Huanggutun Incident - Background

Background

Following the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, China dissolved in spontaneous devolution, with local officials and military leaders assuming power independent of control by the weak central government. In north China, the once powerful Beiyang Army split up into various factions after the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916. Zhang Zuolin, being the leader of the Fengtian clique, was one of the most powerful warlords as he managed to seize control of the three northeastern provinces of Manchuria.

At the time of the First United Front in 1924, the foreign support in China was generally divided as below:

• Fengtian Army (Zhang Zuolin) - Japan
• Zhili clique - European & American
• Kuomintang - Soviet Union

The Fengtian clique's support from abroad was the Empire of Japan, which had vested economical and political interests in the region since the end of the Russo-Japanese War, and was interested in exploiting their region’s largely untapped natural resources. The Japanese Kwantung Army, based in the Kwantung Leased Territory also had responsibility for safeguarding the South Manchurian Railway, and thus had troops stationed in Manchuria, which provided material and logistic support for the Fengtian clique. The cooperation initially worked to the mutual benefit of both parties. Zhang provided security for the railroad and Japanese economic interests, suppressing Manchuria’s endemic banditry problem and allowing extensive Japanese investments. The Imperial Japanese Army assisted Zhang in the two Zhili-Fengtian Wars, including the suppression of the anti-Fengtian uprising by Guo Songling (a senior Fengtian clique general). However, Zhang just needed Japan's aid for consolidating and expanding his territory whereas Japan envisioned a future joint occupation of Manchuria with Zhang. After Zhang achieved his targets, he tried to improve relations with the United States and the United Kingdom, allowing both countries open access to the trade, investment and economic opportunities in Manchuria which he had formerly allowed only to the Japanese.

This change in policy came at a time when Japan was in the midst of a severe economic crisis from the Great Kanto Earthquake and successive economic depressions, and caused both alarm and irritation in the Kwantung Army leadership. The situation further complicated by the success of the Northern Expedition led by Chiang Kai-shek of the National Revolutionary Army in which the Kuomingtang successively defeated Sun Chuanfang, Wu Peifu and other warlords of the Northern Faction, as well as the Beijing government controlled by Zhang Zuolin. The Nationalist army appeared poised to restore their rule in over Manchuria, which was still officially claimed as part of the Republic of China.

The Nationalists, the Communists and other elements in the Northern Expedition at the time were supported by the Soviet Union, which had already made puppet governments in nearby Mongolia and Tannu Tuva.

From the Japanese perspective, for Manchuria to fall either under Soviet or Nationalist domination was strategically unacceptable, and Zhang Zuolin no longer appeared trustworthy as an ally capable of maintaining a de facto independent Manchuria. Japan needed a context to effectively establish control over Manchuria without combat or foreign intervention and they believed splitting up the Fengtian clique via replacement of Zhang with a more cooperative leader would do so.