The first two decades of the twentieth century were turbulent and chaotic. From a global perspective, when the First World War broke out, the pressure of global war fell on all mankind. From China's point of view, after the founding of the Republic of China, it experienced the control of national politics by Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shikai, Li, Duan, Xu Shichang and Feng, and Zhang Xun's political farce.
Similarly, in this chaotic early 20th century, the world was completely unified as a whole, the war in Europe was no longer confined to Europe, and China's politics was no longer a separate China politics. At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, it was threatened by western powers and its East Asian neighbor Japan. When the war of World War I began to burn in Europe, what happened inside the Beiyang warlord government in Beijing?
At the beginning of World War I, Yuan Shikai was the President of the Republic of China. His attitude towards World War I was firm and neutral. As Yuan Shikai declared in 19 14 on August 6th, he is determined to be strictly neutral in this war among European countries? I hope to remain neutral and not let the flames of war in Europe burn to China.
At this time, some bureaucrats, such as Liang Shiyi, Yuan Shikai's secretary-general, suggested to Yuan that the first move should be strong, and Qingdao should be surrounded by taking the opportunity to force the Germans to return by using both soft and hard methods. Yuan Shikai believes that Liang Shiyi's statement is not unreasonable under the circumstances at that time. However, China has declared neutrality and is afraid of diplomatic disputes with Japan, so he has never adopted his proposal. 19 16 At the beginning of this year, Yuan Shikai announced the lifting of the imperial system, which failed and ended in depression in less than a year.
19 17, Li was pushed to the throne by everyone, and Yuan Shikai's confidant General Duan became the Prime Minister of the State Council. ; The president and the prime minister check each other. At that time, everyone knew that behind Li and Duan, there were ghostly figures such as Britain, America, Japan and Germany.
At the same time, the world situation, World War I entered the deep water area, and the German army sent a large number of submarines carrying missiles to fight with the American army, and the German-American war instantly intensified to the extreme. On February 3, the two countries completely broke off diplomatic relations. At this time, although there are traditional powers such as Britain and France, there are also rising stars such as the United States and Japan. However, in World War I, Germany had the advantage of leading the world in military strength, weapons and equipment, tactical literacy and so on. Allies naturally need more allies and more facade support. So, the eyes of the Allies turned to China, to be exact, the Republic of China.
At this time, the actual leader of the Beijing government of the Republic of China is called? The tiger of Beiyang? Duan Ruiqi. Duan became famous in Yuan Shikai's small station training. At first, he was just a student. Later, his talent and ability were appreciated by Yuan Shikai, and he naturally became the Prime Minister of the State Council after Yuan Shikai's death. As a big president, Li has great overhead power, which is more symbolic than real power. However? A thin camel is bigger than a horse? Li still retains some political capital. At this point, there are three questions before them:
Will the government of the Republic of China or Beijing participate in World War I or remain neutral? If the Republic of China enters the war, will it join the Allies or Allies? Will the government of the Republic of China declare war on Germany after the war?
Around these three issues, the Presidential Palace and the State Council have been arguing endlessly, and many people clamored that China would take the opportunity to change its policy. Li's presidential palace adopted a vague attitude of not directly expressing its position on the above three issues, and actually secretly observed Duan's handling strategy and public opinion in Congress. On the other hand, Duan's group has surrendered to Britain, the United States and Japan successively? Allies and powers? By participating in the war, he can extort military expenses and gather strength, thus effectively overhead Li's power. Therefore, on this issue, Duan government actively advocated participating in the war and breaking diplomatic relations with Germany.
Domestic political parties have different opinions. When expressing their opinions, foreign representatives also come to our country to lobby. First of all, Rui Enshi, the American ambassador to China, conducted a lot of diplomatic activities, urging China to follow the United States. Subsequently, the Italian Foreign Ministry, British Foreign Secretary John Newell Jordan, Russian Foreign Minister Kupensky and Japanese Foreign Minister Kaya Hioki Yi, representing the allies, came forward to lobby the indecisive Beijing government, hoping to change China's neutral stance. The Prime Minister Duan was overjoyed. This move by the Americans just touches on the topic of neutrality or participation in the war that has been suppressed for a long time. Under such inducement, the diplomatic deadlock of the Republic of China was broken, and a diplomatic situation was ready to go.
Although Sun Yat-sen, the military government of Guangzhou in the south, and Tang, the governor of Yunnan, strongly opposed participating in the war, it did not help. Just one month later, on March 6, China and Germany finally broke off diplomatic relations. At the same time, it also shows that China will join the Allies and participate in the post-war war as a directly related country? A meeting to share trophies? Paris Peace Conference.
What Duan's diplomats didn't expect was that China, egged on by western powers, became a major participant in World War I, but it was still at the Paris Peace Conference? Fish? Britain, America, France, Japan and other countries or? Knife? . That is to say, although China joined the Allies to fight against the Allies in World War I, it still became a victim and was carved up at the end of liquidation. The unfair treatment of the Paris Peace Conference not only humiliated the Duan government, but also aroused the anger of all China people. Another day's mighty wave will also begin. A few years later, on a boat in Jiaxing, young people with sharp edges and blood gathered together, and the story that followed became a household name.
When we carefully think back to this period in the early years of the Republic of China. Fight or neutrality? The passivity of Beiyang government activities bears the brunt in Beiyang history. Weak countries have no diplomacy? Proverbs are even more striking.
It can be concluded that the diplomatic decision made by the Beijing government of the Republic of China is neither active nor completely passive. On the question of neutrality, we can clearly see that the process of formulating diplomatic strategy is not based on the sovereign interests, independence and jurisdiction of the country, but is encouraged by foreign forces under the conditions of induction and coercion. Although the European war helped the Republic of China to obtain certain long-term investment income, just as all weak countries have extremely low diplomatic rights, the Beiyang government is only a European and American country after all? Relatively free chess pieces? . This freedom is pale after all, and the failure of the Paris Peace Conference is a vivid example.
So let's say, what was the foreign relations of the Beijing government in the early years of the Republic of China? The difference between initiative and passivity. ? Passivity refers to the foreign policy decision of the government of the Republic of China at that time, which depends on the distribution of interests among western powers (including Japanese) and the development degree of the powers in China. The Beiyang government represented by Duan has been kneeling for a long time, and it has become accustomed to it. Such thinking inertia is also one of the reasons for the inevitable decline of the Beiyang warlord government.
In addition to the weakness of Beiyang government in the face of western powers, the serious shortcomings of domestic sovereignty cognition and diplomatic level in the early Republic of China were also exposed. Typical modern countries, especially sovereign countries, are also indispensable subjects in today's world. As for the diplomatic field of sovereign countries, it is generally believed that sovereign countries should have completely independent powers, among which jurisdiction and independence are important components of national sovereignty. Jurisdiction means that a sovereign state has the right to manage all people and things within its territory. The right to independence is to declare that the jurisdiction of the country is completely independent.
Sadly, in the early Republic of China, under the rule of Beiyang government headed by Duan, the Republic of China could not realize the above two basic sovereignty; Politicians are at the mercy of the west, but also extremely important and sincere? The right to declare war? It has also become a tool used by the great powers. It is true that the diplomatic situation has always been complicated and changeable. The particularity of the early years of the Republic of China, the special period of social, political and economic transformation, and the ignorance of sovereignty of the ruling rulers of the Republic of China undoubtedly amplified the difficulty of foreign relations work.
This difficulty ran through the government of the Republic of China from beginning to end, dating back to Sun Yat-sen's compromise letter to his friends, until the Beijing government was forced to participate in the war, and then the national governments such as Chiang Kai-shek and Wang directly became spokespersons for the interests of the great powers. This situation has long made the Republic of China a vassal of western diplomacy at the diplomatic level until the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) (PRC). Start a new stove? China's diplomatic strategy, in the history of international relations and diplomacy, escaped a bullet and became? Chess pieces? The turning point of fate has opened up its own path.
The warlord government of the Republic of China was good at infighting, but not good at dealing with diplomacy; He is good at defending foreign rights, but he is not good at defending foreign rights. His image as a spokesman for the Western-supported rule of China can be seen. This recognition of foreign relations also makes the diplomacy of the Republic of China unable to break away from the shackles and alliances of western powers, so it finally boils down to that classic judgment:? Weak countries have no diplomacy? .