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“Brave, faithful, and a strategic thinker”—such was Chiang Kai-shek in Sun Yat-sen’s eyes. This comment shows clearly how Chiang Kai-shek won Sun Yat-sen’s attention and promotion in competition with other revolutionary youths. Chiang Kai-shek’s bravery was first shown in his assassination of Tao Chengzhang, one of the important members of the National Alliance (Tongmenghui) and the former leader of the Restoration Society (Guangfuhui). Chiang killed Tao not because Tao opposed the revolution but because of his interest in the Zhejiang governorship and his desire to replace Chen Qimei, Sun Yat-sen’s close comrade and military governor of Shanghai. Given that Chen Qimei was part of Sun Yat-sen’s faction, and that resolutely killing Tao Chengzhang was to protect Chen Qimei, which was thus to protect Sun Yat-sen, both men would approve of the assassination. Chiang’s skills at military strategy derived from his experience of military leadership with Northeastern National Army and the Guangdong Army during the periods of the Chinese Revolutionary Party and the Constitutional Protection War. His expertise on military matters was quickly noticed by Sun Yat-sen, especially after Sun determined that it was their lack of military capacity that had doomed the revolutionaries to defeat. It is clear that Chiang Kai-shek’s political rise began during his headship of the Huangpu Military Academy. Sun Yat-sen’s approval was the key to Chiang’s becoming academy head. And in addition to Sun’s approbation, Chiang also fit the needs of the time for new leaders with practical abilities.
The French Protectorate showed signs of decline beginning from the 1920s, and appeared on the verge of collapse after the consecration of the first six Chinese bishops in Rome by Pope Pius XI in 1926. This article explores the topic by looking at the accomplishments of the Northern Expedition of the Nationalists from mid-1928 to March 1929. The actions of the Apostolic Delegate, Celso Costantini, constitute the central part of this study, allowing us to discern the basic features of the dispute between the Holy See and France over the French Protectorate in China. This article demonstrates the processes by which France exercised its influence to incessantly oppose the plan of a Concordat between China and the Holy See. Three major issues are explored: the policies of the Holy See and France toward the Protectorate, the reasons of the failure of the plan of the Concordat, and Costantini’s achievements during this period. Keywords: Celso Costantini, Sino-Vatican Relationship, French Protectorate, Concordat, Pius XI
In the 1950s, the Communist regime’s “Regional National Autonomy” policy replaced the earlier “centralization” policies of the Qing and the Republic of China in regard to frontier minority areas. In a fashion similar to the Soviet Union’s titular nations, a number of areas associated with one or more ethnic minorities were designated as autonomous within the People’s Republic of China. These areas were recognized in the PRC’s constitution and nominally given a number of rights not accorded to other administrative divisions. However, this act did not mean that the Beijing government in fact changed earlier national goal of integration; on the contrary, the PRC inherited the experiences of centralization and anti-separatism from previous Chinese regimes as well as the Soviet Union, and through administrative techniques was able to keep latent separatism under control. In Xinjiang, the PRC operated a policy of “from the bottom up and reestablishing feudal lords to lessen their (individual) strengths.” Beijing, established numerous non-Uyghur autonomous regions, from ethnic townships and autonomous counties to autonomous prefectures, which diluted and diverted the Uyghurs’ political resources. In the four other provincial-level autonomous regions—Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet—autonomous ethnic groups either became minorities in their own Autonomous Regions, or else found their geographical space diminished. Keywords: centralization, administrative division, Regional National Autonomy, separatism