China Background- 20th Century and beyond
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Lakebridge Community
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai
                         CHINA(People’s Republic) – TAIWAN (National Republic)
                                                Conflict Chronology1915 – Sun Yat-sen leads revolution to overthrow 300-year-old Ming dynasty and establish      Western-style Democracy in China1925 – Chiang Kai-shek (Nationalist) and Mao Tse-tung (Communist) form uneasy alliance to govern China following death of Dr. Sun. 1927 – Chiang betrays Mao, orders massacre of thousands of Mao followers.1934-35 – Mao leads 100,000 troops over a Long March of 3,700 miles and 370 days fromJiangxi province near the coast to Yunnan province in the mountainous northwest, harassed all the way by Chiang’s Nationalists. Only 7,000 troops survive the march.1939 – Japan invades China, Chiang and Mao stop fighting each other to concentrate on fighting  the invaders.1941 – December 7 – Japan executes sneak attack on U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.U.S. declares war on Japan. 1945 – June 26 – Nations of the free world meet in San Francisco to establish the Charter of the United Nations, pledged to eliminate war from the world. Along with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, China is awarded a place on the UN Security Council with veto power over proposals passed by the UN General Assembly.Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek signs for China.               July 16 – United States scientists explode the first Atomic Bomb at Alamagordo, New   Mexico test site.            August 6 – United States Air Force personnel explode the second atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, obliterating the city and killing over 100,000 civilians.            August 9 – United States Air Force personnel explode third atomic bomb over Nagasaki, Japan with equally devastating results. Japan surrenders, ending World War II.            August 9 – World War II ends, Chinese Civil War resumes.1949 – October. Mao’s Communists defeat Chiang’s Nationalists, People’s Republic of China established. Chiang escapes the mainland with 1 million followers to the Island of      Formosa (now called Taiwan), 150 miles across the Formosa Strait. Chiang fortified the 8-mile offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu with the avowed intention of reconquering China.            October – The Soviet Union explodes an atomic bomb. The Cold War begins.1950 – January – U.S. President Harry Truman announces that the United States will no longer support Chiang Kai-shek, and will not be involved in the Formosa Strait dispute.            June 25 – North Korea invades South Korea, Truman sends U.S. 7^th Fleet to the Formosa       Strait to prevent either Chiang or Mao from launching an attack. In the absence of a        Soviet veto (Ambassador Malik was boycotting the Council in protest of the UN refusal       to admit the People’s Republic of China), the Security Council passed a resolution             condemning the North Korean aggression. Truman orders General MacArthur in Tokyo            to send U.S. troops to Korea.            November – Several hundred thousand Chinese Communists troops strike viciously and            unexpectedly across the Yalu river against United Nations (mostly U.S.) forces in      northern Korea.1953 – March 5 – Joseph Stalin dies.            July 27 – Armistice signed at Panmunjon, North Korea – remains in place today, November 2008.1954 – 11 August – 01 May 1955 –  First Taiwan Strait Crisis. Chiang moves 58,000 troops to China off shore island Quemoy, and 15,000 to Matsu.             September – Communists begin artillery bombardment of Quemoy. U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend using nuclear weapons against China.             This is the background for Max Blue’s novel     COLD FRONT PASSING HOKKAID0
1958 – The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. 29 August -01 January 1959,            Following the first crisis, U.S. President Eisenhower provided the Nationalists with air-  to-air missiles and 8-inch howitzers capable of firing tactical nuclear shells. Next, the Koumintang was given surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads up to 600 miles. Soviet Premier Khrushchev was advising Mao Tse-tung at this time that nobody could   win a nuclear war, but Mao claimed that at least half the Chinese population would survive such a war and resumed a massive artillery bombardment of      Quemoy and Matsu. Here was Cold War sabre rattling at its most alarming: Mao declared    his intention to “liberate” Taiwan, Eisenhower sent in the U.S. 7^th fleet with orders to defend Taiwan, and Khrushchev, in a letter to Eisenhower, wrote that an attack on China would be viewed as an attack on the USSR. Then everybody took a deep breath and the crisis abated. One consequence of the episode was the resourcefulness of the embattled      Quemoy citizens: they recycled the steel from the near half-million shells fired at them into kitchen knives. It was possible to produce 60 Quemoy Cleavers from one bomb shell. Swords into plowshares.1964 – 16 October. PRC becomes the world’s fifth nation to possess atomic weapons with the explosion of a fission bomb. 1969-1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger pursue rapprochement with the PRC.1971 – After 10 years of attempts by UN General Assembly nations friendly to the PRC to transfer China’s seat at the UN from the ROC to the PRC, a resolution is passed to bring   this about. The resolution withdrew recognition of the ROC as the legitimate govern-ment of China. Because the resolution was on an issue of credentials rather than membership, it was possible to bypass the Security Council where the ROC could have used its veto. 1975 – 05 April – Chiang Kai-shek dies            09 September – Mao Tse-tung dies1979 – Under President Jimmy Carter, the U.S. establishes diplomatic relations with the PRC and severs diplomatic relations with the Nationalist Chinese government in Taiwan. The U.S. agrees to accept Taiwan as a province of The People’s Republic of China and the PRC agrees not to stage a military invasion of Taiwan. In reality not much has changed since the U.S. and Taiwan maintain semi-diplomatic relations.1987 – July – Taiwan, the National Republic of China, lifts Martial Law after 38 years.            October – Taiwan Minister of Interior announces that travel permits to Communist China  are now available. 1989 – June 3-4, The Chinese Government, under orders from Premier Dung Shao-ping, uses   lethal force to retake Beijing’s Tienanmen Square from student protestors, 1,500 deaths result.            December 2 – Taiwan, enjoying an economic miracle, holds first true, multiparty, competitive, democratic elections to fill seats in national legislative, provincial, county,   and city offices.1990 – March 24, First trade association of Taiwan businessmen is established in Beijing.1995 – The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.            Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui accepts an invitation from his alma mater, Cornell University to speak on “Taiwan’s Democritization Experience”. President Lee thinks he  has a mandate from the Taiwan electorate to continue pushing for an independent Taiwan, but a substantial minority in the country think otherwise. The Democratic Progressive Party features a staunch unification Presidential candidate named Lin Yang- kang. U. S, President Bill Clinton sends mixed signals – in response to the PRC using the area around Taiwan for missile target practice, Clinton sends two Carrier Battle Groups         to Taiwan, while refusing a visa to President Lee to pacify the PRC.  The U.S. Congress overrules their President on this and sees to it that Lee gets to speak at Cornell.1997 – June 30, Hong Kong is officially returned to China. Chinese Premier Dung Shao-ping declares that Hong Kong will maintain its prosperity and rule of law under what he calls a “one country, two systems” arrangement. Taiwan President Lee says that this arrangement can not apply to Taiwan.  1998 – On the Taiwan issue, President Clinton embraces the three no’s – 1. No two Chinas,             2. No Taiwan Independence, 3. No UN membership for Taiwan.    2000 – March 18 – Taiwan holds its second free presidential elections. Fifty years of    Kuomintang rule of Taiwan is ended with the election Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-bian.             International arms sales continue: Russia to PRC; PRC to North Korea, Libya, Iran, and Pakistan; U.S. to Taiwan. Nuclear, chemical, biological weapons, and ballistic missile technology all in the stew.            June 20 – Taiwan President Chen invites PRC President Jiang Zemin to a peace summit.            The issue of Taiwan independence is muted and Ziang accepts the invitation.2001 – April 24 – U.S. President George W. Bush states that the United States of America will do whatever it takes to help Taiwan defend itself against China. Bush approves the    largest package of arms sales in ten years to Taiwan.            July 10 – President Chen rejects a Beijing offer to reunify under a Hong Kong-style, one country, two systems formula.            Taiwan now has a two-party system – the Kuomintang (KMT) which supports eventual  reunification with China, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which supports Independence. National elections give the DPP an 87 to 68 seat majority in the legislature.2003 – At the same time saber-rattling and arms sales continue, Taiwan lawmakers consider legislation to permit Chinese currency to be used in Taiwan.    2008 – March – Taiwan elects Ma Ying-jeou President on his promise to ease tensions with China and forge closer trade ties. He also promised not to begin unification negotiations during his four-year term.            November – Chen Yunlin, the highest ranking Chinese official ever to visit Taiwan, signs an agreement allowing planes and ships to travel directly across the Taiwan Strait instead of first detouring to Hong Kong or Okinawa. The unification issue is avoided, but is not forgotten as the U.S, continues to provide Apache Helicopters and Patriot Missiles to Taiwan now that they can afford to pay for them.                     

China Background - The Long March
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Election day
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai

Since last post, on October 19, the World has turned at a furious pace. For only the second time in their 125-year-old history, the Phillies of Philadelphia, a National League Baseball team, has mastered all opposition, won 11 of 14 post-season games, and become Champions of United States Baseball. It is still called the World Series in spite of the fact that professional baseball league play now takes place in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, England, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and I've probably left out some. Whatever. The Phillies are Champions. World bleeping Champions in the deathless words of star second baseman Chase Utley.

 And Max Blue is under orders from the Marvelous Miranda to clean up his blog. So here goes:

When last we looked at China history it was about the tumultuous 1930s and nothing was more tumultuous than the storied LONG MARCH. If Chiang Kai-shek had been able to stop it, to prevent Mao Tse-tung from completing the 3,700 mile, 370 day trek from Kiangsi province to Yunnan province in the mountainous northwest, the history of China would have been different. God knows he tried. Mao and Chu teh began the march with 100,000 troops and their families, only 7,000 survived. Only the tough survived. The stout-hearted. "Start me with 10 who are stout-hearted men, and I'll soon give you 10,000 more." The Chinese Communists, still getting help from their Soviet comrades, gathered themselves in Yunnan and girded for a new beginning.

In 1939 when the Japanese undertook a full-scale invasion of China, ransacking, pillaging, and brutalizing civilian populations, Mao Tse-tung, and Chiang Kai-shek came to a reluctant and uncertain agreement to stop fighting each other and concentrate on ridding the beleagured Middle Kingdom of the ruinous Japanese menace. This is where the novel COLD FRONT PASSING HOKKAIDO picks up the story.    

 

 

China Background - The tumultuous 1930s
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: maybe
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai

The competition is fierce - Phillies in World's Series - Elections 16 days away.

To recap - why China Background? Max Blue's novel COLD FRONT PASSING HOKKAIDO is concerned with a small piece of 20th century Chinese history from 1950 to 1955. For a better appreciation of the events described in the novel, some knowledge of how China arrived at these mid-century crises seemed helpful.

The last post ended in 1932 with the entry of Japanese soldiers in Manchuria and Shanghai, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's reluctance to engage them. The Japanese of course had been in China for a long time, involved, among other things, with the narcotics trade - opium, heroin, morphine. "Big Eared" Tu has been mentioned before in these posts, so it is no surprise that he was a prime-player in this trade. Just about everything related to anything related to money in China at this time had his mark on them - banks, commerce, legal and illegal - everything. In 1936, this epitome of evil was convinced by his pal, Ai-ling Soong, that his only hope for a peaceful eternity in heaven was to become a Christian, and agreed to be baptized in Charlie Soong's Shanghai Methodist Church.

Sterling Seagrave's THE SOONG DYNASTY is where all this is discussed in great detail - here only in tiny snips - The relations of T.V. Soong, H.H."Daddy" Kung, Ai-ling Soong's husband, and Chiang Kai-shek. The romantic view of China under Chiang popularized in the U.S. by Henry Luce, publisher of TIME and FORTUNE magazines.

China Background - Enter Japan
Mood:  blue
Now Playing: why not?
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai
  Let it be clear, China was always a country with rich resources and great wealth. In the 20th century it was agriculture, minerals of all kinds (iron, coal, gold, silver, copper, manganese, and on and on), manufac-turing, opium (lots of opium), imports, exports, commerce of all kinds, foreign and domestic. Most of the wealth was in the hands of Shanghai Bankers who happily paid protection money to Big-eared Tu and his pitiless followers. The wealth trickled in tiny, oft-broken streams to the poor, uneducated masses of peasants.
          In 1931 Japanese Militarists began to move in. Japan had taken Korea in 1895, China was next, beginning with Manchuria in the North. Chiang Kai-shek declined to engage the invaders, urging his people to "maintain a quiet dignity." Chinese patriots had other ideas - rioters in Shanghai attacked Japanese businesses and demanded that war be declared. Chiang refused. It seems that during the 1927 Shanghai Massacres he had struck a secret deal with Japan to support his takeover. In present day America everyone is familiar with so-called Chinatowns in many large cities. In 1931 Shanghai there was what might be called a Japantown which now suffered the burden of the Manchurian invasion - not only were Japanese businesses boycotted but crowds of Japanese fought back against Chinese rioters resulting in death, destruction, and ultimately the arrival of the Japanese Imperial Fleet with brigades of Japanese Marines. The Chinese 19th Army was in Shanghai at the time helping "Major General" Big-eared Tu in this and that odd job, mostly related to drug running, but to everyone's surprise they put up a spirited fight against the invading Japanese Marines. A cease-fire was at last arranged in March 1932. The fighting brought trade to a dead stop and resulted in 600,000 refugess and destruction of 900 factories and businesses. 
                China under Chiang was faced with a serious dilemma - which would it be? Fight the invading Japanese, or fight the internal threat of the Chinese Communists? T.V. Soong wanted to fight the Japanese. Chiang Kai-shek thought different.  

China Background - Chiang veers right
Mood:  sad
Now Playing: Perhaps
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai

            1933 - Hitler comes to power in Germany, Chiang Kai-shek asks him for military assistance; Hitler sends General Hans von Seeckt, one of the best-known strategists in Nazi Germany. Chiang is determined to eliminate the Communists, the Nazi general will tell him how to do it. The problem is that the 1st China Workers and Peasants Red Army was established by Chu Teh in August, 1927 and has gathered strength in the mountainous area of Kiangsi Province, south of the Yangzte River in Central-Eastern China. Von Seeckt directed 700,000 KMT troops in a merciless ground and air attack against  150,000 Communist guerrillas. The campaign resulted in nearly one million civilian deaths but "only" 60,000 guerrilla casualties under the leadership of Chu Teh.
             Chiang's fascism was modeled on Hitler and Mussolini - they had their Brown Shirts and Black Shirts, Chiang had his Blue Shirts and two secret services - the gestapo and the military secret police. Every government agency was touched with a spy network trained by the Green Gang. Soong May-ling set up what she called The New Life Movement determined, among other things to teach the peasants not to spit. Madame Chiang charmed the missionaries and organized Chinese Boy Scouts to help teach peasants about cleanliness and such. 
                 Chinese intellectuals speaking out against Chiang's tactics were treated harshly - a group of six young writers were burried alive.

China Background- Timeout for October baseball
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: In South Philly
Topic: Baseball
Phillies win game one of NLCS - National League Championship - beat LA Dodgers 3-2 - sorry, but Chinese history must wait.

China Background - Chiang takes charge
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: yes
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai

          Celebrating Phillies win over Milwaukee in Division Series - next up: League championship series against LA Dodgers.

           China - 1925. A power struggle after the death of Sun Yat-sen - who would lead the Kuomintang? The KMT was divided into left, center, and right political groups. With the presence of the crafty and powerful Russian advisors it looked like the left would win it. Liao Chung-k'ai was the leading leftist candidate, he believed that capitalism should be restrained and the peasant farmers should be allowed to own their own land and have access to manufactured goods through consumer cooperatives. He was the one who had convinced Sun Yat-sen to seek aid from Russia. He was assassinated by Green Gang thugs seting up the election on July 7, 1926 of Chiang Kai-shek as president of the Nationalist Government. There was no lookiing back.
           The Communists were still part of the Kuomintang and they thought Chiang was with them. It was a mark of Chiang's cleverness that they thought so - they couldn't have been more wrong. In hindsight it is hard to believe that he was able to maintain the ruse as long as he did. On February 19, 1927 he publicly announced his intention of eliminating the Communists from the Kumonitang. Over the next several months, with the help of Big-eared Tu and his Green Gang, Chiang directed the slaughter of thousands of Chinese peasants, students, intellectuals, even businessmen who resisted his rise to become the Dictator of all things Chinese - History has called it "The Shanghai Massacre". Soong Ai-ling, in cahoots with her long-time pal, Big-eared Tu, and her husband H.H. Kung
was in it up to her ears even if they weren't big. Three weeks after the massacre, Chiang Kai-shek proposed marriage to Soong May-ling. She accepted over the objections of her mother, "Mammy Soong". In the end, Chiang overcame the objections by agreeing to become a Christian.
            President/Dictator Chiang was riding high, but not higher than Big-eared Tu who he never stopped paying protection money to. Soong Ching-ling, in the face of threats to her life, refused to abandon the principles of the now legendary Sun Yat-sen, and escaped to Moscow. Also escaping the KMT terror were Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung.      

 

China Background - Death of Sun Yat-sen
Mood:  down
Now Playing: There's always hope
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai

               Mood is down because Phillies lost game three to Milwaukee, and because in the China story we come to the death of a man who's dream of leading China to a glorious future was only beginning. At the age of 59 Sun Yat-sen had accomplished much with the establishment of the Nationalist Kuomintang govenment, and the enthusiastic support of millions. His premature death provided academics fuel for the oft-debated hot question: how would Chinese history have developed if he had lived?

                1924 - The fiercely capitalist Old Guard Canton Merchants Association and their British Govenment supporters are uneasy at the leftward tilt of Sun Yat-sen and his KMT government . The merchants are terrified of the Communists. They form a well-paid militia of fifty thousand men with the slogan "Save Canton from the Bolshevists". Sun Yat-sen, with urging from his Russian advisors declares martial law, but is surprised when Chiang Kai-shek moves boldly with his Whampoa Cadets and other units to put down the Canton Merchants. One contingent of Chiang's force is the Workers' Militia and Peasants' Corps trained by Mao Tse -tung. Chiang's attack is a stupendous success - the Merchants' Militia is routed and the KMT Army is established as the strongest force in the land.

                And then, on March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of liver cancer. He wrote a farewell letter to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union which closed with a plea: "In bidding farewell to you, dear comrades, I wish to express the fervent hope that the day may soon dawn when the U.S.S.R. will greet, as a friend and ally, a strong and independent China and the two allies may together advance to victory in the great struggle for the liberation of the oppressed peoples of the world." 

   

              

China Background - T.V. Soong to the rescue & Whampoa Military Academy
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Maybe not
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai
               1923 - Chiang Kai-shek, badgered KMT leader Sun Yat-sen into sending him to Moscow to learn about security and discipline from the Soviets. Chiang stayed three months at a time when Lenin was dying. Trotsky, in a battle with Stalin for power, found time for long conversations with Chiang who returned to China convinced that the Communists were the number one enemy of the KMT and the right wing Green Gang in the fight to rule China. Chiang nominally answered to Sun Yat-sen, but his real loyalties were to Green Gang kingpins Pock-marked Huang, Big-eared Tu, and Curio Chang.
                With the help of Russian military advisors, the KMT set up  the Whampoa Military Academy on an island in the Pearl River 10 miles south of Canton, where a real army could be trained and equipped  with Soviet weapons. Chiang Kai-shek prevailed on Sun Yat-sen to become military commandant of Whampoa in spite of strenuous objections from the Russians and the Chinese Communist members of the KMT. Of three thousand qualified applicants to the first class, only five hundred could be admitted, all highly literate, and most members of the Shanghai Green Gang. Classes began on May 5, 1924. Chiang, following the principles of Sun Tzu's Art of War was allowing the Russian Bolsheviks and Chinese Communists to build a modern army for him.
                In October, 1923, the 1915 Harvard graduate, T.V. Soong, after quickly establishing a reputation as a financial genius by straightening out the books and financial operations of a Shanghai industrial complex of coal mines, iron mines, and steel mills, was called to Canton by Sun Yat-sen at the suggestion of Ching-ling, to solve KMT financial worries. T.V. used a Russian loan of $10 million to set up the Central Bank of China with himself as manager and quickly built the bank's reputation for reliability to the point where money printed by the bank was accepted all over China. 

China background - Sun tilts left
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Sunny South Jersey
Topic: Cold Front Passing Hokkai

               1921 - The first Congress of the Chinese Communist party - they met in Shanghai on Joyful Undertaking Street -  thirteen men including Mao Tse-tung, they were enamored by the success of the 1917 Russian revolution, and convinced that the doctrines of Marx and Lenin were just what was needed in China.  But guess what- they were observed by the most militant anti-communist organization in China, a new gangster syndicate called the Green Gang, led by the pure criminal mastermind, Tu Yueh-sheng - "Big-eared" Tu, who got where he was through the patronage of the great detective, Huang Chi-jung -"Pockmarked" Huang. Big-eared Tu, though ugly as a fence post with a lumpy face from childhood beatings, was a man of quick wit, energy, and resourcefulness. He was well-liked by everyone because of his easy manner, generosity, and genuine willingness to help even a downtrodden street vendor. He became a legend for his support of widows, orphans, and men who had lost everything. He also controlled the opium market, and never hesitated to assassinate members of the rival Blue Gang or Red Gang. When Big-eared Tu asked, people answered. 
                 1922 - Sun Yat-sen and Ching-ling are in the south China city of Canton, where to say things were in a chaotic mess would be a gross understatement. Sun had a poorly organized Koumintang army that was up against at least two powerful warlords, as well as a protection force organized by Canton merchants of some 50,000 men. Sun needed help and he got it from Soviet Russia. The Soviet Bolsheviks were hell-bent on
spreading their revolution worldwide and they saw an opportunity in China. Czarist Russia had exploited the Chinese for years and the Bolsheviks made a grand impression by renouncing all Czarist concessions in China including all treaties and agreements between Imperial Russia and Imperial China.  Sun Yat-sen was pleased to accept Soviet promises to finance and support Sun's Kuomintang in exchange for an agreement to admit China's fledgling Communist party to th Kuomintang.