East Asia, The Modern Transformation notes

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Notes from

East Asia, The Modern Transformation
by John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig

The Washington Conference of 1921-1922 came from a U.S. initiative to achieve a postwar settlement in the Far East. One reason the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Versailles Treaty was Japanese retention of Shantung. Japan cooperated in the new conference nad gave up her gains from the war [WPM: note the British and French Empires gave up neither their territorial gains nor their colonies]. The Conference treaty broke the Anglo-Japanese alliance. The 5:5:3 naval ratio for British, U.S. and Japanese empires was agreed to, with "the proviso that no Anglo-American naval bases would be developed east of Singapore or west of Hawaii." [WPM: which the U.S. later violated in its Philippines colony] Japan agreed to withdraw from Shantung and from Siberia, where they had been fighting the Bolsheviks. Japan was assured of naval supemacy in the western Pacific. The Nine-Power Treaty of 1922 formally endorsed the Open Door policy in China.[675]

"The United States Exclusion Act of 1924 poisoned American-Japanese relations." [676]

Joseph Stalin, from early on, advocated Chinese Communist cooperation with the Kuomintang. [677]

In September 1923 Sun Yat-sen demanded that the Western Powers use the local customs surplus to fund his government. He was refused and "the treaty powers in December concentrated fifteen naval vessels at Canton to prevent his seizing the Customs." Does not say if U.S. vessels involved. [679]

Anti-foreign agitation peaked in China in 1924-1927, and an international force of 40,000 occupied Shanghai [no mention of which nations]. The Powers made some concessions, including allowing Canton to collect customs surtaxes. "When Nationalist troops, taking Nanking on March 24, killed six foreigners, British and American gunboats laid down a protective barrage." The U.S. State department maintained neutrality in the Chinese civil war. In July 1928 the U.S. signed a new tariff treaty recognizing the Nationalist government in Nanking, whose foreign minister, C. T. Wang, was a graduate of Yale. [688-689]

China recovered tariff autonomy in 1933, but extraterritoriality continued. [689]

Chiang Kai-Shek gradually made himself indespensible to the Nationalist government. He was married to Soong Mei-ling, a Methodist graduate of Wellesley who was the sister of Sun Yat-sen's widow and a member of the American-educated Soong banking dynasty. [693]

Wang Ching-wei was the leader of the left wing of the Kuomintang, but was forced out of power by Chiang from 1928-1931, who preferred to work with right-wing leader Hu Han-min. Wang and Hu joined to oust Chiang briefly in 1931, but Chiang was needed to fight the Japanese. Wang and Chiang shared leadership from 1932 to 1935. Hu died in 1936. Chiang became supreme leader again in 1938. Wang considered himself the political heir of Sun Yat-sen, who had been pro-Japanese, and allied with the Japanese starting in 1938. [693]

"Having dispensed with the Soviet military mission in 1927, Chiang shifted to German advisors and the German military structure." After the Nazi takeover, "German military aid from 1933 was planned out by the former commander of the Reichswehr (General von Seeckt), who stressed the building of a high-quality officer corps with a unified command and clear lines of organization." The German mission included some 70 officers. The central army they trained grew to "a crack force of 300,000." While modern German-type weapons production was also initiated, the Germans in China taught strategy and tactics based on World War I style trench warfare. [697]

Continued on East Asia Transformation Page 7

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