Chen Jiongming (1878–1933) and the Chinese Federalist Movement

--L l: ~] l] ~ ~ ~J ~] ~ :-T, Chen Jiongming (1878-1933) and the Chinese Federalist Movement by Leslie H. Chen* This article is concerned with the second half of Chen Jionqming's life: his struggle for the federalist cause, his split with Sun Yatsen, and the shattering of his dream of a "united States of China" in the 1920s. In the first half of his life, he distinguished himself asa leader in the Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Qing Dyna~ty, and in the Second Revolution of 19131916 , which restored the Chinese RepUblic in the face of Yuan Shikai's monarchical attempt. 1 Strong sentiments for federalism in China dated back to the early republican years. In 1914, a noted revolutionary from Hubei Province wrote of an Ideal RepUblic: To assure an unshakable foundation for the RepUblic, it is more urgent to d~termine and firmly establish the system of local government than to proceed with the writing of the constitution.... I believe that, even though it is not necessary to adopt the name of a federal government, we must use the spirit of organization of a federal government.... We must prevent any political change in the central government from affecting the functioning of the local governments •••• We must prevent the use of Nationalism [italics mine] as a pretext to concentrate all power in the central government, as this could cause the country to sink into a state of devastation for decades to come. We pray that this will not happen (Gu 1914:186). * In this article, the author has drawn upon the following sources: diplomatic reports and documents from the American and British archives, politically independent newspapers and journals, and his own collection of private papers and correspondence. Guomindang (Chinese Nationalist Party) historians have treated Chen as a warlord, sometimes as a disciple of Sun Yatsen, or as the rebel who engineered the coup d'etat of June 16, 1922. The political spirit and historical significance of the federalist movement in China in the 1920s have been suppressed for nearly three quarters of a century by the two successive totalitarian regimes in modern China. It is thus little known to the new generation of Chinese people and Western scholars. An earlier version of this article was presented in June 1989 at the regional meeting of the Association for Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii. 21 The federalists' emphasis on establishing a system of stable local governments having practical autonomy was later articulated by the scholar-patriot Zhang Binglin: There is an important and fundamental distinction when we speak of a federal government (liansheng zhengfu) or a federation of self-governing provinces (liansheng zizhi) • To achieve a lasting federal government, we must first have self-governing provinces, then .•• a federation of such provinces, and, finally, we organize a federal government. It would be a fallacy to have a federal government before self-government can be achieved in the provinces (~January 13, 1921). To the federalists at the time, local self-government (difang ~) was synonymous with government by the people (minzhi); it was a prereq~isite to a lasting federation. Thus, emphasis was placed on the distinction between a "federation" of self-governing provinces and a "confederation" of provinces controlled by the militarists or party cliques, which had no genuine desire or reform programs directed toward the establishment Qf local self-government . Federation also meant to the federalists a system of government with "shared authority" between the central government and the provinces (difang fenguan), as opposed to the "centralized authority " system (zhongyang jiguan), in which all power was vested in the central governm~nt. Federalist Program in Guangdong The reform programs carried out by Chen Jiongming and his supporters in Guangdong from 1920-1922 exemplified the serious attempt of, the southern federalists to achieve local self-government prior to federation. After returning from Fujian with the Guangdong Army in November 1920, Chen immediately embarked upon a fervent program to make Guangdong a model province, so as to "gain the confidence of the nation (mofan gixin)." The American Minister at Beijing, Dr. Jacob G. Schurman, summarized the situation: The Government at Canton has created in that city a moder~ municipal government of...