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Chen Taiyong, Northeast China's Banner Changing and the Evolution of the Tanaka Cabinet's Policy towards China
2020-12-03
After Tanaka Gichi was elected as the Prime Minister of Japan, he and his cabinet were determined to strategically shatter the straitjacket of the Washington System, and tactically press Zhang Xueliang, the leader of the Fengtian clique, into declaring the independence of Northeast China. The latter was an attempt to realise the policy of separating Northeast China from the National Government in Nanjing. To curb the negotiations between Zhang Xueliang and Chiang Kai shek, then the top leader of the Nanjing National Government, the Japanese government endeavoured with all its efforts to make sure that the negotiations would not succeed. More specially, it drafted and released several important documents. Under the pressure of the Japanese, Zhang Xueliang had to postpone the integration into the Nanjing National Government twice. However, for the Nanjing National Government, in order to achieve the integration, Chiang Kai shek sent his envoys to Fengtian many times, making a promise that the central government would not participate in the ‘internal affairs' of Northeast China in most respects and only exercise its diplomatic sovereignty if necessary. Under such circumstances, the biggest obstacle for the integration was resolved. Dismayed by challenges of Japan and its dominance in the Manchu Mongolia area, the Anglo American powers endeavoured to plunge Japan into a situation of diplomatic isolation, which inevitably led to the troop withdrawal of Japan in Shandong Province. These ignominious failures abroad not only incurred severe accusations at home against Tanaka and his cabinet, but were ultimately took as a weapon by the opposition party to bring down the Tanaka cabinet. Conclusively, Tanaka's great ambition of making Japan take the lead in the international arena and annex the Manchu Mongolia area failed disastrously.