Japanese puppet/buffer state in northern China from 1935 to 1938
The
East Hebei Autonomous Government
(
Chinese
:
冀東防共自治政府
;
pinyin
:
Jid?ng Fanggong Zizhi Zhengf?
),
[1]
also known as the
East Ji Autonomous Government
and the
East Hebei Autonomous Anti-Communist Government
, was a short-lived late-1930s state in
northern China
. It has been described by historians as either a Japanese
puppet state
or a
buffer state
.
History
[
edit
]
After the creation of
Manchukuo
and subsequent military action by the
Imperial Japanese Army
, which brought
Northeastern China
east of the
Great Wall
under Japanese control, the
Empire of Japan
and the
Republic of China
signed the
Tanggu Truce
, which established a
demilitarised zone
south of the Great Wall, extending from
Tianjin
to
Beiping
. Under the terms of the truce and the subsequent
He-Umezu Agreement
of 1935, this demilitarized zone was also purged of the political and military influence of the
Kuomintang
government of China.
On 15 November 1935, the local Chinese administrator of the 22 counties in
Hebei
province,
Yin Ju-keng
, proclaimed the territories under his control to be autonomous. Ten days later, on 25 November, he proclaimed them to be independent of the Republic of China and to have their capital at
Tongzhou
. The new government immediately signed economic and military treaties with Japan. The
Demilitarized Zone Peace Preservation Corps
that had been created by the Tanggu Truce was disbanded and reorganized as the
East Hebei Army
with Japanese military support. The Japanese goal was to
establish a buffer zone
between Manchukuo and China, but the pro-Japanese collaborationist regime was seen as an affront by the Chinese government and a violation of the Tanggu Truce.
The East Hebei Autonomous government received a response in the form of Gen.
Song Zheyuan
's Hebei-Chahar Political Government, which was under the Nanjing government, launched on 18 December 1935.
[2]
[3]
Chinese soldiers remained in the area.
[4]
In July 1936, a peasant uprising against the East Hebei Autonomous Government broke out in
Miyun District
. Led by an old
Taoist
priest, the rebels were organized by the
Yellow Sand Society
and managed to defeat an
East Hebei Army
unit that was sent to suppress them.
Thereafter, the
Imperial Japanese Army
mobilized to quell the uprising, defeating the peasant rebels by September. About 300 Yellow Sand insurgents were killed or wounded in the fighting.
The East Hebei government survived the
Tongzhou mutiny
in late July 1937 before being absorbed into the collaborationist
Provisional Government of China
in February 1938.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
39°48′N
116°48′E
/
39.800°N 116.800°E
/
39.800; 116.800