Decline, Fall, and Aftermath of the Qing Empire 115
Shikai, who had earlier sided with the empress dowager against the
reformers of 1898. But the revolutionaries also appealed to Yuan to
support a new republic of China, free of Manchu imperial rule. Yuan in
effect negotiated the end of the Qing dynasty.
The Qing court agreed to the six-year-old Xuantong Emperor abdi-
cating the dragon throne in exchange for the promise that he and his
family would continue to live in the imperial palace with a generous
annual stipend while maintaining possession of the immense imperial
palace collection of art treasures. Much to the relief of the revolution-
aries, the Qing dynasty had been overthrown without China’s descend-
ing into chaos and without the Western powers and Japan carving up
the country like a melon. Because Yuan Shikai controlled the military
forces of the fl edgling state, he rather than Sun Yat-sen assumed the
presidency of this new republic on February 12, 1912.
While the anti-Qing revolutionaries were united in their desire to
overthrow the dynasty, they were divided on most other issues. Sun Yat-
sen and his followers now organized a new political party, the Guomin-
dang (Nationalist Party), which they saw as a “loyal opposition” party
that would compete in electoral politics with the followers of Yuan
Shikai. A number of other parties were formed as well, and National
Assembly elections were held in December 1912. Only men who owned
property, paid taxes, and had an elementary school education could
vote. Some forty million men were qualifi ed to vote, about 10 percent
of the population. Given China’s lack of experience with electoral poli-
tics over the previous 2,000 years, this was an impressive start, and
the elections of 1912 went remarkably smoothly. The manager of the
Nationalist Party campaign effort was Song Jiaoren, an articulate advo-
cate of democracy from Hunan who hoped to become prime minister in
President Yuan’s cabinet. The Nationalists won 43 percent of the vote,
far more than any other single party, and Sun Yat-sen, who had agreed
to become the director of railroad development, was very pleased.
To Yuan Shikai, the idea of a “loyal opposition” was a contradic-
tion in terms; he saw the Nationalist Party’s criticisms of his policies
and their electoral success as a threat to his attempts to create a strong
central government. Song Jiaoren had been outspoken in criticizing
President Yuan’s cabinet choices and his policies. As Song was wait-
ing in Shanghai to board the train for Beijing on March 20, 1913, a
stranger walked up to him and shot him twice at close range. He died
in a Shanghai hospital two days later, two weeks short of his thirty-fi rst
birthday. The gunman was never caught, but most assumed, with good
reason, that Yuan Shikai had ordered the assassination.