Research Clique
After Yuan's death, Li Yuanhong became President and the National Assembly convened again. The party split into two factions: the Constitution Research Clique led by Liang and the Constitution Discussions Clique led by Tang Hualong. Liang supported Premier Duan Qirui's plan to push China into World War I on the Allied side against the wishes of President Li in hopes of regaining lost territories. When the Assembly was dissolved again during the Manchu Restoration (of which Kang Youwei took part) some ex-Progressives joined Sun Yat-sen's Constitutional Protection Movement. Liang and his followers refused to join because they felt a rival government was harmful to China's national integrity and that the movement was itself unconstitutional because it was a military government.
After reuniting with Tang's faction, Liang ran what was left of his party as the Research Clique (研究系) in the 1918 elections for a new assembly but placed a distant third behind Duan's Anfu Club (皖系) and Liang Shiyi's Communications Clique (交通系). Tang was assassinated in Victoria, British Columbia on 1 September by a rogue member of the Chinese Revolutionary Party (中華革命黨). Shortly after the Paris Peace Conference, Liang retired from politics but the Research Clique was still influential in Beiyang government politics until the Beijing coup in 1924. Mao Zedong called them "non-revolutionary democrats".
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