China, attacked on all sides for having sacrificed the nation's sovereign rights, and abandoned by many of their dearly bought supporters. Tuan Chi-jui and his colleagues of the Anfu Club were forcibly driven from power. The control of the Govern- ment passed then from their hands into those of the Chihli fac- tion, headed by the President and the two powerful Tuchuns, Chang Tso-lin and Tsao Kun. This defeat and expulsion of the premier were hailed by Young China as a victory for the con- stitutionalist cause and hopes were expressed that the popular Gen. Wu Pei-fu, whose troops from the Yangtsze had played a decisive part in the struggle, might be able to carry out his plans for a citizen convention and thus unite the rival parliaments. But these hopes were short-lived. Gen. Wu Pei-fu and the national convention were very speedily relegated to the back- ground, while the struggle for place and power was renewed on the old lines between new groups of rival politicians. The im- mediate result of the upheaval was to diminish the authority of a few of the lesser military governors and to increase that of the great provincial chieftains; but the latter showed no disposition to sink their individual ambitions in any common purpose of patriotism. The financial difficulties of the Government were seriously increased by the heavy claims advanced by the military leaders of the victorious Chihli party for payment of their troops, and it was not long before the native press began to denounce both the President and Chang Tso-lin as being even more dan- gerously subject to Japanese influence than the Anfu Club clique had been. A new combination and consolidation of power became manifested in Sept. 1920 by a matrimonial alliance con- cluded between the families of Chang Tso-lin and Tsao Kun, the two most powerful Tuchuns of the North ; at the same time, there were signs of a rapprochement between these satraps and the followers of Tuan Chi-jui, while the return to public life of Gen. Chang Hsiin, under the protection of the President, gave cur- rency to fresh rumours of a movement impending for the res- toration of the throne.
At the end of 1920, the situation offered but little hope of relief for the sufferings of the Chinese people, continually harassed and plundered since the revolution by the undisciplined forces of semi-independent chieftains, whilst the general condition of the country reflected the increasing financial embarrassments of the Government. The defeat of the Anfu party and the emergence of a new group in control of the metropolitan ad- ministration, had produced no change in the situation; indeed it was evident that no improvements could take place so long as the Government continued to exist at the mercy of the military governors and compelled therefore to satisfy their rapacity at all costs. Even before the conclusion of the war in Europe, the Allied Powers had had occasion to observe the desperate nature of the expedients to which the Chinese Government was resorting in order to raise funds, and the truth had become gen- erally recognized, not only abroad but by the mercantile class in China, that no financial or administrative panacea could produce a stable Government at Peking, unless accompanied by firm measures, taken under foreign supervision, for the dis- bandment of the provincial governors' military forces. In July 1918, the U.S. Government took the initiative of proposing the formation of a new four- Power financial Consortium. To this end a conference was held at Paris in May 1919, and after protracted negotiations between the Governments and financial groups concerned, an agreement was reached (Oct. is 1 1920) which provided for international cooperation between the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan in regard to the pooling of existing and future loan agreements with China. Under the scheme initiated at Washington it was proposed to make the disbandment of troops an essential condition of new loans; at the same time steps were taken to establish an international board for the abolition of ** spheres of influence " and for merg- ing all railway concessions into a comprehensive Chinese system, financed by the Consortium, wherein the principle of effective supervision would be observed. In the spring of 1921, however, the prospect of any general disbandment of the Tuchuns' troops
1 Blue Book, Miscell. No. 9 of 1921.
seemed as remote as ever; indeed, the forces of Chang Tso-lin and Tsao Kun had recently been considerably increased, and the opinion was gaining ground that something more forcible than financial cooperation would be required to achieve their disbandment and to reestablish the authority of the central Government at Peking.
Authorities. Frederick Colsman, The Far East Unveiled (1918); H. B. Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, vol. iii. (1918); J. O. P. Bland, Recent Events and Present Policies in China (1912) and China, Japan and Korea (1921) ; Putnam Weals, The Fight for the Republic in China (1918); H. M. Vinacke, Modern Constitutional Development in China (1920) ; The China Year Book (I9I9)-
Government and Administration. The establishment of the republic, following on the revolution of 1911, was proclaimed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his associates as a complete breach with the past and the substitution of a democratic form of govern- ment for China's ancient system of autocracy based on parental rule. Nevertheless, the history of the country, during the first ten years of the republic, and the methods of government practised by its new rulers, afford convincing proof of the abiding strength of the autocratic principle inseparable from Confucian- ism, ancestor worship and the family system. Reverence for this principle was unmistakably displayed at the outset, when the republican leaders, after the abdication of the Manchus, made formal obeisance at the shrine of the first Ming emperor (Feb. 15 1912) and ascribed their success to the protecting in- fluence of his illustrious spirit. It was subsequently manifested in the " Articles of Generous Treatment," which pledged the Government of the republic to allow the Manchu emperor and his court to continue to reside in the imperial palace, with his retinue and imperial guards and a pension of 4 million taels per annum, and which made special provision for His Majesty's regular performance of the religious ceremonies at the ancestral shrines and mausolea. The administration of public affairs under the republic, whether by the "militarists" of the northern party, or the so-called constitutionalists of the South, has differed very little in essentials from that of the old regime; but new causes of unrest, inflicting much suffering upon the common peo- ple, have arisen from the elimination of the prestige and authority of the Throne. Neither the mandarins nor the masses have shown capacity to adapt themselves to democratic institutions.
In theory, the constitution under which the republic of China is governed is that which was drafted by the leaders of the revolution at Nanking in Nov. 1911 and formally promulgated in March 1912. It is admittedly a provisional constitution and has never yet possessed any effective force in determining either parliamentary or administrative procedure. Under its authority a Parliament was elected and convened. It met at Peking in March 1913, only to be suspended in Jan. 1914, by the President Dictator, Yuan Shih-k'ai, who thereafter until his death ad- ministered the Government in accordance with the accepted traditions of paternal despotism. Following upon the death of Yuan (June 1916) all the measures which, in the absence of Parliament, he had personally decreed, were pronounced null and void. The provisional constitution was reestablished as the foundation of law in the land, and the restored Parliament (Aug.
1916) proceeded to discuss at great length the provisions of a new and permanent constitution. But under pressure of the northern military chiefs, Parliament was again dissolved (June
1917) without having completed the draft. A new Parliament, elected under revised laws (specially devised for the occasion by the nominees of acting President Feng Kuo-chang), met at Peking in Aug. 1918 and elected Hsu Shih-chang to the presi- dency on Sept. 4. A number of members of the old Parliament, led by the southern Cantonese party, declared the new Parlia- ment to be illegally constituted and its proceedings, including the election of the President, invalid. They declared their in- tention and their right to regard themselves as the sole legal legislative body in the State, and in that capacity established themselves, and a " Military Government," at Canton. In Aug. 1918, they appealed to the foreign Powers for recognition
