CHINA'S NATIONHOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19698, 26 July 1927, Page 12

CHINA'S NATIONHOOD.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS.

THE AIMS OF THE PATRIOTS.

CHINESE POINT OF VIEW.

BT T. Z. KOO. i No. I. ' Mr. T. Z. Koo is one of the most, outstanding personalities in China to-day. He is well known in Bi-itain and America, and has represented China on the League of Nations' Opium Commission. The New Zealand Student Christian Movement had planned for him to visit the Dominion in March and April of this year, hut he was persuaded to remain in Shanghai because of the difficult situation there. He is trusted by the Nationalists and by the British and his voice is heeded by both sides. Now he has been urgently called to America by the Chinese Embassy there, who want him to correct false reports about China which have been made public. Feeling that this was for the moment the best service he could render his country, T. Z. Koo set out for America at the end of March. He will bo at Honolulu in August for the Pacific Area Student Conference, to which the New Zealand Student Christian Movement is sending four delegates. The articles contributed bv Mr. Koo have been provided by the New Zealand Student Christian Movement. Events of the greatest significance arc happening in China to-day in such rapid succession that people are becoming obsessed with a sense of bewilderment when they try to follow the ever-changing situation. The following paragraphs are written in the hope that they will help those interested in China's welfare to reach a clearer conception of what is really taking place in our country. The First Fifteen Years. Our understanding of the present situation in China will be greatly helped when we have grasped the historical significance of the first 15 years in the life of the young Republic. Briefly summarised, three distinct periods are noticeable in these 15 years. The first period. When the Manchus abdicated in 1911 after a short struggle with the Revolutionary Party, the Republic of China was proclaimed with Dr. Sun Yat Sen as the first President of Nanking. This was hailed all over the country with great rejoicing as heralding the dawn of the democratic era in old Cathay. But the high hopes entertained then were not fulfilled. On the advice of his followers but against his own conviction, Dr. Sun yielded his Presidency to Yuan Shih Kai in 1912. By this action, the real revolution suffered a setback, the effect of which has taken us all these 15 years to overcome. Dr. Sun was persuaded to relinquish the Presidency in favour of Yuan Shih Kai on the ground that the revolution, having achieved its purpose in the abdication of the Manchu dynasty, now needed a man of proved administrative ability and experience to build up the new Republic. By common consent that man was Yuan Shih Kai rather' than Sun Yat Sen. What we were too blind to see at the time was that Dr. Sun, however inexperienced in political administration ho might be, nevertheless was the product of the revolution, and did represent in his person '.he spirit of progressive China. With him as President, real changes in the political thought and life of the Chinese people would have been possible, because in the eyes of the people he would stand out in bold relief as a definite break with the past. Yuan Shih Kai, on the other hand, while a great and able administrator, was the product of the Imperial system and typified in his person the spirit of the status quo. As soon as he took over the Presidency all those among our people who were not prepared to pay the cost of real change heaved a sigh of relief, for they now felt assured that the old order would remain. And they were right. The old order has remained all these 15 years in spite of the revolution. Cliques and Parties. The second period. This period of four years, 1913-1916, was centred round Yuan Shih Kai. As soon as he took over the Presidency he immediately began with consummate skill to consolidate his own position. Yuan accomplished this by placing his own most trusted generals as governors of the most important provinces of China. This process went on until 1916, when he felt himself strong enough to declare a new monarchy for China under the title of Hung Hsien, with himself as the first Emperor. In doing this, however, Yuan Shih Kai overreached ' himself and his carefxdlv laid plans of several years collapsed around him like a house of cards. This period closed with his death. The third period. The next period of ten years, 1916-1925, Was characterised by a series of internal wars. The generals appointed by Yuan Shih Kai began to fight among themselves for wealth and power soon after his death. It was in this period that the great militarist factions like the Anfu Clique, the Chihli Party and the Moukden Party arose to struggle against each other for supremacy. The net result in this period of internal strife was the breakdown of the authority of the Central Government. Peking became the political prize for each militarist faction as it rose in power. Instead of being the ' national capital, Peking became the property of the dominant military faction. In a sense, therefore, China has not had a central government for the last decade. The Rise of the Nationalist Movement.

But all through these fifteen years, while Yuan Shih Kai was busy maturing his plans for the monarchy, and while his generals after him were carrying on that senseless series ofyinternal wars, a strong undercurrent of a totally different nature was slowly gathering strength in the nation. Year after year the people have watched and. suffered with what was, to the Western mind, incredible apathy the gros& mismanagement of the affairs of their own nation, both internally and externally. Those years of political turmoil, however, were not suffered in vain. For slowly through these years it was borne in upon the consciousness of the people that unless they begin to express some interest and to demand a share in the government of their nation, the state of affairs was not going to improve. It was this awakening which laid the foundation for the present Nationalist movement. Three fairly distinct stages in this awakening can be traced. During the earlier years of the Republic up to 191-0 the awakening was confined largely to the student and more intelligent merchant classes of China. The lugh points in this period which focussed attention and roused feeling in a national way were the Twenty-one Demands of Japan and the Versailles Peace Treaty. While the central government remained powerless on both occasions, the students and merchants of the countrv combined in an economic boycott of Japan as a protest against the Twenty-one Demands, and in a national strike to compel our peace delegation in Paris to withdraw from the conference as a protest against the settlement of the Shantung question. From 1919 to 1925, the awakening entered its second Stage when the labouring classes of China were reached. Beginning in South China, the tide of Nationalism swept steadily northward through the ranks of labour. From an incoherent mass labour in China to-day has become a powerful group to be reckoned with in any national crisis. The two events which stood out in this period as Yallying points in the consciousness of the people were the seamen's strike in Hongkong in 1923, and (lie May 30 shooting affair in Shanghai in 1925. Both events served to intensify and deepen the already growing national consciousness of the Chinese people, particularly in the ranks of labooiu