Blue Shirts Society - Fall

Fall

Unlike Teng, He was a professional politician, and never concealed his ambition for power. After fostering a Hunan Clique in the BSS, Chiang became concerned the BSS might threaten his governance. In 1934 he accused the BSS of corruption and malfunction, dismissing He as General Secretary. Liu Jianqun was appointed as successor. With NJSSD and the Southwestern Clique behind him, and the Zhejiang Clique led by Hu Zongnan and Dai Li opposing him, Liu Jianqun's BSS faced the same fragmented fate as the KMT it had helped get rid of.

With the New Culture Movement failed but still officially ongoing, the BSS spread its influence into the cultural centers of Shanghai and other major cities that used to be the CC Clique's power base.

In June 1934, the Nanchang Airport, built by donations from international Chinese, and designed to train the KMT air force, was burned down. The Aviation Commissioner, Xu Peigen (徐培根), who was also a BSS member, was the primary suspect. Deng was sent to investigate this case. He reached the conclusion that the fire was accidentally caused by a cigarette dropped by a soldier, but Chen Lifu and Yang Yongtai argued Xu masterminded the fire to eliminate evidence of corruption, and Deng had colluded to cover it up. Xu was kept in custody, Deng was sacked, and his titles were removed. The Chinese Culture Academy was banned. Dai Li was sent to take over Deng's investigation agency and quietly integrated it into his own special agency, which later evolved into the Military Statistical Bureau, the notorious secret police of the KMT. Dai no longer played any major part in the BSS now he had set up his own kingdom.

Taking advantage of this blow to the BSS's prestige, the Politics Research Clique consummated the Administrative Office System, adding new levels of administration between provinces and counties (the two tier system of provinces and counties had been used in China for more than a thousand years). With the appearance of new offices, the Politics Research Clique was able to control the county level. Many bureaucrats who used to be loyal to the CC Clique and the BSS defected to the suddenly more powerful Politics Research Clique. The Politics Research Clique took over the security forces, the police and the militia step by step. Liu, whose failures in the BSS were an embarrassment, was replaced by Feng Ti under the excuse that he had health problems. He was sent to Manchuria to work with Zeng Kuoqing.

In 1935, two editors of a pro-Japanese newspapers were assassinated in Manchuria. The Japanese thought these actions were taken by the BSS and argued it was a violation of the Tanggu Accord signed to keep the status quo between the Japanese and China. Yoshijirō Umezu (梅津美治郎), commander of the Japanese China Garrison Army and Kenji Doihara's (土肥原贤二) Japanese intelligence agency investigated and presented a memo to He Yingqing. Agreeing with the Japanese recommendations in this memo, all Chinese forces heavily influenced by the BSS (including military police, regular forces such as the 2nd Division and the 25th Division) should be evacuated from Beijing and out of Hebei province.

Taking over military training for the KMT, Feng Ti enrolled new members into the BSS. Hu Zongnan, Dai Li and other former BSS members also strengthened their grip on power by enrolling members into their own private armies. At the top were hundreds of Whampoa graduates, aided by some 30,000 mid- and low-level officers, university teachers and public servants. Below them were more than 200,000 members of the CRS. At the bottom were hundreds of thousands of boy scouts. With the organization undergoing such rapid expansion, corruption and inefficiency plagued the BSS across the country. Furthermore in 1935, there was a serious security leak in its headquarters after the BSS tried to assassinate Wang Jingwei, Chiang's presidential rival. Under heavy pressure, Feng Ti was sacked. Liu Jianquan took over, to be replaced in turn by Zheng Jiemin.

In 1936 Deng Wenyi became General Secretary of the BSS, just in time for December's Xi'an Incident. Chiang was kidnapped and held by General Zhang Xueliang, who favored fighting the Japanese more than the CCP. There were disagreements between KMT leaders on whether to solve the kidnapping by peace talks or military action. In BSS meeting, He Zhonghan and Deng were determined to use force and called for the mobilization of BSS members around the country. 176 young generals issued a statement to denounce Zhang Xueliang and declare war on his army. Under He's direction, more than 2000 officers and BSS members held a meeting pledging their allegiance to Chiang and agreeing to mobilize against the Young Marshall. Gui Yongqing led an army of more than 12,000 men in armored vehicles across the Yangtze River towards where Chiang was being held, while a few bombers were launched by overzealous military and BSS officers. Chen and other KMT leaders refused to support this, however, and even He Yingqing, who was in charge of the KMT military, did not agree with the BSS's movement. No official support was given by the KMT.

Chiang's wife Soong May-ling came to Xian for peace talks. Due to the efforts of the CCP delegation, led by Zhou Enlai, who wanted to set up an alliance with the KMT against the Japanese, Chiang was released several weeks later. After his release, Chiang took revenge on the BSS's reckless action and lack of control. Deng was sacked, with all titles removed again, and he was replaced by Kang Ze. He Zhonghan was out of favor with Chiang and forced to travel around Europe in exile. In March 1937, Chiang issued his order that all BSS activities be temporarily suspended.

With the Second Sino-Japanese War breaking out on July 7, 1937, Japanese troops seized vast areas of China. Before Nanjing fell, Kang led the retreat of the BSS from its headquarters. In 1938 the BSS held its first and last national congress in Wuhan. Here, members of the BSS and SPTPP were permitted to have their memberships automatically transferred to the KMT, members of the CRS could be transferred to the Youth League of Three Principles of the People (三民主义青年团, YLTPP). Most of the 500,000 members of the BSS and CRS refused to transfer to the KMT, instead choosing the YLTPP, which became the basis of a new force within the KMT. Hu Zongnan kept the position of Director of the YLTPP, while Kang acted as his agent. The biggest winner was Dai Li: his new spy agency, the Military Statistical Bureau was formed, and he transferred all the intelligence agents of the BSS, CRS and NJSSD into it, giving him one of the largest intelligence services in the world. He kept control over this secret empire until his death in an airplane crash in 1946.

The BSS had been officially dismissed, but Kang wished to keep it alive under the cover of the YLTPP. In the following 7 years he increased YLTPP membership from 400,000 to more than 1.5 million, and used NJSSD techniques to re-organize the YLTPP. The result was a group more efficient and disciplined than the KMT, which aroused Chiang's suspicion again. After returning from the Soviet Union, Chiang Kai-shek's son Chiang Ching-kuo sought to take over the YLTPP. Kang was reluctant and tried to resist these efforts, sealing his fate. In 1945 Kang was sent to Europe and Chiang Ching-kuo was given the YLTPP's seat. During the Chinese Civil War, members of the YLTPP suffered the same fate as the KMT. Only prominent YLTPP figures such as Kang survived CCP purges, as examples of clemency toward war criminals.