The Chinese Revolution28 Jul 2023

China and the World War

The KMT had been active opposing Yuan Shikai and his monarchy project. It had strong support among overseas Chinese.

After Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong became President and Duan Qirui became Premier. KMT hopes for an effective republic quickly faded. Li and Duan disagreed about whether China should enter the First World War. Li, his Vice-President and Congress all opposed the war. Only Duan wanted to enter the war. He was dismissed following a vote by Congress.

Zhang Xun, the General with the Queue, used that tension to invade Beijing with his 500 soldier Pigtail Army, and restore the teenage Pu Yi as Qing Emperor.

Duan Qirui quickly retook Beijing and assumed power in China. China entered the war on the same side as Japan, Great Britain, France and Russia. China contributed 140,000 labourers through the Chinese Labour Corps and the Corps de Travailleurs Chinois. Some stayed in France after the war.

By being on the winning side in the war, Chinese expected that their country would regain control of the former German concessions. But Duan Qirui had signed those over to Japan in exchange for loans that helped bring him to power. He also agreed that Japanese troops could be stationed along the Chinese frontier with Russia.

Chinese opinion was strongly against Duan when these secret agreements came out. What role would mass mobilization have on Duan?

Image: "Chinese Labour Corps memorials" by ThruTheseLines is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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