respect all Chinese felt that these deserved. All subsequent Chinese
foreign policy has had the overriding goal of restoring China to its
‘rightful’ place in the world.
For Republican China two immediate challenges stood out: to
create a new political order, and to preserve the empire’s unity and ter-
ritorial integrity. But new political institutions were weak and
unstable, and China fragmented into warlord fiefdoms. Not until 1923
was a Nationalist government proclaimed in Canton, with Sun Yatsen
as president and Chiang Kaishek (Jiang Jieshi) as military commander.
Given lukewarm support from the West, Sun had turned to the Soviet
Union for both political and military assistance. Soviet agents had
assisted in organising Sun’s Nationalist Party, the Guomindang
(GMD). On instructions from the Comintern (Communist Inter-
national), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), founded in 1921,
supported the new government while simultaneously strengthening its
own position. When Sun died in March 1925, Chiang proclaimed
himself president of the Republic of China. The following year,
Chiang embarked upon his ‘northern expedition’, which finally suc-
ceeded in reuniting the country.
Foreign intervention continued, however, particularly on the
part of Japan. So too did the foreign concessions flaunting their extra-
territorial disdain for Chinese jurisdiction. The West threw its support
behind Chiang after he broke with the communists in 1927, and set
out to destroy them. But Chiang’s action divided Nationalists and
communists who engaged in an implacable struggle that took two
decades of conflict and war to resolve.
Nationalism and politics among the overseas Chinese
Throughout these tumultuous years, relations between China and
Southeast Asia were practically non-existent on a nation-to-nation
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia