Constitutional Protection Movement - The Second Constitutional Protection Movement

The Second Constitutional Protection Movement

In Shanghai, Sun re-organized the Kuomintang to oust the Guangxi junta from the Southern government. The military governor of Guangdong, Chen Jiongming raised 20 battalions from Fujian. In 1920, Duan and the northern parliament was ousted after the Zhili-Anhui War. Lu and Cen used this as a pretext to explore unification with the Zhili Clique. The KMT denounced these secret negotiations and the southern parliament moved to Yunnan in August and in Sichuan from September to October. Tensions between the Yunnan clique and the Guangxi clique allowed Chen to invade on August 11 in the Guangdong-Guangxi War. Chen Jiongming expelled the Guangxi clique from Guangzhou allowing Sun to return by the end of November.

Parliament reconvened in Guangzhou on January 1921. Of the remaining four executives, Tang Jiyao had to remain in Yunnan to protect his province, Wu Tingfang was ailing, and Tang Shaoyi was becoming uninterested. In April 1921, the National Assembly dissolved the military government and elected Sun Yat-sen "extraordinary president". But the new Guangzhou government, without any foreign recognition, was beset with questions of legitimacy as its form existed outside of the constitution it was mandated to protect. For Chen Jiongming, Sun's extraconstitutional election was a power grab. Relations further deteriorated when Chen invited anarchists, communists, and federalists to the movement. Chen thought it would swell their numbers but Sun believed they would dilute his message.