.3 billion by 1934 and recovering to $ 23.7 billion by 1935. By 1930, foreign investment in China totaled $ 3.5 billion, with Japan leading ($ 1.4 billion) and the United Kingdom at 1 billion. By 1948, however, the capital stock had halted with investment dropping to only $ 3 billion, with the US and Britain leading. However,

6612-691: The truce and, against his superiors' orders, continued to shell Wanping for the next three hours, until prevailed upon to cease and to move his forces to the northeast. Although a ceasefire had been declared, further efforts to de-escalate the conflict failed, largely due to actions by the Chinese Communists and the Japanese China Garrison Army commanders. Due to constant Chinese attacks, Japanese Garrison Infantry Brigade commander General Masakazu Kawabe ordered Wanping to be shelled on 9 July. The following day, Japanese armored units joined

6699-462: The two sides. The full-scale civil war resumed from early 1947. After the National Assembly election , the drafted Constitution was adopted by the National Assembly on 25 December 1946, promulgated by the National Government on 1 January 1947, and went into effect on 25 December 1947. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China. Chiang Kai-shek

6786-505: The war of eight years, Japan surrendered and the Republic of China, under the name "China", became one of the founding members of the United Nations . The government returned to Nanjing in 1946. Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II , Taiwan was surrendered to the Allies , with ROC troops accepting the surrender of the Japanese garrison. The government of the ROC proclaimed

6873-405: The war was a massive increase in government control of industries. In 1936, government-owned industries were only 15% of GDP. However, the ROC government took control of many industries in order to fight the war. In 1938, the ROC established a commission for industries and mines to control and supervise firms, as well as instilling price controls. By 1942, 70 percent of the capital of Chinese industry

6960-789: The way, sometimes less than 50 percent reaching camp alive. Then recruit camp was no better, with hospitals resembling Nazi concentration camps like Buchenwald. Probably 3,081,000 died during the Sino-Japanese War; likely another 1,131,000 during the Civil War – 4,212,000 dead in total. Just during conscription. Because of the Nationalist government's increasing inability to fund the military, especially after Japan's success in Operation Ichigo , Nationalist authorities overlooked military corruption and smuggling. The Nationalist army increasingly turned to raiding villages to press-gang peasants into service and force marching them to assigned units. After

7047-538: Was also elected as the 1st President of the Republic of China under the constitution by the National Assembly in 1948, with Li Zongren being elected as vice-president. The Nationalist Government was abolished on 20 May 1948, after the Government of the Republic of China was established with the presidential inauguration of Chiang. The CCP, though invited to the convention that drafted it, boycotted and declared after

7134-405: Was brought down by three Chinese aircraft and crashed at Qiaosi. The Japanese squadron returned to Songshan Air Base at 7:05 p.m., after two planes crashed and one severely damaged due to Chinese attack. At 1:05 p.m., another 9 Mitsubishi G3M bombers took off from Taipei and headed to Guangde via Yongjia. The 22nd Chinese squadron arrived at Guangde at 3:10 p.m. Due to poor weather conditions,

7221-606: Was elected to be China's provisional president and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China . To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai , who established the Beiyang government . After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China , Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefs and rival governments. They were nominally reunified in 1928 under

7308-529: Was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of the Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China of 1948. The oldest surviving republic in East Asia , the Republic of China was formally established on 1   January 1912 in mainland China following the Xinhai Revolution , which itself began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10   October 1911, replacing

7395-425: Was owned by the government. Following the war with Japan, Chiang acquired Taiwan from Japan and renewed his struggle with the Communists. However, the corruption of the KMT, as well as hyperinflation as a result of trying to fight the civil war, resulted in mass unrest throughout the Republic and sympathy for the communists. Nearly all studies of the collapse of the Nationalist government identify hyperinflation as

7482-540: Was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928. Originally organized with Soviet aid as a means for the KMT to unify China against warlordism , the National Revolutionary Army fought major engagements in the Northern Expedition against the Chinese Beiyang Army warlords , in

7569-482: Was the process of conscription. This was a deadly affair in which men were kidnapped for the army, rounded up indiscriminately by press-gangs or army units among those on the roads or in the towns and villages, or otherwise gathered together. Many men, some the very young and old, were killed resisting or trying to escape. Once collected, they would be roped or chained together and marched, with little food or water, long distances to camp. They often died or were killed along

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