The Paris Conference.
Kong Xiangxi and the three Soong sisters at the Champ de Mars. Though all of them lacked any official office, they were all western educated and fluent in several European languages. Much of the real diplomatic work of the conference would happen at the various social functions hosted by the first ladies of China.
Though Kong Xiangxi flew to Paris a week earlier, the Paris Peace Conference did not officially start until October 10th, coincidentally China's National day. The broad plan of the Chinese delegation was not known initially, the rapidity of the advance and the unexpected acquisition of Western Europe had brought the the war much further than the core Chinese interest of the Soviet threat. When China joined the Allies officially in 1941, it was well understood at the time that it was not through any great acrimony with the Germans at the time but a pragmatic move to make sure that the Allies wouldn't aid the Soviets when China chose to strike. When China continued to advance against the Wehrmacht after the Russian collapse, few people in Whitehall had wanted to look the gift horse in the mouth. Within the British press there mild speculation that gradually assumed the scale of a national debate as 1943 went on. Official inquiries bore little fruit as Kong Xiangxi assured the British that China's commitment to final victory was unchanged and based on the principles of democracy and self preservation.
One theory was showcased by this editorial in the News Chronicle issued on June 5th, 1943.
Geoffrey Cox said:
It's patently absurd that the Chinese would seek permanent domination of Europe. We must arrest the temptation to slap yellow shoes on the tired rhetoric of the Red menace and trot it out to frighten the public. The need to ascribe ulterior motives to the Chinese advance is a blatant and ill served attempt to assuage imperial dignity. That the UK and France were caught woefully unprepared is now beyond dispute. That China and it's untold millions rejected 2000 years of autocratic tradition to embark on a great crusade for democracy should be viewed as a miracle beyond price. It is the height of ill breeding to ask for help and then impugn it as too freely given."
Another explanation appeared in the Mirror,
Winston Churchill said:
" True, the Chinese have not acted in a hostile manner and appear to show deference to British interest, at least on paper. It is indisputable that the great burden of Germany's defeat was borne on the backs of China's coolies, drafted and sent into a war they neither understood nor wanted. Lord Halifax has neglected the most important question. Why did the band of ex warlords and petty nationalists that run the Celestial Kingdom pursue the war against Germany? The two nations had been allies against Japan and German planes helped secure the Chinese victory in that war. Though China resisted the final gasp of Japanese aggression without German help, this was clearly a result of the impracticability of German aid in the face of allied blockade rather than a divergence of ties. That the friendship still existed is evident in the way that China blatantly seized Indochina from an emasculated France with German assistance. Only after the Germans could be of no more use to China's policy of Asian expansion did the Chinese start courting a different alliance.
In our desperation, our government made a devil's bargain that traded Hong Kong in exchange for an Asian bulwark against against the fascist tide. Hitler's declaration of war made it all official and the commitment of a few planes in Yugoslavia bought the West's silence as the Dragon gobbled up the Bear.
When the Germans and Chinese met across the Volga, there was no grand hatred nor even conflict of interest, the two countries recent past was one of mutual cooperation and assistance. So why did China betray her greatest friend of the past decade? China's supporters would have you believe that the Chinese had an abrupt change of heart and suddenly saw their former friends as the abominations we now know the Nazis to be. China was then compelled to commit millions of troops in combat against the grey horde for humanitarian reasons goes the tired argument. Truly, the Chinese paid a high price to defeat the Germans but just as the peasant meant nothing to a mandarin of days past, the Chinese soldier means nothing to the new state; a mere currency to be spent in the pursuit of political goals.
The prize thus purchases is undreamed by the mightiest emperors of antiquity. The whole of Europe, save for our small corners of the Occident, has been seized by an Asiatic army that dwarfs the infamous Mongol hordes The Chinese paid for this land in blood and they will demand a return on their investment. The peril to Christian civilization has never been greater. We must hope that the New World recognizes what a serpent they have fostered for I fear that Europe cannot remain free without it's aid. The orientals have taken the mile so we cannot give an inch."
While the British public and government was growing suspicious of the ultimate Chinese intention, the American one was heaving a giant sigh of relief. The special relationship between China and the United States stretched from the 19th century. The conversion of China had been and continued to be the great hope of the American Christian community for over 100 years. Most of China's modern schools were founded by American missionaries. The dream of a Christian China led the first president Roosevelt to use reparation funds from China to establish the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program ( 庚子賠款獎學金) in 1907. Some of China's brightest minds, had been educated in America, including Premiere Kong Xiangxi himself and much of the early funding for Sun Yat Sen's early revolution had been raised in America. American distaste for imperialism in the 20's and 30's brought the two countries closer together.
Historian James Mcgregor Jones had this to say about the landmark relationship between America and China in his book about the same president published in 1956.
Chiang Kai Shek's conversion to Methodism set the stage for China's handling of American public opinion well into the 1950's. Missionaries were encouraged and granted generous subsidies, English was the second language of many in governance, American companies were actively encouraged to expand in Chinese cities. While these acts were largely insignificant for China's domestic politics they served to support the idealized version of China that had existed since the turn of the century. Starting in the early 30's, friendly publishers, most notably Henry Luce of Time Magazine, himself born to Missionary parents in Shanxi, supported glowing reports about the Chinese commitment to democracy and impending Christianity. Christian groups like The Foreign Missions Conference of North America, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America and the YMCA united with lay groups like the American Committee for Non participation in Soviet Aggression and the American Friends of the Chinese People to rally public opinion behind the Chinese government. "China has now the most enlightened, patriotic, and able rulers in her history," proclaimed the Missionary Review of the World in 1938. Whether or not the missionaries had made an impact on China, commented a European observer, “they certainly made an impact on the United States."
Strategic considerations were also paramount for the Roosevelt administration. During the wars with Japan, Stillwell, then the Military Attache at the Beijing Consulate, was impressed by the Chinese military preparations and commitment to overall victory.. After being briefed by him in August of 1938, Treasury agent J. Lossing Buck reported to Secretary of State Morgenthau, "Colonel Stillwell ... feels that the policy of our government should be more positive in the present situation and that help to China in the way of financial loans and military equipment is a much better defense for us than only building up our own defense equipment. A very small proportion of the cost of such defense , if given to China, would be much more effective." After campaigning on a peace platform, Roosevelt and the congressional democrats were content to fight the war by proxy through England. The American declaration against the Germans was more to give a legal precedent for sinking German submarines on sight rather than a desire by the American public to send troops to Europe. Despite popular post war misconceptions, American military cooperation with the Chinese was not initially directed against the Germans, rather it was the continuation of the policy that had already helped China contain Japan. The Military Assistance Command China or MACC was started after Japan resumed hostilities on the Asian mainland. The goal was to help the Chinese army and see how American equipment performed in combat. Though small in 1941, it expanded dramatically when China assumed active operations against the Germans and became the largest commitment of US troops during the war, though in a strictly non combatant role.
China, as part of the Allies, was grandfathered into Lend Lease and American military observers were present with the Dragon Legion to see the performance of American planes above Yugoslavia. When news of Chiang Ching Kuo's death became public and China pressed claims against the Soviets, Roosevelt had bowed to Republican pressure and did not censure the Chinese. Chinese success in the winter of 1941 and stalemate in Europe calmed misgivings about hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union against Germany and the Stillwell Mission had continued. The Soviet War also enjoyed strong support from both religious right Democrats and anti-communist Republicans such as Wendell Wilkie. They saw in China the dream of a Christian and democratic Asia, a dream that the Chinese foreign office had worked very hard to foster.
The Asia First Policy had been a huge domestic and international success. All of America's enemies had been laid low without having to fight themselves and the U.S. losses were limited to handful of destroyers and submarines. The reflexive American hostility to imperialism had found it vindication in China's triumph. When General Marshall was asked to explain Roosevelt's China Policy after the war, he simply said, "to treat it like a great power." Undersecretary Welles related a conversation with the president where he insisted that treating China as an equal was the best means of preventing "a fundamental cleavage between the West and the East in years to come." Within the British public, the old imperialists saw American interest towards as unnatural but not fundamentally unexpected. The more passionate British liberals, such as Bertrand Russel said that it was merely the logical continuation of America's domination through the Open Door. His book, "The Chinese Problem," was hailed as prophetic.
Bertrand Russel said:
It is to America's interest to secure, in China, certain things consistent with Chinese interests, and certain others inconsistent with them. The Americans, for the sake of commerce and good investments, would wish to see a stable government in China, an increase in the purchasing power of the people, and an absence of territorial aggression by other Powers. But they will not wish to see the Chinese strong enough to own and work their own railways or mines, and they will resent all attempts at economic independence, particularly when (as is to be expected) they take the form of State Socialism, or what Lenin calls State Capitalism. They will keep a dossier of every student educated in colleges under American control, and will probably see to it that those who profess Socialist or Radical opinions shall get no posts. They will insist upon the standard of hypocrisy which led them to hound out Gorky when he visited the United States. They will destroy beauty and substitute tidiness. In short, they will insist upon China becoming as like as possible to "God's own country," except that it will not be allowed to keep the wealth generated by its industries. The Chinese have it in them to give to the world a new contribution to civilization as valuable as that which they gave in the past. This would be prevented by the domination of the Americans, because they believe their own civilization to be perfect.
Most Europeans had come to the unhappy realization that the only nation still capable of checking Chinese ambitions was also its best friend, some even whispered its puppet master. Nor was anyone even sure what China's final war aims were. The truth was no one in Europe really knew. China had paid a larger price than any of the victors to get to the table and beyond official statements about a commitment to national autonomy and democracy no one had any idea what they intended to buy.
The meeting in Paris was one of exuberant nervousness on the part of all the Allies. Heads of State and leaders of exiled governments alike descended on Paris to decide the future of post war Europe. Representing China was Kong Xiangxi, premiere of the republic. A graduate from Yale, he spoke 4 languages and was considered quite personable by foreign diplomats.
The British delegation was led by Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten a decorated Admiral and relative of the king. Lord Halifax was not going to attend despite the proximity to England as he was facing a strong electoral challenge at home.
The French Delegation on the Vichy side was led by Prime Minister Pierre Laval while the Free French forces were led by Jean Joseph Tassigny despite Vichy protests that they not be included at all.
The American delegation to the conference was led by then ambassador to China, Claire Gauss.
His appearance at the conference sent a message. The American government was still very much on China's side.
The conference itself was officially equal. The Chinese, the British, the French (of both varieties), the Americans, the Dutch, the Belgians and 24 other "interested parties" had the same size delegations and the same legal rights to propose policy and vote on new treaties, a borrowing of forms from the League of Nations. The structure also gave no official recognition of the elephant in the room, namely the 7 million+ Chinese troops deployed across Europe.
The implicit message was clear, China was perfectly willing to cooperate with the rest of the Allies but such cooperation was a gift from the Chinese authorities. The de jure equality of all the nations present was an admission of China's preeminent position de facto. China was giving incredibly equitable consideration as mandated under international law, but the arrangement also favored private deal making between the delegates. This also was an advantage for the Chinese as any private deals would involve one side or the other trying to bring the Chinese in to support their position insuring that nothing happened without Chinese knowledge.
Kong Xiangxi talking with Lord Mountbatten
32年 10月 23日
Generally, the Chinese position was one with that of Britain, i.e. that European nations should be restored to their pre war borders. Very soon however conflicts began to arise. The most obvious source were the two countries that were split by occupation lines; Spain and Finland. Everyone was in favor of restoring the government of Second Republic in Spain. The British were in favor of restoring the Spanish government in exile as it stood under prime minister, Juan Negrin y Lopez, but the Chinese position was for new elections rather than automatic recognition of the government in exile.
Finland was different. The Mannerheim government was almost gone, and most of the pre war civil bureaucracy was dead. The three changes in administration that the Finns endured didn't help matters. The population had dropped from 3 million in 1939 to somewhere between 2 and 2.5. The vast majority of the survivors were in the southern two thirds of the country held by the Chinese.
The compromise was remarkably quick. Spain would have new elections, and there would be no split administration. Britain still officially supported the government in exile but it would not risk alienating the Chinese over Spanish electoral precedent.
32年 10月 24日
The conference also ended the joint command of the Asian commonwealth forces. The Royal Nepali Army was the largest such force and almost 250,000 Nepali troops had served alongside the Chinese in battles from Moscow to the Crimea.
32年 10月 27日
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia dominated the early part of the conference. The two main resistance movements, the Chetniks under Draža Mihailović, and the partisans under Tito had fought eachother and the occupying axis forces since 1941. There had been a lull starting at the end of 1942 as the Germans lost in east and Allied landings seemed imminent. The allies for their part had supported both with guns and intelligence. After Germany's surrender fighting had resumed. In the outlying areas, small bands had reported skirmishes and there was word that both sides were planning large scale movements of troops in preparation for a full scale civil war.
The only hope was to secure the independence of Yugoslavia as a united state before it could tear itself apart. The British government prevailed on the Chinese delegation to pick a side and enforce a peace. China, as liberators and because of the Dragon Legion, enjoyed a prestige in Yugoslavia that the other allies couldn't match and that the Yugoslavs would listen to. Kong Xiangxi, decided to back the Chetniks and restore the king Peter II to throne. The reasoning being that the vast majority of resistance fighters were raised in opposition to the Germans and that a return to the antebellum status quo along with a strong statement of support for one side would disarm most of the rebels without fighting.
32年 11月 8日
France had its own problems. The Vichy regime or État Français had successfully preserved the southern half of France and they remained the strongest neutral force in Europe. When Petain received emergency powers after the armistice, the new government had been recognized by the Allies. Furthermore, that same government had relinquished claims to Indochina after bowing to German pressure and allowed a transfer of sovereignty to the ROC. Diplomatic precedent was clear. The northern half of France was still legally part of the French State and Kong Xiangxi was thus inclined to relinquish sovereignty over the northern half of France. This was bitterly opposed by the British and Polish delegations. Lord Mountbatten, speaking to the Guardian on October 30th, said,
The French sought to preserve for themselves through dishonor what they could not secure by force of arms. It is the absolute position of his Brittanic majesty's government that the current French government is unlawful. We will return the liberated areas only when the pre 1940 constitution with all of its attendant rights and liberties has been restored.
Laval was, however, keenly aware that Chinese support for the current French state was based on little more than practicality and an inclination away from radical change. The British, by contrast, were much more invested in restoring the Third Republic. It seemed simple enough, the British would carry the day as Kong Xiangxi had very little invested in the outcome one way or the other, but over the course of weeks, negotiations on the French question had gone nowhere. It took British diplomats weeks and work through back channels to figure out how to bring the Chinese over. Even then the negotiations took more time as DeGaulle and the various parties that made up the Conseil National de la Résistance reluctantly agreed to the perceived Chinese conditions. Jean Tassigny gave Kong Xiangxi the famous "November Note " which outlined three promises that a provisional French republic was willing to make. First, the French Republic formally and into perpetuity relinquished any and all claims of privilege or territory within the Asian mainland. Second, new elections were to be held within metropolitan France but any resulting government must acknowledge that the État Français was an established and legal government and it's decisions would have to be revoked or amended through normal legal process. Third, (this was the most bitterly opposed by the communists,) the French government could not institute tariffs or import quotas. The note had the desired effect and Pierre Laval, who had made similar promises, was left out on limb. With its core interest secured, Kong Xiangxi was more than happy to accede to British wishes.
The "November Note" had far reaching effects for the rest of the European nations present. It was the first concrete statement of Chinese post war conditions for Europe that the assembled dignitaries had. Before, negotiations had either preceded apace or gotten hung up on technicalities seemingly at random. Diplomatic niceties coupled with the strong Chinese tradition of politeness which favored indirectness over outright refusal had left the European delegates guessing what exactly the Chinese expectations were. The Dutch and Belgian delegations were very quickly restored following similar conditions. An addendum was added for the Netherlands; the Dutch East Indies could receive no more than 10,000 European soldiers at any one time though soldiers drawn from within the native population were unlimited. The British were inclined to protest strongly but American support was firmly behind the Chinese and even the British understood that bringing up the colonies when both Kong Xiangxi and Roosevelt were opposed to their existence was a very, very bad idea.
There was in fact surprise among a lot of the Europeans that the Chinese had not demanded that all colonies be dissolved immediately, especially considering that the American administration and public would have largely supported such a move, giving the Europeans no real way to refuse. In a letter to Roosevelt in October of 1943, Kong Xiangxi said,
the questions of India and the Southern Islands cannot be settled from the outside. I will make it clear that the Republic will brook no military intervention to suppress a nation's right for independence, but it would be the height of folly to compel them to leave. Would Britain respect the Indian whose nation was secured only through the force of Chinese arms? What of respect for ones self? The sage said, "Respect yourself and others will respect you." America has the respect the of all nations and that was not granted from without but built by the practice of virtue and strength of your own making. We must protect the chicks once out of the shell but we will not hatch them prematurely.
32年 11月 17日
A Ukrainian revolt Salsk met some ill luck when it happened in the vicinity of the Royal Nepali Army.
32年 11月25日
Poland was another country where there was very little disagreement about it's post war future. Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, said in his broadcast to Poland on taking office,
”We do not wish to see only a formal democracy in Poland， but a social democracy which will put into practice not only political, religious and personal freedom but also social and economic freedom, the four freedoms of which Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke so finely. In any case there is and will be no place in Poland for any kind of totalitarian government in any shape or form."
This was eminently agreeable to Kong Xiangxi. With regards to Poland's borders, the Chinese made it clear that they would insist on the 1938 borders, nothing more, nothing less. Upper Silesia would still be divided based on the 1921 plebiscite and Poland would not gain control of East Prussia.
32年 12月 2日
On the back of Poland's independence came the question of Germany. Here the Allies were much more divided. The United States, France, and the UK were unanimous and fervent in their desire to destroy Germany's strength in Europe. A letter from Roosevelt to Queen Wilhelmina of Netherlands said,
"There are two schools of thought, those who would be altruistic in regard to the Germans, hoping by loving kindness to make them Christians again — and those who would adopt a much 'tougher' attitude. Most decidedly I belong to the latter school, for though I am not bloodthirsty, I want the Germans to know that this time at least they have definitely lost the war. We have got to be tough with the Germany and I mean the German people not just the Nazis. We either have to castrate the German people or you have got to treat them in such a manner so they can't just go on reproducing people who want to continue the way they have in the past."
His sentiments were the same across Europe. The one saving grace for the Germans was that there punishment was to be administered by China. While recent information from Poland had soured Chinese public opinion towards the Nazis, the Germans in general were not hated. The Allied insistence that Germany be permanently hobbled was anathema to the Chinese. The Allied proposals coming across Kong Xiangxi's desk all included the destruction of German war and heavy industry, the partition of Germany into smaller states, and disarmament. Kong Xiangxi informed the allies that they could have A or B but not both and which got chosen was at China's discretion.
The eventual choice was harsh but far more lenient than Germans had expected or the allies had hoped. Within was a fundamental difference of philosophy. For Lord Halifax and Tassigny, German strength was the source of threat and must be permanently eliminated. Undoing the work of Bismarck was their dearest dream. For China, Germany's strength was not an aberration, but rather a fact of Europe. Any measure that sought to restrain it more than temporarily was bound to fail and create resentment. Dismembering a state, which was culturally and linguistically unified, was especially distasteful and Kong Xiangxi was adamant in a conversation with Mountbatten that he would not "split Germany into a bunch of Manchukuo's.“
This was the only time which Roosevelt was in real disagreement and America threatened to withdraw support. Kong Xiangxi stuck to his guns. He informed Lord Mountbatten that Chinese troops would not be party to partition and would defend the territorial integrity of Germany. Making things more difficult was the leaks of several of the Allied proposals within Germany causing massive unrest against the western allies but not the Chinese. Scared by the prospect of partitioning Germany by force and without Chinese aid, the Allies backed down but insisted on much harsher industrial penalties. The end result was that Germany would have almost 50% of her industry, some 2000 heavy industrial plants, dismantled and removed to be reassembled in Asia. The naked aggrandizement by the Chinese was grumbled at by everyone but did not turn to full opposition. Paradoxically, within Germany, Kong Xiangxi and the Chinese ended up gaining support for standing up to the Allies. The wholesale removal of German industry to China was thus met with a sigh of relief by a Germany that had narrowly avoided much worse.
The new German state was to be a federal republic. Chinese troops would remain to oversee the destruction of industry and denazification of the state apparatus with all war criminals to be tried before Allied courts. Alexander Von Falkenhausen had returned from China and served as the military governor of Belgium only to be interrogated and thrown into prison for treachery against the state after China joined the Allies. He had spent the past two and a half years incarcerated in Dachau. When the new Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed, the Chinese insisted that he be instated as temporary chancellor. The British, the Americans, and the French were aghast. No Nazi officials in the new government was a mutually agreed allied platform. Strangely enough, it was the Belgians themselves who came down on his side. Resistance fighters providing numerous examples of him saving Belgian and Jewish lives at considerable risk while he was governor of Belgium. He insisted that he would only serve in a provisional capacity as chancellor and would not seek reelection.
Domestically, the Guomindang was frightened of what would happen when 3 million soldiers returned to their farms. Agrarian reformer, James Yen wanted them to be part of the Rural Reconstruction movement and have returning soldiers spearhead the modernization of Chinese farms. China enjoyed incredibly high productivity per acre but had incredibly low productivity per capita due to the small size of the individual plots. Only China's poverty and economic isolation had kept it safe from being undercut by cheap American grain and corn. For Chinese farmers to be competitive, they would have to increase the size of their fields and reduce the size of their workforce without reducing productivity. Already, areas along the coast were witnessing farmers switching to "luxury" vegetable crops like eggplant and carrots because the profit margins for staple crops were too low. This was leading to a massive increase in staple prices in the coastal cities, but even market forces couldn't change the weather and the growing season was largely ended. Officials were preparing for a winter famine in many areas.
32年 12月 11日
Austria and Czechoslovakia were restored exactly as they had been before the rise of the Nazis. In Austria, a strong French and Polish guarantee of independence would keep it safe from Germany. In Czechoslovakia, Chinese authorities had turned a suspiciously blind eye to reports of Czech intimidation and looting within the Sudetenland. The result had been a mass migration of the Sudeten Germans into Germany and Austria.
32年 12月 14日
China had taken over Germany which was then the center of the fledgling European plastics industry. I.G. Farben had held the patents for Poly vinyl chloride. In addition, both Germany and China had stumbled across many promising compounds as part of their research into synthetic fuels. T.V. Soong, China's finance minister and Kong Xiangxi's brother in law, issued an article in the GMD owned China Daily News (中華日報) outlining the future of Chinese industry under the GMD. In it, he outlined the policy of the Bank of China and the China Development Corporation (both of which he headed) to foster increased industrial growth. The war time industrialization had brought massive urbanization and a flight of peasants into the cities. Integration with the world economy had already caused food prices to rise across China. To forestall future catastrophe, the government would have to be involved in a massive industrialization program. Factories would mean jobs for the swelling urban population and the fall of Europe had opened up a hole in the world market for manufactured goods. The coming German industrial base was to be sold by government auction with certain industries restricted to specific cities. China's two biggest industrial rivals, Japan and America, were encouraged to open plants within China via tax breaks. They could even operate tax free for 5 years in the case of joint ventures that were more than 50% Chinese owned. The huge apparatus of China's war industry was to be partially de nationalized and put up for auction.
The Chinese nuclear program was also moving forward but at a slow rate. China had discovered its first uranium deposits in Chenxian, Hunan province and Hoff Lu wanted to be able to refine it into usable isotopes. The development of the Chinese nuclear program had been somewhat of an open secret among the Allies. It had to be. In the 30's, nuclear physicists had stopped publishing, fearing that they would aid an enemy nuclear program. This left an opening for Hoff Lu 's department in Shanghai to publish papers and labs in Britain and the US had reluctantly started to collaborate lest they be left behind. For young nuclear physicists in a devastated Europe, China was the place to make a name for themselves. This incredible transparency of nuclear physics in China was also the most effective camouflage for its nuclear weapons program. The silence of the western nuclear physicists had spoken volumes, so the made sure to keep talking. With industrial scale uranium enrichment, the nuclear program was aiming to surpass the Americans for the first time but few knew that at the time. The method adopted was one of 34 published in Chinese journals in 1944. That the Chinese knew that one of these was viable and that one of them was currently being expanded in a facility deep within the Qinghai plateau was not in the papers. It would take years before the Americans realized it.
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33年 1月 30日
Italy was a complicated problem for both the British and the Chinese. China controlled the peninsula and Sicily but British forces retained control of Libya. The North African question was bitterly disputed. Lord Mountbatten was adamant that North Africa remain in British hands. It was a matter of national honor and prestige. The Chinese position was split between giving it back to Italy or mandating that it be made independent. The form of the new Italian government was not a bone of contention. It would remain a constitutional monarchy with the prime minister going to Stefano Jacini of the Democrazia Cristiana party.
The British would not budge on North Africa. It was a question of face, the British and commonwealth had fought and died in North Africa and it stood as their only significant triumph of the war. A compromise was reached. Britain would retain control of Libya, but it would not be formally annexed into the Empire with a plebiscite to determine the form of final government at a "later date." For the embattled Halifax government, the apparent diplomatic victory over the Chinese was cause for jubilation, but few people realized what Britain had given up in exchange. A secret memo, issued from Lord Mountbatten to Kong Xiangxi said,
His Britannic Majesty's Government accedes with pleasure to the request of the Republic of China, for an assurance that they will support China's claims in regard to the disposal of Soviet rights in Europe and possessions within Asia on the occasion of the occupation convention; it being understood that the Chinese Government will, in the current peace settlement, treat in the same spirit Great Britain's claims to the Italian holdings within North Africa.
With that note, Britain traded away any stake in Russia's future to retain North Africa.
33年 2月 1日
The former axis states of Hungary and Romania were another bone of contention. The British position was that they had to pay indemnities and accept responsibility for collaboration with the Axis. The Chinese position was more moderate. It was sympathetic to Romania's position between the two blocs and was not inclined to hold their cooperation with the Germans against them. The 1923 constitution of Romania was to be restored. Carol II would remain the monarch and Gheorghe Tatarescu would be the prime minister. There were some changes, the king's power was sharply curtailed. He could no longer name the president and council of ministers. As this was the group that managed the elections, the previous structure had led Romania through a series of one party governments. Tatarescu's position in the fascist National Renaissance front caused him some difficulty with the occupation authorities, but he was allowed to serve as prime minister due to his previous membership in the Romanian National Liberal Party. With the exception of the king and Tartarescu himself, all officials involved with the National Renaissance movement and the Iron Guard were banned from government office for a space of 10 years.
Hungary was in a similar position. Ferenc Szálasi and the remains of the Pro Nazi Arrow Cross Party ( Nyilaskeresztes Párt） were captured and made to announce the formal surrender of the Kingdom of Hungary in July of 1943. In what was becoming a trend, Miklos Horthy would remain as regent, though with much curtailed powers. For the British, French and Americans, the Chinese respect for the pre war monarchies was baffling. China was a republic and proudly anti monarchist. For the Chinese it was a matter of protocol. When the Chinese revolution of happened in 1911, Puyi had been allowed to retain his title, possessions and palaces as well as drawing a salary from the state. Similarly, Vittorio Emmanuelle in Italy, Carol II in Romania, Peter II in Yugoslavia, and Miklos Horthy would remain as heads of state though generally with much circumscribed powers. From the Chinese perspective, preserving the dignity of the monarchy was crucial synonomous with preserving the dignity of the states following their capitulation. Hopefully, it would also have the practical effect of channeling nationalist sentiment towards the monarch and not towards avenging previous defeats. The actual governing of Hungary would fall to the newly elected president, Zoltan Tildy, a member of the Independent Smallholder's party.
33年 2月 2日
Denmark and Luxembourg would both be restored to self rule. Despite some proposals to fold them into their larger neighbors for mutual protection, it was decided that they be allowed to continue as before.
33年 2月 11日
The first of the German plants crossed the Transsiberian and were reassembled in Hebei and Chahar. Most of the new plants were focused on heavy industrial production. These included steel plants and factories making electrical equipment.
33年 2月 14日
The last nations to be freed under the provisions of the Paris Conference were the southern Balkan states. Bulgaria would follow in the tradition of Romania and Hungary with the new Tsar Simeon II (age 6) retaining the throne while actual administrative power passed to the new prime minister Konstantin Muraviev of the Agrarian People's Union.
Greece would also follow the same pattern. Georgios II would remain the the king of Greece but actual power fell to Themistocoles Souphoulis of the Liberal Party. The powerful Greek communist movement had been largely destroyed by the lack of a strong patron in the Soviet Union and it, like most of the left leaning resistance groups in Europe, was forced to moderate its tone as it lacked the muscle to oppose the new government.
Unfortunately for Albania, King Zog had died in a car crash in London and support for his son was nonexistent. The new government would not be a constitutional monarchy. It would revert to being a republic and the deposed prime minister Theofan Noli was asked to return from America to take up his old post. A noted translator and priest, he had founded the Albanian orthodox Church and worked hard to oppose the conservative policies of Ahmet Zogu until Ahmet successfully staged a coup and crowned himself King Zog. Noli would formally abolish the titles of regent and eliminate the monarchy from Albania's revised constitution.
33年 2月 25日
The gradual transfer of German industry continued. Effort was made to apportion the factories by area and spread the new industry beyond just the coast and Yangtze delta.
In addition, Chinese mobile forces were to receive an upgrade. Service in the Republic of China Army was 2 and a half years and most of China's 200+ infantry divisions were to be disbanded by the end of 1943. The new peacetime army would be based on the mobile arms, Pabing forces, and air force and those were where the research was going.
33年 3月 4日
The industrialization program was not limited to captured German factories. Purely domestic manufacturing centers were springing up across China.
1943年 3月 24日
The rural reconstruction program and farm subsidies continued to be a high priority. The acquisition of modern European techniques for the preservation of food and the creation of modern fertilizers had been a dream of rural reformers for years. Many treaties with the newly independent states of Europe provided for common food markets and agricultural cooperation.
The Chinese airforce had captured and successfully hidden the prototypes of Me 262 and the ROCAF obtained permission to design and build China's first jet fighter. The British had successfully tested the Gloster Meteor but it used the Rolls-Royce RB.23 Welland engine with centrifugal compressors. The Chinese working at Base 27 had successfully designed a radial compression engine, the Yunlu-3 (雲履第三）. It was named after the shoes that allowed the Monkey King to walk on clouds. The engine had a 25% higher thrust than the Welland and a much slimmer cross section. Unfortunately, the radial design increased wear and Chinese researchers were eagerly dissecting the German industrial base for high strength alloys that could be made into turbines.
The new fighter was also going to be the first entirely domestic Chinese design. China had been producing its own planes under license for five years but designs had been largely copies or improvements upon existing British or American designs. Fortunately, China now possessed the entirety of the German aeronautics industry and was now capable of building complex fighters from scratch. The new fighter would be built around the engines as opposed to the external mounting that the Me 262 and the Meteor used. Both engines were mounted internally and the expected top speed was supposed to exceed 1000 kph. The range demanded was 1900 km, enough to fly over Japan and back. On paper, the new fighter seemed set to meet or exceed those targets, but whether the Chinese could overcome the problems with the engine, build the airframes, and train their pilots in the vagaries of jet aircraft was a different matter entirely.
33年 3月 28日
Jiang Bai Li was set to oversee the creation of an entirely professional Chinese military. Ambitious targets included reducing the size by 1.5 million troops and eliminating the draft within 5 years.
33年 5月 8日
The plans for China's first Uranium enrichment plant were complete. The new facility, to be built at an undisclosed location in Qinghai, would use gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium. Camouflaged as part of China's general industrialization, a massive building project was ordered.
In the summer of 1944, the Chinese officially announced the constitutional convention for those territories belonging to the former Soviet Union. The new round of talks was to be held in Akmolinsk to discuss the future of the former Soviet republics. It was packed with parties representing ethnic minorities, Tsarist Russians, Muslim nationalists, Pan Slavic republicans, and even some communists who were jailed by the Bolsheviks. Conspicuously absent, however, was any delegation from Britain or France. America was allowed four delegates as observers only while the Chinese government would officially be an adviser. China's conciliatory attitude and generous accession to allied wishes in Europe was over. The disposition of the Soviet Union and its territories was going to be a Chinese show.
All hail our new Asian overlords! Next time on a AARight to Be Hostile!
