Inter-provincial autonomy

Inter-provincial autonomy was a political system reform plan proposed by politicians and local military leaders during the time of the Beiyang government in the early years of the Republic of China.

Overview

On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen expounded his attitude towards the issue of inter-provincial autonomy in his Provisional Presidential Declaration:

The country is a vast country, and each province has its own atmosphere. The Qing government used to rely on the central government. The implementation of the law of centralization led to its pseudo-constitutional technique; today, the provinces unite and seek autonomy from each other. After that, the administration depends on the proper adjustment of the relationship between the central government and the provinces. The outline is ambiguous, and the items are self-imposed. It is the internal rule of unity.

In 1919, Liang Qichao put forward the political proposition of "inter-provincial autonomy" for the first time in his Liberation and Transformation. He wrote:

1. The doujin are convinced that the old-style representative politics is not suitable for China, so they advocate the citizens. The final right of self-determination must always be obtained in law.
2. The doujin believes that the organization of the country is all based on the locality, so it is advocated that the central authority should be reduced to the point necessary to maintain unity.
3. The doujin believes that local autonomy should be based Automatically, so it is advocated that all provinces and even all counties and cities should automatically formulate the fundamental law and abide by it, and the state must recognize it.

The instigator of the inter-provincial autonomy movement was Xiong Xiling. Hunan Supervisor Tan Yankai was the first to respond to this doctrine. Tan and Xiong Xiling had a deep relationship. On July 22, 1920, Tan Yankai issued his Returning Politics to the People and Hunan People's Autonomy, expressing the need to "conform to the sentiments of the people" and implement the rule of the people. And received responses from Zhejiang warlord Lu Yongxiang, Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming and others. In October, Zhang Taiyan was invited to visit Changsha and personally instigated and encouraged Tan Yankai to implement inter-provincial autonomy. On November 2, Tan Yankai issued a proposition for inter-provincial autonomy, which was a step higher than the autonomy of a province. On November 9, Zhang Taiyan published the Discussion on the False Government of the Joint Provincial Autonomy in Beijing's Yi Shi Bao, expressing his support. The Constitution of Hunan Province was promulgated in January 1922, and received responses from local warlords in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhejiang, and Fengtian. In September 1922, Hu Shi also advocated "a unified federal state based on provincial autonomy." Zhang Dongsu, Ding Shize, Pan Lishan and others published articles in support of federalism.

Sun Yat-sen believed that inter-provincial autonomy did not promote democracy, and advocated a system of equal power and the implementation of local autonomy with counties as a unit. Therefore, he opposed inter-provincial autonomy and believed that federalism was an act of inverted results. In the summer of 1922, Sun Yat-sen established a northern expedition base camp in Shaoguan, Guangdong, formed a coalition force to attack Jiangxi, and began an operation to unify China. Chen Jiongming of Guangdong advertised that he "suspended the military" and "established the provincial constitution first," and the two clashed fiercely. Finally, Sun Yat-sen returned to Guangzhou. Chen bombarded the Guanyinshan Presidential Palace in Guangzhou on June 16, 1922, which was known as the June 16 Incident in history. Sun Yat-sen left Guangzhou on the Yongfeng ship under the escorts of Jiang Zhongzheng and Chen Ce and retired to Shanghai. In 1926, Jiang Zhongzheng launched the Northern Expedition, entered Hunan, and then unified China. The idea of inter-provincial autonomy fell through.

In recent years, the emergence of the Chinese Federalist trend of thought can also be described as a continuation of the idea of inter-provincial autonomy.

Evolution of the theory

• Gu Yanwu
• Huang Zongxi
• Zhang Taiyan wrote The Theory of Fan Town and The Theory of Town Division in 1899, and proposed to strengthen local power.
• Liang Qichao wrote The Rousseau Study Case in 1901, taking Switzerland as an example, advocating local autonomy.
• Song Jiaoren
• Kang Youwei, wrote A Study of the Death of India Due to the Self-reliance of the Provinces with his classmates, Liang Qichao and others, taking the independence of India's provinces as an example, and opposed local autonomy.
• Tang Dechang, Inter-provincial Autonomy and Present China, Pacific Magazine Vol. 3 No. 7, September 1922.

Related discussion

• Li Qiquan
• Zhang Dongsun
• Ding Foyan
• Zhang Shizhao
• Pan Lishan
• Xiong Xiling was the first to formally put forward the theory of "inter-provincial autonomy".
• Chen Duxiu, once participated in Chen Jiongming's Guangdong Provincial Self-Government, was in charge of education, but later opposed the inter-provincial autonomy. He advocated organizing a powerful political party to unify China by force.
• Li Jiannong

Provincial Constitutional Movement (1920-1926)

In 1920, two joint organizations appeared in Beijing, the Autonomous Federation of Provinces and Autonomous Regions and the Comrades Association of the Autonomous Movement. A joint office for the autonomous movement of five provinces and one district was established in Tianjin. The Federation of Autonomous Provinces and Autonomous Regions was established in Shanghai. In 1921, Hunan Province first introduced the Draft Constitution of Hunan Province. Afterwards, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guangdong all formulated provincial constitutions, and Hubei, Guangxi, Fujian, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and other provinces were also actively preparing for their own constitutional autonomy. Zhang Binglin referred to this federalist movement as "inter-provincial autonomy."

Hunan Independence Movement

Main article: Hunan Independence Movement

After Tan Yankai left Hunan, Zhao Hengti served as the commander-in-chief of the Hunan Army and continued to implement the "joint governance" policy. In late December 1920, Zhao issued the Law of rushing to system provincial autonomy for implementation, which was responded to by warlords in Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and other provinces. In 1921, the Constitution of Hunan Province was passed and implemented in January 1922. The president of the Provincial Council was elected to be Li Jiannong, and Hunan was the first province with a form of autonomy. In September 1922, Zhao Hengti was elected as the first elected governor of Hunan.

Promoted by leftists in Hunan, led by Mao Zedong, Peng Huang, and Zhang Wenliang. In 1920, Mao Zedong published the separatist concept of "providing the country to build a country", advocating the establishment of the Hunan Republic and the independent establishment of the country by each province in China. He said: "The best way is to simply not seek general construction, simply split, and seek the division of the provinces. The implementation of "the people's self-determination in all provinces." Twenty-two provinces, three special zones and two territories (should refer to Tibet and Mongolia), a total of 27 places, it is best to be divided into 27 countries.", became the vanguard of modern separatist thought. The idea of establishing a nation by provinces was completely different from the ideal of inter-provincial autonomy. Inter-provincial autonomy mainly hoped that provinces would reform themselves to form a new China; if the province is established, it would adopt separatism and advocate the establishment of the Republic of Hunan, which completely denied the need for the existence of the Republic of China. Such leftists were influenced by the success of the Russian Revolution. They believed that "the division of the great powers is an inevitable process for achieving universal unity" and "the establishment of the Hunan Republic is a means to achieve universal unity." Therefore, they advocated that Hunan and other provinces should be separated and independent from the territory of the "Republic of China". In order to achieve the goal of establishing an independent country, they advocated the principle of national self-determination to create the independent nationality of Hunanese and form a theory suitable for self-establishment of the country (provincial self-determination). Mao Zedong published in Ta Kung Pao in October 1920:

We who advocate the "Hunan Republic" do not necessarily change the word "province" in Hunan Province to "republic" literally. They just want to get a kind of "full autonomy." It's not just satisfying to get "semi-autonomy."

Other "union rule" movements

In August 1921, Chen Jiongming promoted a democratically elected county magistrate in Guangdong, resulting in nearly 100 people. The picture shows a group photo of some elected county magistrates.

• Provincial Autonomous Federations, composed of representatives of twelve provinces including Jiangsu and Beijing
• The Comrades Association of the Autonomous Movement, composed of representatives from eleven provinces including Zhili Province
• The joint office of the autonomous movement in five provinces and one district including Shaanxi was established in Tianjin
• Shanghai: The Federation of Autonomous Provinces and Regions was established in Shanghai
• Sichuan: Liu Cunhou, Xiong Kewu, and Liu Xiang stand together. In November 1920, Liu Xiang and others proposed seven measures to resolve the aftermath of the Sichuan Bureau, including "the spirit of governing Sichuan by the people of Sichuan and the implementation of local autonomy." Liu Xiang telegraphed a statement on February 21, 1921. Sichuan's complete autonomy was the first to respond to Hunan's "union rule" proposal.
• Lu Tao, Guizhou Province, was energized on January 28, 1921.
• Tang Jiyao of Yunnan Province, corresponding to the inter-provincial autonomy, presided over the formulation of the "Temporary Organizational Outline of the Yunnan Provincial Government", Gu Pinzhen
• Guangxi: Lu Rongting
• Guangdong: Chen Jiongming used the slogans of "Cantonese governing Guangdong" and "Elected by the people" as the prelude to the constitutional movement of Guangdong Province. On December 19, 1921, the Provincial Assembly passed the "Draft Constitution of Guangdong Province."
• Fujian: On December 14, 1922, the Fujian Provincial Assembly was energized to announce the drafting of the Provincial Constitution, which officially kicked off the Fujian Provincial Constitutional Movement. On January 13, 1925, the Provincial Assembly promulgated the "Fujian Province Constitution" and the "Fujian Province Constitution Enforcement Law." On January 30, the Duan Qirui government replied: "The national constitution has not yet been resolved, and the provincial constitution should be postponed and considered effective." Zhou Mengren of the Fujian Military Supervision Office and Sa Zhenbing, Governor of Fujian Province jointly declared: "The Fujian provincial constitution is illegal and should be denied." Thereafter, the Fujian Provincial Constitutional Movement was declared a failure, and the Provincial Assembly was dissolved in 1926.
• Jiangsu: In 1921, the Jiangsu gentry with the Soviet society at its core wanted to appoint the Jiangsu Provincial Constitution in the third provincial assembly of Jiangsu Province. However, the Jiangsu gentry was split internally. The Nanzhang faction accused Zhang Xiaoruo of bribery to elect the chairperson, and attracted public opinion pressure and student trends. The Constitutional Autonomy Movement in Jiangsu Province was severely affected.
• Anhui
• Hubei
• Jiangxi: Chen Guangyuan was energized accordingly and instructed the Jiangxi Provincial Assembly to convene the Provincial Constitutional Assembly.
• Zhejiang: In April 1921, the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly passed the "Organization Law of the Constitutional Conference of Zhejiang Province." On June 4, Zhejiang Governor Lu Yongxiang issued a "Huge Power", proposing "Decentralization of powers to localities", "First, the provincial constitution determines the basis of autonomy, followed by the old rules of national constitution guaranteeing unification", and echoes the "union rule" proposition. On September 9, the Provincial Constitutional Conference officially promulgated the "Zhejiang Constitution of the Republic of China" and the "Enforcement Law of the Zhejiang Province of the Republic of China". This was the first provincial constitution during the Republic of China, and 15 subsidiary laws were passed since then.
• On June 20, 1921, Chen Shufan of Shaanxi responded to Lu Yongxiang's suggestion to use the banner of "union rule" against the Beiyang government.
• Northeast: Zhang Zuolin declared Northeast autonomy on May 1, 1922.

Criticism

Before the Northern Expedition, Sun Yat-sen had already strongly criticized the "Inter-provincial Autonomy Movement." Sun Yat-sen pointed out in The Fourth Lecture of Civil Rights:

Those who advocate splitting China must be careerists who want to separate provinces and regions. For example, Tang Jiyao separatized Yunnan, Zhao Hengti seized Hunan, Lu Rongting seized Guangxi, and Chen Jiongming seized Guangdong. The separatist union is a union of warlords, not a union of people’s autonomy; this type of union is not conducive to China, but conducive to individuals. We should be clear about the differences.

See also

• Autonomous region
• Local government
• Decentralization
• Cantonese nationalism
• Federalism in China

Bibliography

• 马勇：《20世纪20年代“联省自治”的理论与实践》，近代中国网
• 刘军宁：《联省自治：二十世纪的联邦主义尝试》，天益网
• 民國初年的聯省自治運動．李達嘉．弘文舘出版社．1986年5月初版．第104-105頁
• 毛澤東．大公報．「全自治」與「半自治」．民國9年10月3日

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