1921 China in Focus
China Insights from when the Communist Party of China was Founded
I want to give the state of China in 1921, when the Communist Party of China was founded.
Let’s start in Beijing and then work clockwise around China. Firstly, we are in the heart of the so-called Warlord Period.
Xu Shichang of the Anhui Clique is President of the Republic. He was in the third year of his four years as President. He would be replaced in 1922 by the Zhili Clique, which was then in control of Beijing. For much of 1921, Jin Yunpeng originally of the Anhui Clique was Premier. But there had been a schism in the Anhui Clique and Jin had the support of the Zhili Clique and the Fengtian Clique, as well as other cliques. At the end of the year, a nonpartisan member was Premier for 6 days and then Liang Shiyi, who was outside of the Anhui Clique, became Premier for about five months. His support included representatives from Guangdong, in south China.
The Premiership changed 34 times between the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916 and the takeover of Beijing by the Nationalists in 1928. Sometimes, a premier would return multiple times, such as Duan Qirui who I have mentioned before. He became Premier five times among those 34 changes. The Presidency changed 14 times during the same twelve-year period. So, the Presidency was a bit more stable. But 14 Presidential changes in 12 years is hardly stable government. Xu was the longest serving President during the period. If you have seen the movie, The Last Emperor, Xu was the President who hired the British Tutor for the young former emperor Puyi. In the movie, the tutor Reginald Johnston was played by Peter O’Toole. In real life, Xu was interested in Puyi’s education in case a constitutional monarchy led by Puyi would be needed.
Perhaps we should not read too much into the Premiership and Presidency during this time. In 1921, we were between the Zhili – Anhui war, which Zhili and their Manchurian allies had won and before the Zhili Manchurian war, when Manchuria lost to Zhili. The Zhili Clique was relatively successful on the battlefield in this time, defeating both the army of Anhui Clique one year before and the Manchurian army, one year later. So, the Premiership depended on the support of the victors on the battlefield.
Moving north and northeast (clockwise) from Beijing, we move up to areas controlled by Zhang Zuolin and his Fengtian Clique. He had allied with the Zhili Clique during the war the previous year and was very powerful. He not only led the three provinces of Manchuria, but also the former imperial hunting grounds immediately north of Beijing around Chengde, as well as Inner Mongolia and Ningxia north and northeast of the capital. So, his territory when the Communist Party was founded, stretched northwest, north and northeast of Beijing. He had important support from the Japanese. But at this point, they were working behind the scenes and Zhang, the Manchurian Warlord, was the King of the North. Japan had annexed Korea, next door to Manchuria, in 1910.
Japan also had taken over Russian possessions in Manchuria after its victory during the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905. It had control of the leased Port Arthur (today’s Dalian). It also had control of the Chinese Eastern Railway and Zone and the South Manchuria Railway and Railway Zone. I say zone, because the area of control was wider than the railway and there were swaths of Japanese controlled land and railways within Manchuria. One link went through Chinese Harbin from Siberia to Vladivostok. Another went south from Harbin to Shenyang, which then branched in three directions. East to Korea. South to Port Arthur. And southwest to Beijing.
And north of Marshal Zhang’s territory was Mongolia and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. It became the USSR in 1922. China still claimed Mongolia and most maps from the Republic of China period showed Mongolia and Tibet as part of China, but not Taiwan (which was under Japanese occupation). In spite of Chinese efforts to regain control of Mongolia, by 1921, Mongolia was independent. In 1921, it was invaded by White Russians who were losing the Russian Civil War. After that, Mongolia was supported by Soviet Russia. When the Mongolian leader died in 1924, it officially became the Mongolian People’s Republic.
Now looking immediately south and east of the capital was Zhili province. Not surprisingly, that was controlled by the Zhili Clique and Cao Kun was its formal leader. The Jade Marshal Wu Peifu was also important as he had defeated the Anhui Clique’s armies in battle the year before.
Moving a bit further southeast, along the coast, is Shandong. It also in 1921 was under the control of the Zhili Clique. However, the former German holdings in that province were in 1921 still controlled by Japan. It was the next year in 1922 when Wellington Koo got the Japanese to give up those claims at the Washington Conference.
The Zhili Clique dominated the area immediately south of Beijing. It controlled Hubei, Henan, Jiangxi and even Anhui province now.
The Anhui Clique’s control had weakened considerably, and they were left with only a few areas along the coast, around Shanghai and in Fujian province.
In 1921, there were foreign concessions in all the important port cities, as well as a foreign legation quarter in Beijing where Chinese law did not apply. These concessions could be found in cities like Dalian, Tianjin, Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou and along the Yangzi in Wuhan. In 1921, the Japanese also had concessions in Hangzhou, Suzhou, Jingzhou and Chongqing, among others. The French also had a concession in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, just north of French Indochina. The British had additional concessions too, including some ports in Shandong and along the Yangzi River. The Chinese were generally treated poorly and as second-class citizens in the concessions. This colonial mentality fueled resentment by Chinese.
Shanghai before the Opium War had about 200,000 people. Now its population in 1921 was just under 2,000,000. About half were living in the foreign concessions. Like in Hong Kong, Chinese made up the vast majority of the population. The foreign concessions in Shanghai were crucial for dissidents and publishers of radical books and newspapers. It should not be surprising that the Communist Party first met in a foreign concession in Shanghai where there was more freedom than in Chinese controlled parts.
Moving south, in 1921, Sun Yat-sen was President of a government in Guangdong province. That’s the Chinese province closest to Hong Kong. It also controlled Hainan Island, the large island south of Guangdong.
Hong Kong was a British colony. More than 95% of its population was Chinese. In 1921, British control had already extended from Hong Kong Island, ceded following the First Opium War to Kowloon, across the Hong Kong harbour, after the Second Opium War. And in 1898, Britain had leased the New Territories north of Kowloon and also on the mainland for 99 years. In 1921, Britain was 23 years into its 99-year lease of the New Territories and firmly in control of Hong Kong. I’m not sure of its population in 1921, but I’ve seen a website claiming its population was 864,000 ten years later in 1931. So, it was a sizable city that had grown from fishing villages under British colonial administration. But it did not yet seem to have a million people.
Macau was an overseas province of Portugal. While the Republic of China was the government that introduced the term “unequal treaties” into its education system and messaging, it recognized British control over Hong Kong and Portuguese control over Macau, at least temporarily. Its population was and remains considerably less than Hong Kong. Hong Kong, including the New Territories, is considerably larger and Macau is very densely populated.
In the far southeast, Taiwan was under Japanese occupation. As earlier mentioned, until the Second World War, the Republic of China didn’t consider Taiwan to even be a territory to be retrieved, like Mongolia or Tibet. In 1921, China considered Taiwan to be part of Japan’s empire.
In 1921, Hunan declared independence. It went from being led by Zhang Jingyao to Tan Yankai. Mao Zedong was there and supported its independence then. He had been critical of its warlord Zhang, who was cruel to farmers, suppressed publications, slashed education spending, lodged troops in schools, seized banks’ assets, smuggled opium, and sold lead mining rights to German and American businessmen. Mao was about 28 years old in 1921. Of course, Mao will be discussed more in future episodes. But having been under a warlord like Zhang, it is easy to see why Mao became anti-establishment in his home province.
Guangxi had its own clique, as did Yunnan, which had a different one. South of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces was French Indochina. The French then controlled what is now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Tibet was de facto independent, but China considered it to be part of the country. It was really operating outside of the warlord struggles, under the leadership of the Dalai Lama.
In the northwest, the Ma Clique, named because their leaders all shared the last name Ma, ruled Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia. They were Chinese Muslims, also known as the Hui and Ma is a Hui shortening of the name Muhammad. Once the Qing abdicated, a Ma was in charge until the People’s Republic of China replaced them in 1949. After 1928, the Ma Clique was allied with Chiang Kai-shek’s Guomindang and fought communists. They were still defeating communists in battle as late as August 1949.
Further out in the northwest is Xinjiang. After the Qing abdication, its governor Yang Zengxin maintained power with the support of the Hui Muslims. It recognized whoever was in power in Beijing but had considerable autonomy. Russian economic interests were very strong in the region and while he warned Muslims about the godless communists, he also was practical and had diplomatic and economic exchanges with the Soviets.
Yan Xishan was firmly in control of Shanxi from 1911 to 1949. He survived by focusing solely on his province and not trying to occupy others. He generally supported whoever was in charge in Beijing, while preserving his local power. He was assisted by the fact that his province is surrounded by mountains on three sides. He had a military education and had spent two years studying in Japan. He became a revolutionary and was appointed Marshal by Sun Yat-sen himself.
Yan was sometimes called the “Model Governor” by westerners. He gave lectures and wrote about his ideas. He was also interviewed. He was rare in that he allowed his troops, mostly locals keen on staying in Shanxi, to practice with live ammunition. They were considered good shots. He also introduced forms of socialism, but also with high taxes, which caused economic decline. And his province also experienced famine. What was noticed was how active Yan was in exploiting coal resources, when other provinces were slow. Public buses and trucks even ran on steam, using the cheap coal. Yan also created an Early Rising Society, built schools, campaigned against opium and tried to eliminate foot binding, although he was resisted by other local officials.
Yu Youren was in charge of Shaanxi in 1921 but would be out in 1922.
The map shows all of Asia. I’ve tried my best to be accurate on the rest of Asia in 1921. But history is complicated and there were lots of things happening in other places, like what is now Saudi Arabia, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia etc. And I called Malaysia British, although it might better be called a British Protectorate as I called some areas in the Middle East. I’ve tried to make the map accurate for 1921, but I’m sure it could be improved. If you have any advice for the map, let me know and I’ll do my best to update it.
I’ve also created two versions. One has today’s provincial and national borders in black for context. The other doesn’t show borders. Please use whichever you prefer.
