Young China Party

Young China Party 中國 青年 黨
founding	December 2, 1923
Place of foundation	Paris , France
Alignment	Chinese nationalism, anti-communism, democracy, one-China position , economic and social development
Website	www.ycp.org.tw

The Young China Party ( JCP , 中國青年黨 , Zhōngguó Qingnian dǎng ), or young Chinese party (English Young China Party or China Youth Party ) is a political party in 1923, founded the Republic of China. In the old Republic of China (1912-1949) it was temporarily the third largest political party in China after the Kuomintang and the Communist Party . During the one-party rule of the Kuomintang from 1949 to 1987, the Young China Party was one of three legally admitted parties in the Republic of China in Taiwan . Today the party is politically insignificant.

history

Young China Association

→ Main article : Young China Association

The term “Young China” was coined by Chinese intellectuals at the beginning of the 20th century. He united two visions: on the one hand, the idea that old China would have to renew or “rejuvenate” itself in order to keep up with the West, in many ways: economically, politically and socially. On the other hand, it included an appeal to the Chinese youth, ie the younger intellectuals, to actively shape the fate of the country and to promote the necessary upheavals. After the Republic of China, which was founded in 1912, did not stabilize itself, but instead rival warlords and power cliques took over power, numerous debating clubs and societies were founded in which the political situation and the necessary political changes were discussed and argued. This awakening movement experienced a strong boost with the end of the First World War, which did not bring China the international equality it had hoped for. Instead, the old unequal treaties continued to exist. There were student riots and the so-called May Fourth Movement . In this context, the Young China Association ( 少年 中國 學會 , Shàonián zhōngguó xuéhuì ) was founded in 1918 , which saw itself as a think tank in which new Western ideas and concepts should be discussed and their possible application in China. However, the association did not see itself as a political party and had people from the most varied of worldviews as members. She had followers at home and abroad, including among Chinese students in Europe.

After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party

A major turning point was the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), under the influence of the Third International in Shanghai in 1921. Communist ideology attracted many Chinese intellectuals, and many members of the Young China Association joined the CCP, including the young Mao Zedong . The CCP supporters wanted to actively shape politics in a Marxist sense. However, not all members of the Young China Association wanted to take this step and there was strong tension and disputes.

Among the Chinese overseas in France there was a communist group as early as 1920, which was funded and trained by the Third International, and whose members returned to China played an important role in the establishment of the CCP. Not all Chinese students in Paris joined the communists. Many viewed the influence of the Third International with suspicion and saw it as a new version of the familiar problem of foreign powers wanting to interfere in China's internal affairs. This suspicion was heightened when some Parisian students accidentally discovered a secret instruction from the Third International instructing the Chinese Communists to formally join the Kuomintang but keep their party organization secretly intact and continue their agenda under the guise of the Kuomintang to advance. Because they feared that the previously loosely organized Kuomintang would gradually be taken over by the tightly organized communists, a group of Chinese students in Paris decided to found their own party. Leading figures in this group were Zeng Qi ( 曾琦 ), Li Huang ( 李 璜 ), He Luzhi ( 何 魯 之 ) and Li Buwei ( 李 不 韙 ). On December 2, 1923, they founded the Young China Party "to eliminate the traitors from within" and "to withstand external aggression". On the same day, the group published a pamphlet entitled “What Does the New Nationalism Mean ?”, Which was later published in the journal of the Young China Association , condemning the activities of the communists. The central theme of the party became Chinese nationalism, which rejected interference by the imperialist Western powers as well as by the Communist International, which was controlled centrally from Moscow. Zeng Qi became the first chairman. Ideologically, the new party represented a “national socialism” ( 國家 社會主義 , Guójiā shèhuì zhǔyì ) with the following three basic principles: firstly, in terms of economic policy, trade protectionism based on the economist Friedrich List and state socialism based on the ideas of Adolph Wagner ; secondly, “class cooperation” in domestic politics “( 階級 合作 , Jiējí hézuò ) and“ national revolution ”( 全民 革命 , Quánmín gémìng ), and thirdly, radical nationalism ( 國家 主義 , Guójiā zhǔyì ) rejecting international collaboration in favor of Chinese self-sufficiency. Compared to the Kuomintang, the Young China Party was clearly more socially oriented, which was later expressed in political mass actions at the level of schools, factories and in rural communities. Some later authors also assumed a certain closeness to the ideas of European fascism to the party.

Development from 1923 to 1945

The newly founded party, which started out with around a dozen members, quickly gained new members. In the second half of 1924 their party leaders left Paris and went to Shanghai. There they founded the first party newspaper 醒獅 週報 , Xǐngshī zhōubào , English The awakening lion weekly  - "The lion dance (weekly)". The magazine quickly became a success, found many readers and brought publicity to the young party. By October 1925, Zeng Qi collected nationalist associations across the country and merged them into a loose grouping, the Chinese Nationalist Youth League 中國 國家 主義 青年團 , Zhōngguó guójiā zhǔyì qīngnián tuán . The party appeared in public under this name until September 1929, before publicly adopting the name 'Young China Party'.

During these years there were repeated conflicts with the communists who had joined the Kuomintang. During the northern campaign from 1926 to 1928, in which the Kuomintang and communists jointly took action against the warlords in the north, the Young China Party was also badly affected. In the territories conquered by the national government, their party property was confiscated and the party's facilities were closed. Before the Kuomintang troops, the party newspaper had to retreat north to Beijing and finally even to Tokyo, where it ceased publication in 1930. During this time, the local party organizations were forced to cooperate with the warlords they were actually fighting.

After the bloody rift between the Kuomintang and the communists in 1928, the Young China Party came into conflict with the Kuomintang because it refused to accept their claim to sole rule. It was then banned as a political organization for a decade. In the years after the Manchurian crisis , Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek sought contact with the leaders of the Young China Party again, as he wanted to create a united front against the Japanese. The repressions against the party were relaxed and finally lifted completely in 1938 in the war against Japan . Thereafter, the Young China Party, which had become the third largest party after the Kuomintang and Communists, supported the Kuomintang government. On October 10, 1941, the establishment of a multi-party coalition, the Chinese League for Democracy ( 中国 民主 同盟 , Zhōngguó mínzhǔ tóngméng ) was announced, which also included the Young China Party. The league tried to become a kind of third force between the Kuomintang and the communists, but was unable to do so due to the lack of a sufficient political base and organization as well as convincing leaders.

The Young China Party from 1945 and in the Republic of China on Taiwan

Earlier priorities of young Chinese party in Taiwan (administrative units with elected members): Yilan County , City Taichung , Yunlin County , Chiayi County , Tainan County , City Kaohsiung , Taitung County

After the end of the war, the leaders of the Young China Party took part in the mediation talks under American direction between the Communists and the Kuomintang, attempting to play the role of the independent third party. In the 1946 election to the National Assembly, whose task was to be the adoption of a new constitution, the Young China Party took part and entered into an electoral alliance with the Kuomintang that would formally secure 300 seats in the National Assembly, which had nominally 3,045 delegates (another 160 seats should get the Democratic Socialist Party). This calculation did not work out, however, and almost three quarters of the candidates for the two parties were not elected because the majority of the voters did not follow the election recommendations of the KMT party headquarters. As a result, the KMT leadership tried to keep its political promise to persuade elected KMT candidates to resign so that candidates from both parties could move up. This also succeeded to a large extent.

On December 25, 1948, the CCP broadcast a blacklist of people who were "war criminals whose heinous crimes are well known" and who "unanimously agreed to receive the punishment they deserve." Zeng Qi, leader of the Young China Party, was also on this list of names.

Faced with catastrophic military defeats against the communists in mainland China, the Kuomintang government relocated to Taiwan in 1948 and declared martial law. Besides the Kuomintang, the only political parties that remained allowed were the Young China Party and the Democratic Socialist Party of China. Formally there was a multi-party system in the Republic of China on Taiwan, which existed from 1949. The two parties also took part in elections in the following decades and occasionally won a few seats. However, political power remained entirely in the hands of the Kuomintang. Speculations by some that the two parties could become genuine opposition parties in light of the easing of political repression that began after Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975 was not fulfilled. Both parties were too thinned out, and voters no longer viewed them as truly independent organizations from the Kuomintang. Even after the democratization of the political situation in Taiwan in the early 1990s, the Young China Party was unable to make a fresh start and the party only occasionally put up candidates in elections.

Web links

• THE YOUNG CHINA PARTY , report on the party of May 19, 1950 (CIA document, made available to the public July 10, 2001, English)
• www.ycp.org.tw Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Lee Shun-wai: The Young China Association (1918-1925): A Case Study of Chinese Intellectuals' Search for National Regeneration and Personal Identity . Ed .: University of Hong Kong. August 1987 (English, pdf - Master's thesis).
2. ^ Zeng Qi Papers Announcement. Hoover Institution, October 26, 2010, accessed November 8, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chan Lau Kit-Ching: The Chinese Youth Party 1923–1945 . Ed .: Center of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong. 1972 (English).
4. ↑ Nagatomi Hirayama: The lives and politics of the May Fourth youth in France, 1919–23 . In: Historical Research . tape 91 , no. 252 , May 2018, p. 353-374 , doi : 10.1111 / 1468-2281.12223 (English).
5. ^ Edmund SK Fung: In Search of a Chinese Democracy . Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-02581-8 , pp. 146-148 (English).
6. ^ Edmund SK Fung: In Search of a Chinese Democracy . Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-02581-8 , chap. 7: The Third Force Movement: The Chinese Democratic League 1941–1945, pp. 230-262 (English).
7. ↑ Minutes of Conference Between General Marshall and Mr. Tseng Chi, Representative of the Young China Party, at No. 5 Ning Hai Road, Nanking, July 9, 1946, 10 am In: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, The Far East: China, Volume IX Document 656. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, US State Department, accessed on October 3, 2018 (English). 
8. ^ The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State. In: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Far East: China, Volume VII Document 26 Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, US State Department, January 15, 1948, retrieved on October 3, 2018 (english) . 
9. ^ The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Department of State. In: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Far East: China, Volume VII Document 591. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, Department of State, accessed October 3, 2018 . 
10. ^ John F. Copper: Taiwan's recent elections: Fulfilling the democratic promise. In: Hungdah Chiu (Ed.): Contemporary Asian Studies Series . tape 6 , no. 1 , 1990 (English, umaryland.edu ).
11. ^ Christian Schafferer: The Power of the Ballot Box - Political development and Election Campaigning in Taiwan . Lexington Books, 2003, ISBN 0-7391-0481-0 , chap. 2 Elections in Postwar Taiwan, p. 31-142 (English).