Republic of China

From The New Order Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Republic of China (Chinese:中華民國) is a Japanese satellite state in East Asia and a member of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

History

In the streets of Chongqing, two titans of the Republican era died fighting side by side. Their bodies were retrieved, strung, and hung before the backdrop of a razed city. With that, the Republic would capitulate and in its place would rise the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China. Claiming to be the legitimate executor of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s vision, the new government was founded in collaboration between prominent Kuomintang figures, Wang Jingwei and the Empire of Japan. Unreleased treaties between the governments arranging for Japanese support would reveal a grim picture for China’s future as a colony for the Japanese.

The end of the Pacific War brought the beginning of a new era for China. One of increased oppression, of mass rape and lootings, of setbacks, but then: stability. What followed the 1947 peace agreements was unpleasant to many but offered peace and the potential for growth to a country that had spent the previous decades in constant chaos. The Japanese occupation purged dissent and Japanese subsidies allowed for the rebuilding of infrastructure and homes, meaning the Chinese people could finally worry less about war and more about working. The transition was not all pleasant—the Japanese pillaged what industry they could and seized control of former business assets—but it was calm enough. Former soldiers returned home, trading rifles for plows and tending to the soil long neglected in the face of war.

What resulted was the “Agrarian Boom” of the 1950s, an explosion in Chinese crop exports that sent food prices across the war-torn Sphere spiraling down. Regions on the brink of famine were saved and the newly-Japanese possessions were able to rebuild faster than otherwise possible.

The government was marketed to the Chinese people as an alternative government to Chiang’s KMT and initially made well of promises for a state more in line with Dr. Sun’s Republican vision. But as time passed and the Japanese victory became more and more certain, more and more restrictions were placed on the government. At first, the Japanese were “preferential trade partners,” then they were “international intermediaries” until the Japanese treaty port in Shanghai regulated all trade flowing up and down the Yangtze River. The office of president of the Republic of China still exists and while at present powerless to face the Japanese, the position still holds considerable influence towards domestic affairs.

The death of Wang Jingwei in 1944, ushered Chen Gongbo to assume the office of president. Gongbo oversaw the end of the war and the solidification of the regime's authority over western China. Due to ailing health and perceived “weakness” by the Legislative Yuan regarding the integration of warlord states, Gongbo resigned from the presidency in 1951 in favor of a cabinet position. What followed was a half-decade long internal power struggle with the C-KMT’s “Reformist” clique at odds with the R-KMT’s “Old Guard” clique. Candidates would promise deals to the Japanese for support, only to be left in the cold upon their assumption of power. From this malaise, the Japanese gained full control over all Chinese exports and considerable extraterritorial rights that only consolidated China’s Yamato subservience.

The situation’s direness could perhaps be exemplified when a session of the Legislative Yuan was postponed because the appointed Japanese “Legislative Ambassador” opted to skip the assembly in favor of a day out on Nanjing’s waterfront. Legislative concessions to the Japanese culminated in this situation because of a clause requiring that all executive-legislative members be present for a session, now including the Ambassador. The chaos was apparent and both factions knew something had to be done to salvage China’s rapidly fleeting sovereignty.

Their solution was to elect a relative unknown with Reformist ideas but Old Guard credibility who was capable of working with the Japanese. He was a former diplomat, serving the government alongside Wang Jingwei as an intermediary between Tokyo and Nanjing. An ardent believer in Chinese unity and a devoted follower of Dr. Sun’s ideals, he left Chiang’s regime in the hopes of saving China. It would seem that now he would have his chance. As he approached the podium of the Legislative Yuan his posture displayed him as a slouched, aging diplomat no different from the 51 party members surrounding him. But behind his spectacles, his eyes showed his true character: a fiery spirit poised on righting the skewed course China had taken, one willing to correct the mistakes he’d witnessed over his two decades of service by any means possible. He was their stallion, their hopeful, their last shot.

Military

The army is large and composed of infantry, cavalry, soldiers and artillery and equipment stolen from the defeated powers and high technology. They struggled to gather enough soldiers to form their great army as an armed and well-equipped nation under the watchful eye of their Japanese overlords. There is a well-equipped Chinese navy or air force with soldiers and sailors and well-trained and well-equipped forces that are Japan's friends.

Economy

The Reorganized Government is often called the “Breadbasket of the Sphere,” a demonym that shows the importance of China within the sphere but also its limitations. In truth, the war and subsequent occupation of China meant that China had regressed into an agrarian society with pockets of poorly utilized industrial sectors surrounding urban areas. Commerce was Japanese and what was manufactured in China usually did not stay there long.


Retrieved from "https://tno.wiki.gg/index.php?title=Republic_of_China&oldid=40148"