Durham E-Theses Song Zheyuan, the Nanjing government and the north china question in Sino-Japanese relations, 1935-1937 Dryburgh, Marjorie E. How to cite: Dryburgh, Marjorie E. (1993) Song Zheyuan, the Nanjing government and the north china question in Sino-Japanese relations, 1935-1937, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5777/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Song Zheyuan, the Nanjing Government and the North China Question in Sino-Japanese Relations, 1935-1937. Abstract The focus of this study is the relationship between the Chinese central government and Song Zheyuan, the key provincial leader of North China, in the period immediately preceding the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the impact of tensions in that relationship on Japan policy. The most urgent task confronting the Chinese government in the late 1930s was to secure an equitable and formally-negotiated settlement of outstanding questions with the Tokyo government. The efforts of the Nanjing government are examined in terms of the divisions within the government and in the context of the public debate on Japan policy which was extended to cover fundamental questions of the regime's diplomatic maturity and the function of diplomacy in the new state. However, the Sino-Japanese question was not purely a diplomatic issue. Tensions between central and northern regional authorities and continuing provincial independence combined with persistent political and military interventions by the Japanese armies in North China to undermine the initiatives of the centre as the lack of an effective central Japan policy eroded regional confidence in the centre. By 1935 Nanjing's control in the North was breaking down and the initiative in contacts with Japan in the region passed to provincial leaders: Song Zheyuan emerged as a key figure in relations with Japan. In 1935-7 Song occupied all the significant political and military offices in Hebei and Chaha'er provinces. Nanjing was entirely dependent on Song for the defence of the North, yet Song remained ambivalent towards Nanjing and Japan, berating the central authorities for their 'abandonment' of the North while maintaining close contact with the Japanese military. While he had no formal role in foreign affairs, his informal function in the relations with Japan demands closer attention. Song Zheyuan, the Nanjing (Government and the North China Question in Sino-Japanese Relations, 1935-1937 Marjorie E. Dryburgh Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. University of Durham, Department of East Asian Studies 1993 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. SJUU99- Contents Volume I List of abbreviations used in text Introduction 1 Chapter I: The Debate on Sino-Japanese Rapprochement 14 (January-May, 1935) Chapter II: The Japanese Advance in North China 43 (January-April, 1935) Chapter III: The Hebei and Chaha'er Crises 61 (May-June, 1935) Chapter IV: Relations with Tokyo Reassessed 86 (June-December, 1935) Chapter V: The North China Autonomy Movement (I) 121 (August-October, 1935) Chapter VI: The North China Autonomy Movement (II) 145 (November-December, 1935) Chapter VII: Song Zheyuan and the Hebei-Chaha'er Political Council 168 (January-June, 1936) Chapter VIII: Zhang Qun as Foreign Minister 192 (January-December, 1936) Chapter IX: Stalemate in North China 220 (July-December, 1936) Chapter X: Sino-Japanese Diplomacy: the Last Phase 235 (January-June, 1937) Chapter XI: North China on the Eve of War 259 (January-July, 1937) Chapter XII: The Lugouqiao Incident 277 (July-August, 1937) Chapter XIII: The Brussels Conference and the Failure of Mediation 297 (October, 1937 - January, 1938) Conclusions 317 Volume n Maps 1 Appendices: I: Special Administrative Structures in North China, 1932-1937 4 II: Chinese and Japanese versions of the Datan Agreement, February 2nd, 1935 8 III: Japanese Cabinet Resolution on China Policy, October 4th, 1935 9 IV: Probable Origin of the Thirteen Japanese Demands 10 V: Pro-Autonomy Organisations in North China, December 1935 11 VI: On the establishment of a Japanese consulate at Zhengzhou 13 VII: Summary of discussions between Zhang Qun and Japanese Embassy personnel, January- December, 1936 14 VIII: The Kawagoe memorandum, December 3rd, 1936 19 IX: China's Appeal to the League of Nations: from the Covenant of the League of Nations 26 X: Primary Sources: List of Documents 28 Glossary 69 Bibliography 78 Declaration No material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted by me for any other degree at this or any other university. Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Acknowledgements An exhaustive list of people who have contributed to the production of this thesis would be impossible. I would like to acknowledge the help of the staff of the libraries of Durham and Cambridge Universities, the School of Oriental and Studies and the British Libraries, as well as of the Second Historical Archive of China in Nanjing, Nanjing University Library, Beijing City Library and the China National Library. Much of the research for this project was supported by a British Academy studentship; archival work in the PRC was made possible through a State Education Commission Senior Advanced Scholarship administered by the British Council and generous additional support from the University of Durham Council Fund, and the Japan Foundation provided support for the completion of the work; I would like to express my thanks to all of these institutions. At the Department of East Asian Studies in Durham, thanks go to Don Starr for encouraging me to embark on this project in the first place and to Keith Pratt for supervising its initial stages; at Nanjing University to Professor Zhang Xianwen, Dr. Shen Xiaoyun and Ms. Chai Ping for advice, practical help and moral support, and elsewhere to Drs Hans van de Ven and Paul Bailey for advice on archives and to Cai Dejin and Shao Yunrui for new perspectives on research in modern Chinese history. My parents and my brother - as always - were a constant source of support, moral and otherwise. Thanks also to Hilary Chung and Naomi Standen who provided company and vital encouragement. Two people have won my gratitude and admiration for contributions beyond the call of duty to this thesis: my supervisor, Mike Dillon, for his constructive advice - particularly in suggesting Song Zheyuan as the focus of the work - and his boundless generosity with his time; and my husband, Michael, for providing balance and enduring both my absences and my presence for the past four years. Abbreviations used in Text BMC Beiping Branch Military Council (Junweihui Beiping fenhui) CEC Central Executive Committee (Zhongyang zhixing weiyuanhui) CPC Central Political Council (Zhongyang zhengzhi huiyi) GDA Guandong Army (Kanto gun) MAC Military Affairs Commission (Junshi weiyuanhui) NCGA North China Garrison Army (Tianjin Army) (Kahoku chuton gun) PAC Beiping Political Affairs Commission {Beiping zhengwu zhengli weiyuanhui) PPC Peace Preservation Corps {bao 'andui) Song Zheyuan, the Nanjing Government and the North China Question in Sino-Japanese Relations, 1935-1937 Introduction. The focus of this study is the development of Japan policy and the conduct of relations with Japan by the Chinese central government, the impact upon that development by tensions between centre and region, and the effect on the centre-region relationship of Japanese regional intervention in the years 1935-1937. Between 1935 and 1937, after three years of diplomatic inactivity, the Nanjing government finally adopted a more active approach to Japan policy, only to find that its previous rejection of direct diplomatic negotiations with the Japanese as futile had been entirely accurate. Diplomatic contacts were renewed and formal advances made, but to no avail: attempts at formal negotiations failed and the position adopted by the central government became irrelevant as the actions and allegiances of a hitherto obscure provincial governor. Song Zheyuan, emerged as a decisive factor in the future of relations between China and Japan. The traditional view of Nanjing's Japan policy is that, for Chiang Kai-shek and the Nanjing government, resistance to Japanese aggression took second place to the struggle against domestic enemies, that Chiang appeased the Japanese in order to free his armies for the encirclement campaigns against the Communists, that only his arrest by Zhang Xueliang at Xi'an in December 1936 forced Chiang to suspend the anti- Communist campaigns and adopt a policy of resistance, and that it was this one shift in policy that brought about the clash of Chinese nationalism and Japanese imperialism which sparked off the eight-year long war in July 1937.' Within this framework, disputes over Japan policy are presented primarily as ideological disputes between the 1. See for example Liu, (1950), Sino-Japanese diplomacy in the Appeasement Period. 1933-1937. PhD thesis. University of Pittsburgh; Coble, Parks M.