Blue Shirts Society - Rise and Achievements

Rise and Achievements

During the early-to-mid 1930s Chiang was busy carrying out his suppression of the CCP's Red Army in the countryside. With his permission, the BSS took over the defense of Nanking. Most of the prominent Whampoa graduates now got promotions as commanders and became BSS members. Besides increasing its influence in the army, the BSS infiltrated the police and security services in major cities, and recruited members in the KMT youth league. The BSS now had influence in China's military, labor unions, publishing houses and schools. A new structure of power had emerged, with the BSS at the core of the Whampoa Clique, coexisting and competing against the two better known cliques: the CC Clique, led by Chen Lifu (陈立夫) and Chen Guofu (陈果夫)，whose remit was dealing with party issues, and; the Politics Research Group (政学系) led by Yang Yongtai (杨永泰) and Zhang Qun (张群), whose remit was the day-to-day running of the KMT government.

Liu's pamphlet was accepted as the guideline of the BSS, and part of it was revised into the Regulation of Life Discipline. In accordance with this, BSS members would be paid low wages, with part being donated to the BSS. Gambling and opium were banned. Anti-corruption laws and laws prohibiting BSS members from having mistresses were to be strictly abided by. The practice of BSS members became quite distinct from the majority of KMT bureaucrats.

In June 1932, an anti-graft campaign was launched under the direction of BSS member, Deng Wenyi. A special force, mostly comprising BSS members, cracked down on corrupt police officers in Wuhan. After several arrests and executions, the police force was considered improved. Deng then waged war against organized crimes, prostitution, opium and gambling. After 3 months, Deng had won Chiang's appraise. Chiang wanted this effort to be promoted around the country, and so launched a campaign to purify the capital. The results were less successful and derided as a failure.

Meanwhile, the BSS was playing an active role in suppressing the CCP. Zeng Kuoqing, using his status in the Whampoa Alumni Association, wrote a letter to Xu Jishen (许继慎), commander of Zhang Guotao's 4th Red Army and a whampoa graduate, asking Xu to defect to the KMT. Xu did not reply, but when his superiors discovered the letter, suspicions were raised and the CCP decided to carry out a purge. Thousands of commanders and soldiers were tortured and executed, weakening the CCP's resistance. In light of this, in October 1932, Hu Zongnan led his army (mainly commanded by BSS officers) in a cruel and decisive battle against Xu Xiangqian in Hekou Anhui. In contrast to other KMT armies, the army had high-morale, was composed of hand-picked men, and equipped with the best weaponry. With strong support from other armies also led by BSS members such as Yu Jishi (俞济时) and Huang Jie (黄杰), Xu's CCP army was routed. After suffering some 10,000 casualties, Zhang and Xu retreated. Hu and his troop chased, and when Zhang and his army reached Sichuan to set up another base, Hu remained in Gansu nearby. Hu, with his chosen men and strong army, became known as the King of Northwestern China.

Coinciding With the BSS's ever-increasing power and influence, disagreements within the BSS leadership mounted. Chiang, who regarded the BSS as a tool, would not allow them more power and influence. Teng could not accept this and conflicts between him and Chiang were frequent. In 1933, Chiang chose He Zhonghan to succeed Teng as General Secretary of the BSS.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, with Fascism becoming popular around the world. As a more ambitious and skilled politician than Teng, He Zhonghan won a power struggle against his BSS rival Liu Jianqun, who was regarded as the Chinese Strasser for his power in training new members. Subsequently, He decided to set up a propaganda network run by Kang Ze. This special agency under the direction of Dai Li, and his deputy Zheng Jiemin (郑介民), evolved into a network infiltrating every corner of China. The BSS's influence greq into Northern China, which was under direct threat of invasion by Japan. In 1933 the Japanese army invaded Rehe, and KMT armies fought against them along the Great Wall. The BSS now changed from an elite secret society into an anti-Japanese mass movement. Liu was sent to the BSS's Northern China Division, which was called the China Reconstruction Society (中华复兴社，CRS). Most members were university lecturers and student groups, and in the summer of that year the CRS had divisions in 24 provinces of China with more than 40,000 members. With the CRS controlling the political training system of the KMT, new recruits were always available. With thousands of members, political instructors and front organizations, the BSS had a kingdom under the direction of He.

Besides setting up the CRS, the BSS also played a part in the Second Stage Revolution. Using influence in Northern and Southwestern China to persuade local warlords to pledge allegiance to Chiang, a reform of the KMT armies was carried out by those BSS members who had in Germany. An air force and armored corps was set up, alongside wars against corruption, opium and poverty. Reconstruction of rural areas was undertaken, with roads built and bank loans provided to peasants. The most significant part of this movement was Kang Ze's New Jiangxi Style and Special Detachment (别动队，NJSSD).

In 1933 during the 5th Suppression Campaign against the CCP, Chiang decided to set up a paramilitary force modeled after the SS of Nazi. Kang was appointed to lead the NJSSD, the only direct military group in the BSS. At first, the NJSSD was a copy of the SS, with members being KMT officer candidates. Members even dressed in uniforms resembling those worn by the SS. Soon the NJSSD had integrated of military, political, police, military police and secret police powers. At its peak it had 24,000 members and three divisions of regular troops. The NJSSD had peasants living near Soviet Jiangxi and Northern Anhui categorized and confined, where they had limited access to the outside world. A family hoping to prove itself non-CCP needed to have the guarantee of four other families, and promise not to collaborate with or provide support to the CCP. Violations would have the whole family executed, along with the families of the four guarantors. The NJSSD set up hundreds of concentration camps around Shangrao, Jiangxi, where they tortured and executed residents and CCP captives. Under this system, fewer and fewer peasants supported the CCP. Merchants who smuggled materiel to the CCP were also broken down, with peasants organized to build blockades against the Soviet Territory. With the shortage of supplies, accompanied by heavy attacks from the KMT, the CCP had to launch its now-famous Long March in order to retreat.

The NJSSD started the New Jiangxi Style plan in territories previously occupied by the Communists, providing compulsory education and free medical treatment to peasants. With a brutal but effective anti-corruption campaign, they provided loans, seeds and pesticides also. Nevertheless, the NJSSD engaged in fervent brutality, executions of perceived CCP sympathisers, and innocents. In one case, in Mount Dabie, previously the base of the 4th Red Army in Northern Anhui, more than half a million were massacred. At the same time, in accordance with NJSSD and New Jiangxi Style, Kang reached the peak of his career, and he raised enough finances to challenge He as leader of the BSS.

Xiao Zuolin(肖作霖), a BSS member early on, drafted a plan called the Whole New Culture Movement and proposed the establishment of an organization called the Chinese Culture Academy to increase the BSS's influence in culture. Xiao got Deng Wenyi's support and carried out his plan by taking over several newspapers and journals, and by enrolling its members in universities. Its scheme of forging a movement for a new culture was adopted by Chiang, and on February 19, 1934, he announced the New Life Movement at a meeting in Nanchang. The plan involved reconstructing the moral system of the Chinese and welcoming a renaissance and reconstruction of Chinese national pride.

In March, Chiang issued guidance, consisting of 95 rules of the New Life Movement, being a mixture of Chinese traditions and western standards. It was a vast propaganda movement, with war mobilization and military maneuvers on a scale that China had never experienced before. But because the plan was so ambitious and rigid, and because its policies created too much inconvenience in the everyday lives of the people, it fell into disfavor. Nearly three years later in 1936, Chiang had to accept that his favorite movement had failed. Deng, Kang and Jiang Xiaoxian (蒋孝先), Chiang's nephew and bodyguard, also BSS members were appointed General Secretariats of the New Life Movement, with supervision of public lifestyles enforced by BSS cadres. By controlling the mouthpieces of the KMT, the BSS openly expressed advocacy of fascism in its publications.