The Republic of China Army
By the end of the Second World War, the Republic of China Army was the largest in the world, with over 8 million soldiers under arms, if staff and support personnel were included. It was an impressive number though it assumed that all divisions remained at their full paper strength of 20,000 soldiers. This was rarely the case, though this time it was by design, rather than incompetence or corruption. Chinese divisions had been receiving reduced reinforcements since the fall of France and most troops finishing their deployments were not replaced. This was not for lack of men, with a population of over 500 million, the men were there if necessary, but rather a conscious move by Chief of Staff, Jiang Baili, to reduce the amount of soldiers deployed abroad. The 122nd division stationed in Foggia was typical. Though officially listed as having 20,000 men, the amount on the ground was only 14,000, with the remainder listed as "pending transit." The reality of that phrase was that the soldiers "pending transit" to their units on the front were essentially in reserve within China and most remained there until the war ended at which point they could be formally discharged.
This had temporarily postponed decision on a much larger and more troublesome question. The exact nature and strength of the Republic's post war military.
Everyone acknowledged that it was unsustainable at it's current size, but few knew what to do about the relentless inertia of expansion. Jiang Baili had set ambitious targets for reduction but left the details vague. Whether it was by recruitment of new divisions, the formal absorption of formerly independent troops or the expansion of existing formations, the Republic of China Army had expanded every year since the founding of Whampoah in 1923. In that time, it had become almost unrecognizable. For one thing, the army was far more professional. Unlike their 1920's predecessors, the junior officers in China's army were all literate, trained in modern weapons, and more importantly, competent at managing both tactics and logistics. The attrition rate among soldiers within the army had been reduced drastically and the combat readiness of the army had gone up substantially. New weapons and technology had helped but the biggest factor was the adoption of basic sanitation, consistent logistics and the expansion of the Medical Corps, though later histories would often ignore this aspect when discussing the efficiency of the Republic of China Army.
In any case, the army had to make a transition from an army of conquest to one of occupation, though the second aspect was very limited. Western generals had been surprised by how quickly their counterparts in the Republic had discussed withdrawals of troops. There was every indication that China would be out of Europe within months. Even the former Soviet areas were not going to see a large Chinese presence. For the Chinese leadership, running the internal affairs of another country was just not desirable and unlike the British, they did not see themselves as the guarantors of peace in Europe or even particularly invested in the the post war situation there. According the American Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, the abrupt Chinese timetable for exiting Europe was one of the major factors which spurred the European allies towards greater post war integration.
In 1944, with the major diplomatic aspects of the peace decided, the General Staff met for an unusually democratic and heated discussion of the future of the Chinese army. Pang Bingxun, Yan Xishan and Long Yun were in favor of a larger peace time force while Zhang Xueliang, Bai Chongxi and Jiang Baili were opposed. Not lost on either group was the composition of the junior officer corps. The older officers tended to undervalue civilian leadership and there was still an impression that the armed forces were the senior partner in the Republic government. In 1928, a third of the Nationalist Army officer corps were assessed from provincial military academies or rose from the ranks, a third were Baoding graduates, and another third were Whampoa graduates. Of those few who had attended military academies abroad, most had studied in Japan.
The Chinese army of 1945 was vastly different. While the composition of the most senior officers still reflected these ratios, the establishment of the Zhongshan fund in 1937 had vastly increased the amount of Chinese students studying abroad. While predominantly focused on building professional skills, students did have the option to enroll in Western military academies if they desired to do so. Between 1904 and 1937, when the Zhongshan act was passed, Only 93 Chinese students had attended American military Institutions (The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Viginia, Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina and the United States Military Academy at West Point). These graduates were few in number but were invariably exceptionally gifted. For example, Wang Geng was the son of a Shanghai businessman who studied engineering at both Michigan and Columbia universities before taking a B.Litt. in history, with honors, from Princeton in 1915. Though originally planning to pursue graduate studies at Harvard, Wang accepted an appointment to West Point and earned a second baccalaureate in 1918, standing 12th in his class of 227. Another student, Wang Chengzhi, was a graduate of Nanyang College in 1916, and attended Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before being appointed to West Point. Wang stood 14th in the graduating Class of 1922. While technically skilled and generally more competent than their Chinese trained counterparts, the graduates of western military academies had generally been excluded from high positions because they didn't have the benefit of 關係 that the much more numerous Whampoah and Baoding graduates shared. During the warlord and Nanjing period, commanders drew their staff and appointed subordinate commanders from former classmates in a traditional Confucian pattern of "human relations and social conventions." Lacking membership in such prestigious alumni associations, the returned students were denied the best postings and commands or, in some instances before the 1938 army reform, even commissions. .
Fortunately, two more American educated Chinese gave them the opportunity to serve. In 1929, T.V. Soong (Chiang Kai Shek's brother in law and head of the China development bank) and then finance minister, Kong Xiangxi, wanted to collect the government controlled salt monopoly/tax more effectively. As part of this they were empowered to create Revenue Guard units to collect and transport the salt tax (local warlords often felt that the salt tax was the property of the local administration and the Revenue Guards were there to politely disagree.) Importantly, these were subordinate to the Ministry of Finance rather than the normal military command structure. T.V Soong had appointed Wang Geng as its commander due to their previous association in America as part of Chinese Delegation to the International Federation of Students. The revenue units were funded from the salt tax directly and were, by consequence among the most well equipped forces in China during the early 30's. They also attracted an inordinate number of American trained officers. Their first combat deployment happened during the first Shanghai incident in 1932 when Chiang Kai Shek wanted to reinforce the 19th Route army then fighting in Shanghai. Fearing that sending in the regular Revolutionary Army would escalate the incident to a full scale war, he dispatched the Revenue Guard as reinforcements where they fought the Japanese to a standstill.
Following a truce in May, the brigade was ordered to Haizhou in northern Jiangsu province, and placed under the direct command of Wen Yingxing, a 1909 graduate of West Point. Under Wen's leadership, the tax unit would become noted for superior equipment and marksmanship. Many returned students would be recruited over the next five years to fill command and staff positions. Zhu Shiming's disbanded Hunan training regiment had already been reorganized as the 1st Regiment under its former commander, Colonel Zhao Hengjin (Norwich '28). Colonel Sun Liren (VMI '27) was given command of the 4th Regiment. Appointed as directors of Revenue Guard schools for officers and enlisted men were George Bao (Norwich '14), Zhang Daohong (USMA '18), and Zhou Yanjun (VMI '27). Zeng Xigui (VMI '25) and Ma Zhuan (Norwich '25) served on Wen Yingxing's staff,
During the war with Japan, the Revenue Guards were formally integrated into the National Revolutionary army, where they served with distinction. The death of Chiang Kai Shek and the ascendancy of Kong Xiangxi to presidency was what finally opened up the top command track for American trained officers. Kong Xiangxi was never going to be able to build the same sort of network of military patronage that Chiang Kai Shek had enjoyed, but he remained acutely aware of how much pull he lacked within the Republic's Army, thus making room for Western educated officers in the command structure was a quick way to shore up support. This was supported by Dai Li who saw it as a good way to weaken the Whampoah clique's stranglehold within the army.
American cooperation both during the war with Japan and with Russia, had increased the trend with American officers serving as instructors in Chinese military academies. The Republic also sent officers abroad to study. For example, over 800 Chinese officers received military training in America or Britain during 1943 compared to 100 in the 30 years before 1937. This batch of students was modern in their goals and ambitions and did not view the military as a step stone to obtaining temporal power.
While war expenditures had forced the government to obtain massive loans from the United States and forced a reinstitution of many unpopular taxes, for individual officials involved in administering the war industry, it was a massively lucrative endeavor and even those only peripherally involved worried about what would happen if the munitions factories went silent.
The delay in deployments had also caused an interesting conflict. For many soldiers, being drafted had meant access to hot meals, good clothing and a guaranteed place to sleep. (One of the things that was almost universally mentioned by American soldiers running Chinese logistics was the sheer capacity for roughing it. The dependence of so many on the army for their livelihoods was one of the many reasons for keeping th army large. People feared what would happen should millions of unemployed soldiers return en masse.
The final result of the negotiations was an agreement to reduce the size of the army by nearly half with further reductions to be announced later.
The Chinese state also was desperate to update China's infrastructure. It needed to integrate the newly acquired territories as well as open up China's internal market. One of the enduring legacies of the 19th century had been a shift of Chinese trade from the interior to the coast. The government was keen to extend modernity into the hinterlands. The final plan would not be complete for many years.
The plans had been originally formulated by Sun Yat Sen and the use of his name was a big part in getting the legislation past.
This public works project would be under the control of the Veteran Affairs Committee for employment 行政院國軍退除役官兵輔導委員會 and it was one of many measures designed to prevent the large numbers of returning soldiers from being unemployed.
The end of the war had not stopped China's nuclear program. The capture of the German Uranprojekt as well as Russian sources had given the Chinese effort a huge boost. The facility in Qinghai was expanding massively and few in the West had realized it. Their was debate within the military as to whether the Chinese should test the bomb and thus give away its existence.
China would become the world's first nuclear power on November 15th. 1946 when a uranium implosion device was detonated in the Taklimakan desert south of Aksu. Both the American and the British governments were only informed after the fact and they lodged several diplomatic protests. Reaction might have been stronger, but everyone knew that China lacked long range aircraft capable of delivering such a device to anywhere in Europe or the Western hemisphere and thus they accepted the stated purpose of being a safeguard against Russian or Japanese Revanchism. That said, during the 1948 election, president Truman would face charges of being complicit in allowing China to get the bomb before the United States.
The range of Chinese missiles based in the Pacific base of Enitewok. With the ability to hit Hawaii, these missiles were the only ones with the range to hit US soil.
For most people in the West, the worrying storm clouds were in Europe where the government in Poland vied for influence over Belarus and France was racked by a rapid succession of governments as the largest party, Parti communiste français, (the French communists), tussled with a variety of gaullists, monarchists and socialists. The loss of Indochina and the inability of the French resistance to play a meaningful role in the liberation of Metropolitan France had lead to nationwide malaise that politicians sought both to rectify and take advantage of. Britain had given independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, and in the process, China had pressed for the land that had been taken away by Simla Accords in 1914 and the area had been restored to Tibet and put under the authority of the Dalai Lama. The Germans and the Italians were pressing for a European common market in steel and coal, but were hampered by the unreliability French support for the project.
The world would be rocked by the second announcement in 1949, the Chinese development of the first long range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The Dong Feng "East Wind" 東風 5 was a massive improvement that caught the rest of the Allies completely by surprise. The Chinese had captured the German rocketry program at Peenemünde and the yet to be deployed V-2 series of rockets. As far as Britain and the United States knew, German rocketry had been limited to the inaccurate buzz bombs as the war had ended before any V-2's could be launched. The Chinese had "requisitioned" the entire German operation at Peenemünde, personnel included and moved them to South Sichuan. The resulting collaboration over the past 6 years had massively increased the pace of Chinese rocketry. While the rest of the world thought large scale ballistic missiles both impractical and hypothetical, Chinese researchers had been working from the V-2 and increasing the size and accuracy of their own rockets. The public announcement of the new rocket was followed by a launch into the South Pacific. While it hit nothing and was only a test, everyone understood the message. The Chinese could drop a nuke from 8,000 km away in a way that was impossible to intercept.
This put them well in the range of Europe.
While China's Pacific island bases even allowed them to hit the continental United States.
The only place that was actually out of range was South America.
The strategic calculus has been entirely upended, see how modern history is altered, next time on AARight to Be Hostile!