The () is the general term for a series of political manoeuvrings Japan undertook in the five provinces of northern China,

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

, Chahar,

Suiyuan Suiyuan () was a historical province of China. Suiyuan's capital was Guisui (now Hohhot). The abbreviation was (pinyin: ). The area Suiyuan covered is approximated today by the prefecture-level cities of Hohhot, Baotou, Wuhai, Ordos, Bayan ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

, and

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

. It was an operation to detach all of northern China from the power of the

Nationalist Government The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT ...

and put it under Japanese control or influence. In China the affair is referred to as the “North China Incident” corresponding only to the time between the series of "North China Autonomy Movements" orchestrated by the Japanese army since May 1935 and the founding of the

Hebei–Chahar Political Council The Hebei–Chahar (or Hopeh-Chahar) Political Council, or Hebei-Chahar Political Commission ( zh, t=冀察政務委員會, p=''Jìchá zhèngwù wěiyuánhuì'', w=''Chi-ch'a chêng-wu wei-yüan-hui''), was a political body established under Gene ...

under

Song Zheyuan Song Zheyuan (; October 30, 1885 – April 5, 1940) was a Chinese general during the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Biography Early life and education Born in the village of Zhaohong, northwest of the seat of Lao ...

in December. It is recognized as ranking alongside the Manchurian Incident, the Shanghai Incident, and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Development of the strategy

Between the winter of 1934 and January 1935 small-scale clashes between the Chinese and Japanese armies were occurring frequently along the cease-fire lines established by the

Tanggu Truce The Tanggu Truce, sometimes called the , was a ceasefire that was signed between military forces of the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan in Tanggu, Tianjin, on May 31, 1933. It ended the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which had begun i ...

and the Japanese army was coming to the view that they needed to clear anti-Japanese forces out of northern China. On 7 December 1934 a decision was reached at a meeting of the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, and Foreign Ministries of Japan concerning issues relating to policy toward China and an agenda was laid out to see to it that the power of the Chinese government did not extend to North China by setting up a pro-Japanese puppet government and extending Japan's economic rights and interests in the area, and by suppressing anti-Japanese sentiments there. In addition, the same policy was also advocated at the

Dalian Dalian ( ) is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China (after Shenyang ...

Conference, a meeting of intelligence operatives working in China and Mongolia hosted by the

Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...

early in January 1935. Thus, the

Japanese China Garrison Army The was formed 1 June 1901 as the , as part of Japan's contribution to the international coalition in China during the Boxer Rebellion. It took the name China Garrison Army from 14 April 1912 and onward, though was typically referred to as th ...

and Kwantung Army concluded two pacts with the Nationalist government backed by their military might, the

He–Umezu Agreement The () was a secret agreement between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan that was concluded on 10 June 1935, two years prior to the outbreak of general hostilities during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Background Since 1931, Japan had ...

of June 10 and the Chin–Doihara Agreement of June 27. The two agreements respectively made Nationalist soldiers and officials withdraw from Hebei, and made the Nationalists and the semi-independent 29th Army pull out of Chahar. The KMT

Wang Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) Wang () is the pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the common Chinese surname (''Wáng''). It has a mixture of various origin with uncertain lineage of family history, however it is c ...

Chiang Chiang may mean: * Chiang, a variant spelling of several Chinese surnames commonly spelled Jiang ** ** * Chi'ang, variant spelling of the ancient Qiang (historical people) () * Chi'ang, variant spelling of the modern Qiang people () in Wenchu ...

Coalition, which came into being in March 1932 with Chiang as Chairman of the National Military Commission and Wang as

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

, made these concessions to Japan through their decision to adopt the policy of “resistance while negotiating”, ''yimian dikang yimian jiaoshe'' in Chinese or the Eight-Character Policy, the name under which Wang promoted it because it comprises eight Chinese characters. This was part of their larger strategy of “first internal pacification, then external resistance” or ''xian annei hou rangwai''.

Formation of puppet governments

In contemporary north China the people had witnessed the remarkable events in Manchuria while dissatisfaction was rising among the citizens and various military cliques due to heavy taxation and exploitation by the Nationalist government. Chiang Kai-shek's leverage in north China receded and in June 1935 Bai Jianwu launched an abortive coup d'état in Fengtai with the aim of establishing a pro-Japanese and pro-Manchukuo government. Political and economic grievances increased among the masses and movements for autonomy gathered momentum in places like Shandong, Shanxi, and Hebei where the Xianghe Incident occurred in October in which peasants disavowed the Nationalist government in opposition to a KMT tax hike and demanded self-government against oppressive taxation. Then, on 3 November 1935 the Nationalists undertook a currency reform with British support and introduced the new silver standard and currency management system, but upon recalling the old currency they confronted more separatist tendencies when the Japanese-backed military leaders of north China refused to hand over the silver.Brett Sheehan, Trust in troubled times: money, banks, and state-society relations in republican Tianjin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 170-171. The Japanese army feared that the currency reform would strengthen of the Chinese government's economic control over north China, and they made efforts to establish a pro-Japanese puppet government in Hebei and Chahar. However, because the Japanese encountered strong resistance from the Nationalist government and because various Chinese military leaders failed to respond to their invitations, on 25 November 1935 they established as a provisional measure the

East Hebei Autonomous Council The East Hebei Autonomous Government (), Japanese also known as the East Ji Autonomous Government and the East Hebei Autonomous Anti-Communist Government, was a short-lived late-1930s state in northern China. It has been described by historians ...

, a government under

Yin Ju-keng Yin Ju-keng; (; Hepburn: ''In Jyokou''; 1885 - December 1, 1947) was a politician in the early Republic of China, later noted for his role as chairman in the Japanese-controlled East Hebei Autonomous Government and subsequent puppet regimes ...

that would have jurisdiction over an area of Hebei Province demilitarized by the Tanggu Truce. Chiang Kai-shek did not recognize Yin's declaration of autonomy and on 18 December 1935, in order to prevent the other factions in northern China from declaring their independence in the same manner, he set up the

under

encompassing Beiping (now Beijing),

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, and the provinces of Hebei and Chahar. In his address upon taking office, Song proclaimed a policy of anti-communism, Sino-Japanese friendship, and respect for the will of the people. At first the East Hebei Autonomous Council thought that the Hebei–Chahar Political Council was a similar type of autonomous body and considered a merger, but this idea was abandoned when they realized that the Hebei–Chahar Political Council was effectively under the control of the Nationalist government and on 25 December they asserted their full autonomy and organized the East Hebei Autonomous Anti-Communist Government. Thus, through the manoeuvrings of Japan, the Nationalist government of China, and a variety of Chinese warlords, two different anti-communist and pro-Japanese autonomous governments were born in northern China. On 13 January 1936 the Japanese cabinet endorsed the First Administrative Policy Toward North China, which made keeping north China separate from the Nationalist government into Japan's official national policy. This policy was reaffirmed in the second and third administrative policies of 11 August 1936 and 16 April 1937.

Aftermath in China

In China frustrations with the government's policies gradually grew. When Wang Jingwei was wounded in an assassination attempt in November 1935 he left the government to recuperate.Hideo Kobayashi and Michio Hayashi、『日中戦争史論　汪精衛政権と中国占領地』、Ocha no Mizushobo、2005、p.45-48 However, at the stage of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

's Fifth Congress the same year Chiang Kai-shek did not yet close the door to a diplomatic solution, stating that "If the tipping point hasn't come, we shouldn't talk about sacrifices. We will not accept infringements on our national sovereignty, but up to that point we should strive for friendly relations and political mediation and should make the utmost efforts for peace." In the middle of April 1936 Japanese decided to reinforce the Japanese China Garrison Army and posted troops in Beiping, Tianjin, and Fengtai in May and June. The Nationalist government notified Japan of its opposition to the move and protests against Japan's policies by civilians and students occurred in Beiping, Tianjin, and other cities. The Chinese people's spirit of resistance towards Japan greatly increased and skirmishes happened repeatedly between Chinese and Japanese forces in the vicinity of Fengtai where the Japanese troops had just been stationed. Furthermore, attacks on Japanese people in places throughout China became frequent. Japan planned to expand the North China buffer state further, but their defeat in the

Suiyuan Campaign The Suiyuan campaign (; ) was an attempt by the Inner Mongolian Army and Grand Han Righteous Army, two forces founded and supported by the Empire of Japan, to take control of the Suiyuan province from the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic ...

only strengthened China's will to resist. After the

Xi'an Incident The Xi'an Incident was a Chinese political crisis that lasted from 12 to 26 December 1936. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalist government of China, was arrested in Xi'an by soldiers of the Northeastern Army under the command of Ge ...

of 12 December 1936, the detention of Chiang Kai-shek by his subordinate

Zhang Xueliang Zhang Xueliang ( zh, t=張學良; June 3, 1901 – October 15, 2001), also commonly known by his nickname "the Young Marshal", was a Chinese general who in 1928 succeeded his father Zhang Zuolin as the commander of the Northeastern Army. He is bes ...

, the Republic of China and the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, with the brokerage of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

, concluded the

Second United Front The Second United Front ( zh, t=第二次國共合作 , s=第二次国共合作 , first=t , l=Second Nationalist-Communist Cooperation, p=dì èr cì guógòng hézuò ) was the alliance between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Co ...

and a definite shift for the Nationalists from anti-communism to resistance against the Japanese.

Works depicting the North China Buffer State Strategy

*''War And Men: Mountains and Rivers of Love and Sorrow'', the second part of a film trilogy directed by

Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director. Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima, Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with Left-wing politics, left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worke ...

and released in 1971.

References

Bibliography