Beiyang Government - Demise

Demise

Zhang and Wu disagreed on who should succeed Duan. Wu wanted to restore Cao Kun as president but Zhang was vehemently opposed. What followed was a series of weak interim governments. The civil service collapsed due to the pillaging and lack of pay and the ministries existed in name only. There were mass resignations with remaining cabinet ministers pressured by the military to stay on. The only functioning parts of the bureaucracy were the postal service, customs revinue service, and the salt administration which was staffed by foreign employees. No legislature was created as it would have been too expensive and difficult to assemble.

In July 1926, the southerners launched their Northern Expedition. They rapidly defeated the armies of Wu and Sun Chuanfang. In April 1927, Chiang Kaishek purged the Communists from his National Revolutionary Army and the expedition was put on halt. With the defeat of the Zhili clique, Zhang Zuolin took control of the Beiyang government personally as its generalissimo under the "Mandate on the Organization of the Military Government". This was the only time it was explicitly a military government. Zhang declared his government's purpose was to defeat the "Reds" to save China's traditions and culture. The civil service began to improve and start functioning again. The navy and army ministries were merged to create the Ministry of Military Affairs.

The Guominjun and Shanxi governor Yan Xishan linked up with the Nationalists against Beijing. By June 1928, Zhang decided to abandon Beijing and was assassinated by the Japanese in the Huanggutun Incident. Yan Xishan's troops occupied the city leading to the end of the Beiyang government. Beijing was renamed Peiping until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Zhang's son, Zhang Xueliang, retained a government in exile led by Premier Pan Fu. However, many civil servants, including former ministers and presidents, had already switched over to the Nationalist government. The United States became the first major power to switch recognition to Nanjing Nationalist government on October 1. Japan was the last major power to switch because they detested the anti-Japanese attitude of the KMT. Zhang negotiated with Chiang Kaishek to end this pretense leading to the reunification of north and south on December 29.