THE CHINESE PUZZLE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3381, 4 July 1927, Page 8

THE CHINESE PUZZLE.

FIFTEEN YEARS OF REVOLUTION

(By Howard Florance.)

When w© seek to comprehend that part of the earth’s surface called “China,” in order to understand its present problems, w© must vision a geographical and political unit larger than any other in the world save one, and a people twice as numerous as any other. Russia alone is larger and In|Jia is next most populous. But the vast outlying regions of Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet, comprising two-thirds the area of are sparsely populated, inaccessible, and may be ignored in this discussion. What remains is China proper, divided into eighteen provinces, most of which are involved in the present conflict. They comprise an area half the size of the United States and a people three times as numerous. ' This oldest nation in the world, which

local history and tradition trace back live thousand years, shook off its imperial cloak in 1911 and took on the garments of republicanism; and he who seeks to understand China’s chaos, or China’s progress, need go no farther back.

The great Empress Dowager had been dead three yfears and a Regent was ruling for the boy Emperor, in the last years of the aged Empress a growing spirit of dissatisfaction among enlightened and educated Chinese had resulted in the promise of a representative form of government; a national assembly, indeed, had met. But three years more were to elapse between the meeting of the national assembly and the promised national parliament, and the anti-monarchists chose not to wait. A rebellion in Szechuen spread rapidly until fourteen 'of the eighteen provinces bad declared against the monarchy. A reformer-physician, Dr Sun Yat-sen, was elected Provisional President by a council of provincial delegates at Nanking, in December, 1911. The withdrawal of Dr Sun in favor of the famous Yuan Shi-kai was followed by Yuan’s effort to restore the monarchy with himself as Emperor. First he had himself elected constitutional President of the Republic, in 1913, for a term of five years. Then lie had the length of the presidential term doubled and his powers vastly increased. Finally, he had the question of monarchy referred to a hand-picked group of provincial delegates, who decided for Emperor Yuan. But China was once more aroused. A second rebellion broke out, late in 1915, and within six months Yuan had been completely repudiated, a new provisional government had been established at Canton, and Yuan himself had died.

At reking in the following eight years there were six Presidents, not one of whom served a full term. At can ion the authority of Peking was renounced, and a provisional government was organised in September, iyt7, under the leadership of Sun Yatscn.

The Great War brought a period oi comparative peace to China. Jioth sides made a formal declaration against oermany, though there was no thought of active participation 5 and at the Teaco Conference the Chinese delegates rejected the rewards offered, as insufficient, and refused to sign the treaty. There ensued a period of violent civil strife in China which has not abated lor a single moment. Until the last year this had not been a struggle of the new order against the old, of progressive against conservative, of republican against monarchist. It had beeiffia contest of one militarist against another, for no reason except the age-old desire lor nomination,, and it had witnessed a most extraordinary series of alliances and quarrels among provincial “war lords.’'

In 1920, for example, three great military leaders for northern China were in alliance —Wu Pei-lu, Tsao Kun and Chang Tso-lin. Together they deposed a President and controlled Peking. Two years later, Wu and Chang were at war again, but this time against each other; Chang was delected and retired to Manchuria, his native stronghold* Again two years pass; Wu is abandoned by one of his chief subordinates, and he, too, flees Peking. Two years more, and Chang renews his alliance with Wu.

The same charge of light-hearted allegiance may be made against other military leaders not so prominent. They often change their colors overnight, especially the night before a battle.

For some years following the war the southern revolutionary movement remained dormant, at times Sun Nutson did not control even the region around Canton. But he was constantly preaching his doctrines of nationalism and strengthening his position as leader of Young China. He died in March, 192-3, but he left a will, a widow, and a record. The will asks his followers to “carry on.” His widow travels constantly with the army, a living reminder of the leader who has passed on. His record is clean and clear; he was not merely the foremost leader of the people, he was the only leader. 11 is no exaggeration to say that Sun Yat-sen dead is more potent a factor in China to-day than be could have been had ho lived.

After fourteen years of spasmodic, partial success, the Nationalist movement came to renewed life when a native mob in Shanghai was fifed upon by British-officered police on May 30, 1923, and when fifty Chinese were killed in Canton on June 23, following, by British and French troefps. Southern China was inflamed, and_ anti-foreign-ism became the issue. Under General Chiang Kai-shek a new campaign was undertaken last year against the government which permitted such things to happen. Without a single real battle the march of the Nationalist army northward toward Peking proceeded unchecked, until Shanghai and Nanking were occupied late in March. IS IT DUALLY BOLSHEVISM?

When tlie monarchy was overthrown in China in 1911, a political party, known as the Kuomintang, at once came into prominence. It was horn • then, though it traces .its existence ; hack some years to a secret political organisation. Kuo means nation, min means people, tang (or tong) means association or society; and the whole may be translated as the National People’s Party. Its domestic policies are mild enough to lie accepted by any American, though they seem to the Chinese to be Utopia itself. Its foreign policies are few but positive: All treaties not based on tlie principle of equality are to lie abrogated. No foreign loan shall be repudiated unless detrimental to political and economic rights, or contracted by an irresponsible government for improper purposes. Besides the formal platform of the party, even more respected and more frequently quoted are tbo “Three Principles of the People,” which Sun Yatsen reduced to writing. His principles- Nationalism, Democracy, Socialism—are explained in great detail, laying out an improved form of democratic government. Political agression and economic oppression by foreigners wore alike exposed and condemned.

When Dr Sun Yat-sen was fighting the old order in China and pleading for sympathetic support abroad, he met the most favorable response from Russia. The whole world accuses the Soviet Government of scheming to spread the doctrines of communism, and Mos-

cow surely turned a responsive ear toward Sun. In fact, it adopted him, body and soul. Had Dir Sun lived he might have kept Bolshevism out of the Kuomintang, for as late as January, 1923, he issued a signed statement that “the Communistic order or even the Soviet system cannot actually be introduced in China because there do not

exist here the conditions for the successful establishment of either Sovietism or Communism.” \ '

At that time, Joffe, a masterful Russian diplomat, was envoy to China; and he played the Soviet game well. Not long afterward came the astute Michael Borodin, who for four years has been Russian adviser to the Kuo-

mintang. How far his suggestions prevailed may be judged by the fact that from August, 1925, to April, 1927, the radical element in the party had been in control and Soviet methods were quite plainly, and increasingly, in vogue. Even the great military of the Nationalist movement, Chiang Kaishek, took orders from a committee at political headquarters. Last mouth, after the capture of Shanghai, he received a letter from the Central Political Council of the Central Executive Committee of Kuomintang, not of praise and commendation, but intimating that it was not his job to talk policies, and directing him to press on after the retreating northern armies. Chiang is different from Trotsky, however; he refused to be suppressed. On April 15 he turned the tables and ordered the arrest of the Russian Borodin and the whole radical group. The working classes in China have been organised, as in Russia, until there are 455 labor unions in the city of Canton alone. Just as the Russians worship the dead Lenin, so the Chinese worship the memory of Dr Sun. The pictures of both, and of Karl Marx as well, adorn the walls of Kuomintang headquarters. The crowning achievement of Bolshevist diplomacy is the founding of Sun Yat-sen University —at Moscow. Several hundred young Chinese, the future leaders of their country, are here being educated under the direction of Karl Radek and amid the ultra-Bol-shevist environment of the Soviet capital. That they are selected with care may be taken for granted. The institution is now completing its second year. Nothing seems more certain than that the Bolshevist leaders of Russia, looking around for more worlds to conquer, chuckled with great glee when they heard the Nationalist chiefs knocking at the door in Moscow, in 1922. The mouse was walking right into the trap. And Michael Borodin may well be considered the worjd’s greatest salesman by his achievements of the past four years in selling Bolshevism to the Chinese people. Those who feared the consequences of a spread of Soviet ideas westward in Europe and rested more easily when they failed thus to spread, should ponder over the possibilities of the present situation. Here are the adjoining countries of Russia and China, comprising 22 per cent, of the earth’s surface and 30 per cent, of its people, all in danger of coming under the control of a handful of radicals. Success for them in China means merely that India would be next to receive attention. The population of Russia, China, and India equals that of all the rest oi the world combined. THE ANTI-FOREIGN PHASE.

A political crusade to be successful should have a war-cry. .“Down with the Mauchus” served the purpose of the Nationalist movement in China until the Mauchus had been downed. Then the cause lagged, almost disappeared, and as recently as 1922 the southern leader did not control his own province. A new slogan was needed. During the Great War, China was humiliated by an ultimatum from Japan, known as the Twenty-one Demands, presented in January, 1913. The other Powers were occupied elsewhere, and China was obliged to grant most of the demands.

Then came peace and the Versailles Conference, and Chinese pride again was wounded to such an extent that her delegates refused to sign the peace treaty.

Finally, there was the Washington Conference of 1921-22. Though known as the naval disarmament conference, it also related to unsettled Pacilic questions. In the Nine Power Treaty arranged then at Washington, the Powers expressed sympathy with •China’s desire to remove limitations

upon political and administrative free dom.

Then, on May 30, 1923, came an un

fortunate incident at Shanghai. A strike had been called among Chinese workers in a Japanese-owned textile establishment. There was a mob, the mob was advancing, the native police opened hie, and several Chinese were killed. It happened that a British officer apparently gave the command to fire. Fifty Chinese lost their lives soon afterward at Canton, in what is known as the Shameen massacre, and again Britain received the blame. These incidents passed and quiet was restored, but their effect on the Nationalist movement cannot be measured. It should bo mentioned that students, not laborers, played the leading part in those Shanghai riots. China for many years has had a

bothersome thorn in its flesh, the unequal treaty. In times long past, under conditions now changed, it was forced to accept-dictation by the Powers. It permitted them to set up their own courts —so that an American, for example, who commits a crime against a native is tried in an American court, often by a consul. It permitted the Powers to limit the duty upon goods imported into China, and even to collect the Customs and turn over only what remained .after the interest on foreign debts had been paid. Tariff duties in America are so vital a concern to the citizen that the question of high or low tariff has dominated presidential campaigns. In China the citizen has never had to worry about such matters, for the foreign Powers fix tlie duty. For years no British. American, or German wares sold in China (nor those of any other country) could he taxed more than 3J per cent. At the Washington Conference China asked that it be permitted to collect 12 1 per cent., and the Powers graciously allowed 5. It is needless to add that China has no voice in determining the import duties of any other nation.

These unilateral treaties are all of long standing, inflicted upon a China far different from that of the present day. Some of them run on forever.

Take the one between Cliina and Belgium as an instance. Signed in 186-5, more than sixty years ago, it granted one-way privileges to Belgium and nothing at nil to China. That ought to have been' inequality enough, but a final clause is quoted in part for the leader;—■

“If henceforth the Government of his Majesty the King of the Belgians

should deem it useful to modify some of the clauses of the present treaty, it would be free to open negotiations after the lapse of ten years. . . . . . Should there be no such official notice the treaty shall remain in force.” It seems never to have occurred to his Majesty’s Government, at that time or since, that the Government of the People of China might deem it useful to modify some of the clauses of the treaty. China decided to make a test case of the Belgian Treaty, and abrogated it as of October 27, 1926. It should be remembered ' that on this question of unequal treaties China is united. The only difference is that the North would terminate the treaties one. at a time with duo notice in advance, whereas the South would be more precipitate. “China lor the Chinese” has become the new slogan. Great Britain, on December 18, announced to the other Powers its readiness to negotiate treaty revision “as soon as the Chinese themselves have constituted a government with authority to negotiate.” The American Secretary of State, on January 26, declared this Government ready to negotiate on the entire subject of tariff and extra-territoriality. “The only question is with whom it shall negotiate.” In addition to these matters of tariff and consular courts, there is another situation objectionable *to Chinese, growing out of what are known as “concessions.” As a result of the socalled Opium War, Great Britain obtained areas in the important cities of Canton, Hankow, Tientsin, and elsewhere, under perpetual leaseholds with rental amounting to less than ten dollors an acre. These concessions are in effect small foreign kingdoms; lately the entrances have been barricaded' and the whole surrounded with barbedwire entanglements. When the Nationalist troops, elated with victory, entered Hankow on January 3, some of them listened to agitators who cried out against the foreigners. The British concession was invaded and a situation was created at once so serious, that the British residents completely withdrew. Now the Nationalist Government acts as though the concession had ceased to exist. Incidents no worse caused Britain to declare war against China in tfife middle of the last century.