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Fascism in Kuomintang China: The Blue Shirts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Lloyd E. Eastman
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Extract

The Blue Shirts during the 1930s became one of the most influential and feared political movements in China. To both contemporaries and historians, however, the Blue Shirt movement has been a shadowy force, known mostly through hearsay, with little solid information regarding its doctrine or its activities. Now, on the basis of memoirs, interviews, and especially Japanese intelligence reports of the 1930s, a rough picture of this secret organization can be pieced together. And the image that emerges is not simply a terrorist organization, but a political faction that reflected the concerns and ideals of many Chinese during the troubled Nanking decade. This study will, it is hoped, not only provide an insight into the nature of Kuomintang rule, but will shed light on a previously unexamined species of the political genus, fascism.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 49 , January 1972 , pp. 1 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1972

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References

1. The research for this article, which is part of a larger project, has been aided by grants from the Committee on Exchanges with Asian Institutions and the Joint Committee on Contemporary China, both of the Social Science Research Council; also the Center for Asian Studies, the Center for International Comparative Studies, and the University Research Board of the University of Illinois.Google Scholar

It should be noted that the term Blue Shirt (lan-i-she: literally, blue-clothes society) was not an official designation. The question of the formal name of the organization is an extremely complex one. Other names by which the organization, or parts of the organization, were known included the Chung-hua fu-hsing she (Chinese Revival Society)Google Scholar, the Ko-ming ch'ing-nien t'ung-chih hui (Revolutionary Youth Comrades Society)Google Scholar and the Li-hsing she (Vigorously Carry-out Society, so named from its determination to “vigorously carry out the will of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek”). The question of the names of the Blue Shirt organization will be discussed at length in the author's forthcoming book, China's Abortive Revolution.Google Scholar

2. George, Sokolsky, a perceptive observer, had in 1929 commented on the popular attitude toward the Kuomintang: “No governmental group in China started under better auspices than that which composed the Nanking Government.” “The people wanted them to succeed.” The China Year Book, 1928, ed. Woodhead, H. G. W. (Tientsin: The Tientsin Press, Limited, n.d.), pp. 1373 and 1374.Google Scholar

3. “Tang-nei t'uan-chieh shih wo-men wei-i ch'u-lu” (“Our only way out is to unite within the party”), in Chiang tsung-t'ung szu-hsiang yen-lun chi (A Collection of President Chiang's Thought and Speeches) (Taipei: Chung-yang wen-wu kung-ying she, 1966), Vol. XI, p. 44.Google Scholar

4. The essay is reprinted in Chien-ch'ün, Liu, Fu-hsing Chung-kuo ko-ming chih lu (The Road to Regenerating the Chinese Revolution) (n.p.: Chung-kuo wen-hua hsueh-hui, 1934), pp. 150–1.Google Scholar

5. Ibid. pp. 154–5.

6. “Ranisha no gainen to sono tokumu kōsaku ni tsuite” (“The concept of the Blue Shirts and their special service operations”) (prepared by the General Headquarters of the Expeditionary Army in China, 1940), no pagination.Google Scholar

7. “Ranisha no soshiki to hanman kōnichi katsudō no jitsurei” (“The organization of the Blue Shirts and examples of anti-Manchukuo, anti-Japanese activities”), in Ranisha ni kansuru shiryō (Materials on the Blue Shirts) (a specially bound volume of materials in the Tōyō Bunko), p. 11Google Scholar; and [Iwai, Eiichi], Ranisha ni kansuru chosa (An Investigation of the Blue Shirts) (issued by the Research Division of the Foreign Ministry), p. 6. Note that the authorship by Iwai of this important work is indicated only in the preface to the volume.Google Scholar

8. Interview. (I discovered while interviewing in Taiwan that my informants were reluctant to discuss political questions until I had assured them that I would not reveal their names as the source of information. It is unfortunate that most of the information that I have derived from interviews is therefore not now for attribution.)Google Scholar

9. Interview.Google Scholar

10. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 187.Google Scholar

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I am of the considered opinion that the She-hui hsin-wen was a Blue Shirt publication. The reader should be warned, however, that the question of the political alignment of this periodical may be in doubt. Howard Boorman, L., ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1967), Vol. I, p. 436Google Scholar, states that the journal was a publication of the CC Clique. The Boorman volumes cannot, however, be accepted as definitive. The China Forum, to the contrary, referred to the SHHW as “Chiang Kai-shek's local Blue Jacket sheetlet” (II, 12, 22 10 1933, p. 4)Google Scholar. China Forum, however, was probably not clear regarding the distinction between the Blue Shirts and the CC Clique. (See, e.g., II, 2, 1 03 1933, pp. 4–5.)Google Scholar The most conclusive evidence to hand, however, is the fact that writers in the Ch'ing-nien chün-jen (Young Soldier) (Canton) stated that the SHHW was a Chinese fascist organ (I, 13, 30 09 1933, p. 2)Google Scholar and by “Chinese fascist” they meant the Blue Shirts (see, e.g., Vol. I, No. 7, p. 5; and Vol. II, No. 16, p. 19). This is supported by the fact that the editorial policy of the SHHW corresponds almost exactly with the writings in the Ch'ien-t'u (Future) (CT) (Hankow) (a single exception is noted below, p. 13), which is unquestionably a Blue Shirt publication.Google Scholar

12. “Ranisha no soshiki…,” pp. 3 and 5.Google Scholar

13. “Chin-jih chiao-shih ying-yu te jen-shih yü tse-jen” (“The awareness and responsibilities that today's teachers ought to have”), speech delivered by Ho Chung-han, recorded by Chang Ming, in CT, I, 8, 1 08 1933, p. 1. CT was indisputably a Blue Shirt publication, and appears to have been a major forum for discussion of ideological issues.Google Scholar

14. Editorial, “Min-ch'üan yü tzu-yu” (“Popular sovereignty and freedom”), in SHHW, Vol. III, 30 04 1933, p. 147.Google Scholar

15. Ch'en, Ch'iu-yun, “Fa-hsi-szu-t'i chu-i yü Chung-kuo” (“Fascism and China”), in CT, II, 2, 1 02 1934, p. 3Google Scholar. (As subsequent references to CT will indicate, pagination in this journal is non-sequential.)

16. Ibid.

17. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 188.Google Scholar

18. Liu, Chien-ch'ün, Yin-ho i-wang (Memories at Yin-ho), [Taipei]: Chuan-chi wen-hsueh tsung-k'an, No. 6 (preface dated 1966), p. 235Google Scholar. See also Liu's analogy between marriage and unquestioning commitment to the leader. Ibid.

19. “Ranisha no soshiki…,” p. 5.Google Scholar

20. In SHHW, 24 08 1933, p. 275.Google Scholar

21. Liu, Chien-ch'ün, Fu-hsing Chung-kuo ko-ming chih lu, pp. 34–5.Google Scholar

22. Ch'en Ch'iu-yun, in CT, 1 02 1934, p. 3.Google Scholar

23. “Wu-ch'üan ta hui hsuan-ch'uan ta-kang” (“Propaganda programme of the Fifth Party Congress”), 21 10 1934, in Yokota Minoru Newspaper Collection. This collection in the Tōyō Bunko consists of 89 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings covering events from 1924 to 1946.Google Scholar

24. Editorial, “Tsu-chih yü ling-hsiu” (“Organization and the leader”), in SHHW, Vol. III, 15 05 1933, p. 226. Emphasis added.Google Scholar

25. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, pp. 38–9Google Scholar. Iwai is, to my knowledge, the only source for this speech, which was delivered in Hsing-tzu hsien, Kiangsi, on 22 September 1933. A chronological list of Chiang's speeches records that Chiang gave a speech in Hsing-tzu hsien on 20 September, and in Lu-shan on 22 September. Neither of these, however, is included in Chiang's collected speeches. See “Lun-cho nien-piao,” Chiang tsung-t'ung szu-hsiang yen-lun chi, Vol. I, p. 46.Google Scholar

26. The North China Herald, 17 10 1934Google Scholar, p. 113.3; The China Year Book, 1935, p. 96.Google Scholar

27. Chang, Yun-fu, “Wen-hua t'ung-chih tei-i chi fang-fa” (“The meaning and method of cultural control”, in CT, II, 8, 1 08 1934, p. 7.Google Scholar

28. Ju Ch'un-p'u, “Wen-hua t'ung-chih te ken-pen i-i yü min-tsu ch'ien-t'u” (“The basic meaning of cultural control and the future of the nation”), ibid. p. 4.

29. Chang Yun-fu, ibid., p. 2.

30. Editorial, “Kai-tsao wen-hua te chi-wu” (“The urgency of cultural control”), in SHHW, Vol. III, 30 05 1933, p. 306Google Scholar; and editorial, “Wo-men hsu-yao tsen-yang te wen-hua” (“What kind of culture do we need?”), in SHHW, Vol. III, 9 06 1933, p. 354.Google Scholar

31. Chang, Yun-fu, in CT, 1 08 1934, p. 4.Google Scholar

32. Ping-li, Liu, “Nung-ts'un fu-hsing te i-i” (“The significance of rural regeneration”), in CT, I, 9, 1 09 1933, p. 3.Google Scholar

33. Chang, Yun-fu, in CT, 1 08 1934, p. 4.Google Scholar

34. Editorial, in SHHW, 9 06 1933.Google Scholar

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. Li, Ping-jo, “Chung-kuo li-shih-shang te wen-hua t'ung-chih” (“Cultural control in Chinese history”), in CT, II, 8, 1 08 1934, pp. 3–8Google Scholar; and Chang Yun-fu, ibid. pp. 3–4.

38. “Ranisha no soshiki …,” p. 5.Google Scholar

39. Yü, Wen-wei, “Chung-hua min-tsu hsien-tsai hsu-yao ho-chung chiao-yü?” (“What kind of education does the Chinese nation now need?”), in CT, I, 7, 1 07 1933, p. 4.Google Scholar

40. Lü, K'o-jen, “She-hui-min-chu-chu-i shih-fou k'o-i chiu Chung-kuo?” (“Can social-democracy save China?”), in SHHW, Vol. III, 24 06 1933, p. 435.Google Scholar

41. Editorial, in SHHW, 9 06 1933, p. 354.Google Scholar

42. “Ranisha no shoshiki …,” p. 25.Google Scholar

43. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 188.Google Scholar

44. Editorial, “Ju-ho lai ch'an-ch'u kuan-liao cheng-chih” (“How to root out bureaucratic government”), in SHHW, Vol. V, 6 10 1933, p. 19.Google Scholar

45. Ju Ch'un-p'u, in CT, 1 08 1934, p. 11.Google Scholar

46. Ibid. p. 8.

47. Ibid.

48. “Chin-jih chiao-shih ying-yu te jen-shih yü tse-jen,” in CT, I, 8, 1 08 1933, p. 1.Google Scholar

49. Ibid. pp. 1–3; Ch'iu, Ch'un, “Chiao-yü yü Chung-hua min-tsu-hsing chih kai-tsao” (“Education and the rebuilding of China's national character”), in CT, I, 7, 1 07 1933, pp. 1–12Google Scholar; and Yü Wen-wei, ibid. pp. 1–6.

50. Yü Wen-wei, ibid. p. 3. Emphasis added.

51. Ch'iu Ch'un, in CT, ibid. pp. 8–10; and I Ching, “Min-tsu chiao-yü te yao-i” (“The essential meaning of national education”), ibid. pp. 3–4.

52. Shih-ts'un, Lin, “Kuo-chia tsung-tung-yüan” (“General mobilization of the nation”), in CT, II, 2, 1 02 1934, p. 4.Google Scholar

53. Ch'iu, Ch'un, in CT, 1 07 1933, p. 10.Google Scholar

54. Yü Wen-wei, ibid. pp. 3–6.

55. Ch'iu Ch'un, ibid. p. 10.

56. Yü Wen-wei, ibid. p. 3.

57. Ibid. pp. 3–6; and Jen, I, “Chung-kuo ko-ming chin-chan-chung chih chiao-yü wen-t'i” (“The educational question in the development of the Chinese revolution”), in CT, II, 1, 1 01 1934, pp. 3–7.Google Scholar

58. Ch'iu Ch'un, in CT, 1 07 1933, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

59. Ibid. p. 11.

60. Yü Wen-wei, ibid. pp. 2–6.

61. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 190.Google Scholar

62. Ibid. pp. 215–7.

63. Ibid. p. 190.

64. “So-wei chi-k'ou-shou-t'ien” (“The so-called system of per capita land distribution”), in SHHW, Vol. VI, 27 02 1934, p. 269Google Scholar; and ibid. Vol. VI, 6 March 1934, p. 301.

65. Ibid. Vol. VI, 27 February 1934, p. 269; editorial, “Kuo-min ching-chi chien-she yün-tung” (“The national economic reconstruction movement”), in SHHW, Vol. XI, 21 06 1935, p. 328Google Scholar; and Ying-lung, , “Nung-ts'un chien-she wen-t'i-chung te chi-chien shih” (“Several matters related to the question of rural reconstruction”)Google Scholar, ibid. p. 350.

66. Liu, Ping-li, in CT, 1 09 1933, p. 3Google Scholar; and Pai-yü, , “Fei-ch'ang-t'ai te Chung-kuo nung-ts'un shuai-lo yü fu-hsing te hsien-chüeh wen-t'i” (“The abnormal decline of Chinese agriculture and the primary questions for restoration”)Google Scholar, ibid. p. 9.

67. T'ai-k'ung, Hsu, “Wu-shih-nien p'ing-ti ti-ch'üan lun” (“Land equalization in fifty years”), in CT, II, 4, 1 04 1934, p. 8.Google Scholar

68. Ibid. p. 5.

69. Ibid. p. 6; see also Pai-yü, p. 11.

70. Liu Ping-li, in CT, 1 09 1933, p. 4.Google Scholar

71. Po-chien, Sun, “Chung-kuo nung-ts'un-chung te po-hsiao kuan-hsi yü nung-ts'un ching-chi te chiang-lai” (“The exploitative relationships in China's villages and the future of the rural economy”)Google Scholar, ibid. p. 11.

72. “Ranisha no soshiki …,” p. 19.Google Scholar

73. Ibid.

74. Ibid. p. 23. See also “Ranisha ni tsuite” (“On the Blue Shirts”) (no indication of origin, although it is probably a Japanese government report of 1935; 26 pp.). This latter reference is not, however, a reliable source.

75. Ch'en Ch'iu-yun, “San-min-chu-i yü fa-hsi-szu-t'i” (“The Three People's Principles and fascism”), in CT, II, 4, 1 04 1934, p. 6.Google Scholar

76. “Fa-hsi-szu-t'i yü Chung-kuo ko-ming,” (“Fascism and the Chinese revolution”), in SHHW, Vol. IV, 18 09 1933, p. 413.Google Scholar For similar comments on the compatibility of fascism and the Three People's Principles, see: Ching-chai, Kao, “Chung-kuo ko-ming yü wo-men te lu-hsien” (“The Chinese revolution and our line”), in CT, II, 1, 1 01 1934, p. 5Google Scholar; “Kuo-min-tang yü fa-hsi-szu-t'i yün-tung” (“The Kuomintang and the fascist movement”), in SHHW, Vol. IV, 21 08 1933, p. 258;Google Scholar and editorial, “Tsen-yang fa-chan chung-kuo te ching-chi” (“How to develop China's economy”), in SHHW, Vol. IV, 18 09 1933, p. 403.Google Scholar

77. Interview.Google Scholar

78. Interview.Google Scholar

79. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 131.Google Scholar

80. Ibid. pp. 150–5, and Ch'en Shao-hsiao [pseudonym of Ch'en Fan], Hei-wang lu (Record of the Black Net) (Hong Kong: Chih-Ch'eng ch'u-pan-she, 1966), pp. 40–1Google Scholar. Ch'en Shao-hsiao has published several books on recent Chinese history, most of them quite unreliable. Hei-wang-lu, however, has proved to be a generally trustworthy account, many details of which are corroborated by Iwai. Several persons who were personally familiar with events during the 1930s have also remarked to me on the relative veracity of this account.Google Scholar

81. Boorman, Biographical Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 65. The Boorman volumes rarely refer to the Blue Shirts, not even in the entries on Ho Chung-han and Tai Li. The sole mention of the Blue Shirts that I have thus far discovered states that Chou Fo-hai was associated with the movement (Vol. I, p. 407). This, to the best of my knowledge, is erroneous.

82. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, pp. 150–1Google Scholar; and Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

83. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 156.Google Scholar

84. Ibid. pp. 157–8.

85. Unsigned, “Chiang Kai-shek developing a fascism à la Chine,” China Weekly Review, 68, 10, 5 05 1934, p. 387Google Scholar; and The China Year Book, 1934, p. 300.Google Scholar

86. “Chiang Kai-shek developing a fascism à la Chine,” p. 387.Google Scholar

87. Thomson Jr., James C.While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928–37 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969), p. 168.Google Scholar

88. Ibid.

89. Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, p. 54.Google Scholar

90. Chu, Samuel C., “The New Life Movement, 1934–37,” in Lane, John E. (ed.), Researches in the Social Sciences on China (New York: Columbia University East Asian Institute Studies No. 3, 1957), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

91. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 166.Google Scholar

92. Ou-yang, Tsung, Chung-kuo nei-mu (Behind the scenes in China) (Shanghai: Hsin-chung-kuo pan-she, 1941), p. 17Google Scholar; and Chü-wai-jen, [pseudonym], “Chi tang-nien ch'uan-shuo-chung te ‘shih-san t'ai-pao’” (“Recollections of the legendary thirteen princes”), in Ch'un-ch'iu (Spring and Autumn) (Hong Kong) Vol. XCVI, part II, 1 07 1961, p. 4.Google ScholarTaylor, George E. remarked that both the New Life Movement and the National Economic Reconstruction Movement “had their origins in military circles … A strong authoritarian conception of the State lies behind both movements.” “The reconstruction movement in China,” in Holland, W. L. and Mitchell, Kate L. (eds.), Problems of the Pacific, 1936 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, n.d.), p. 404.Google Scholar

93. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, pp. 22–7.Google Scholar

94. Samuel C. Chu, “The New Life Movement,” p. 5.Google Scholar

95. “Hsin-sheng-huo yun-tung chih yao-i” (“The essential meaning of the New Life Movement”), in Chiang tsung-t'ung szu-hsiang yen-lun chi, Vol. XII, p. 109.Google Scholar

96. Ibid. p. 110.

97. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, pp. 37–8.Google Scholar

98. “Hsin-sheng-huo yun-tung chih yao-i,” in Chiang tsung-t'ung szu-hsiang yen-lun chi, Vol. XII, p. 111.Google Scholar

99. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, pp. 36–9.Google Scholar

100. Interview.Google Scholar

101. Thomson, , While China Faced West, p. 177.Google Scholar

102. Ibid. p. 183.

103. Chu, Samuel C., The New Life Movement, p. 8.Google Scholar

104. “Chiang Kai-shek developing a fascism à la Chine,” p. 387.Google Scholar

105. Ibid.

106. The North China Herald, 15 08 1934, p. 238.1.Google Scholar

107. Ibid. 30 May 1934, p. 304.3; and “Hsin chiao-t'ung-hsi yü lan-i-she chih an-chung tou-fa” (“The undercover combat between the new communications clique and the Blue Shirts”), dated 4 April [1934], in Yokota Newspaper Collection (Tōyō Bunko).

108. See, e.g. Ch'en, Li-fu, “Hsin-sheng-huo yun-tung fa-wei” (“The budding of the New Life Movement”), in Tung-fang tsa-chih (The Eastern Miscellany), 32.1, 1 01 1935 pp. (tung) 25–9.Google Scholar See also Thomson, , While China Faced West, p. 157.Google Scholar

109. Ibid. p. 180.

110. Initially another Blue Shirt leader, Teng Wen-i, headed a separate special service unit in Chiang's Nanchang headquarters. But in 1934 Tai also assumed direction of that unit. The brief remarks here on Tai's career are based upon Tai Yü-nung hsien-sheng nien-p'u (Chronological Biography of Tai Li) ([Taipei]: Kuo-fang pu ch'ing-pao chü, 1966)Google Scholar, passim; supplemented by Chü-wai-jen, , “Chi tang-nien ch'uan-shuo-chung te ‘shih-san t'ai-pao’;” in Ch'un-ch'iu, Vol. CIV, part X, 1 11 1961Google Scholar, p. 19: Ch'en, Kung-shu, “Chiang-fei t'e-wu nei-mu i-pan” (“An aspect of the inner history of bandit Chiang's special services”), in Lo, I and Huang, Chi-ch'ing, Chung-kuo fa-hsi-szu t'e-wu chen-hsiang (The Truth about China's Fascist Special Services) (n.p.: 1949), pp. 83–91Google Scholar; and Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 251.Google Scholar

Tai Li's biography is in Boorman, , Biographical Dictionary, Vol. III, pp. 205–7. Like some entries in the Boorman volumes, the one on Tai must be used with care. For example, Tai was born in 1897, not 1895 as the Boorman entry states; and he was a member of Whampoa's sixth, not fourth, class.Google Scholar

111. See, e.g. “CC tokomu kōsaku no enkaku” (“The development of the CC Clique's special service work”) (the government office responsible for the preparation of this report is unclear, 1940) (Tōyō Bunko), 11 pp.; and “Hsin-kuo-min-tang tsu an-sha chi-kuan” (“The new Kuomintang organizes an assassination organization”) in SHHW, Vol. III, 3 05 1933, p. 165.Google Scholar

112. Tai, Li, Cheng-chih chen-t'an (Political Spying) (n.p.: Kuo-min cheng-fu chün-shih wei-yuan-hui cheng-chih-pu, 1938)Google Scholar, 244 pp. A similar and equally fascinating work that was presumably also used by the Blue Shirts was Wang, P'ei-huai, Ko-ming te pao-chien (The Revolution's Sword) (n.p.: Wei-huang-she, 1936), 522 pp.Google Scholar

113. Tai, Li, Cheng-chih chen-t'an, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

114. Ibid. pp. 61–2. The version here is an abbreviated paraphrase of the original.

115. Ibid. Chaps. 4 and 5.

116. Ibid. p. 127.

117. Tai Yü-nung hsien-sheng nien-p'uGoogle Scholar, p. 25. Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, pp. 105–6.Google Scholar

118. “Ranisha no gainen …,” (no pagination).Google Scholar

119. Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, pp. 71–6.Google Scholar For a description of the shooting, see “Shanghai shocked by murder of noted Chinese scholar, Yang Chuan,” in China Weekly Review, 65.4, 24 06 1933, pp. 146–7.Google Scholar

120. Shen-pao, 14 11 1934Google Scholar, p. 3; Shen-pao, 17 11 1934Google Scholar, p. 3; Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, pp. 77–85Google Scholar; “Shih-an yü lan-she ‘wen-hua t'ung-chih’” (“The Shih case and the Blue Society's cultural control”), from Chung-hsing jih-pao, 18 11 1934, contained in the Yokota Newspaper Collection, Tōyō Bunko.Google Scholar

121. Chü-wai-jen, , “Chi tang-nien ch'uan-shuo-chung te ‘shih-san t'ai-pao,’” in Ch'un-chiu, Vol. CXVIII, part XXIV, 1 06 1962, p. 4Google Scholar; and “Ranisha no soshiki …,” p. 42.

122. Ibid. p. 43.

123. Wilbur, Burton, “Dizzy whirls of the Canton merry-go-round,” China Weekly Review, 66.7, 14 10 1933, p. 282.Google Scholar

124. See, e.g., Hu, Han-min, “Lun so-wei fa-hsi-szu-t'i” (“On so-called fascism”), in San-min-chu-i yueh-k'an (Three People's Principles Monthly) (Canton), 1.5, 15 05 1933, pp. 18–22Google Scholar. Hu, Han-min, “Tsai min-chu te k'ou-hao-hsia chi-ho-ch'i-lai” (“Join together under the slogan of democracy”), in San-min-chu-i yueh-k'an, 5.1, 15 01 1935, pp. 34–6.Google Scholar

125. The North China Herald, 18 10 1933, pp. 92.3 and 4.Google Scholar

126. Chung-kuo kuo-min-tang shih tzu-liao hui-pien (Collection of Sources on the history of the Chinese Kuomintang), Vol. IX, item 1Google Scholar; and Jen-mih jih-pao (People's Daily) ([Foochow]), 22 11 1933, p. 2.Google Scholar

127. Interview.Google Scholar

128. Doki, Naohiko, “Shina seikyoku no kiki” (“The crisis of the Chinese political situation”), in Toa (East Asia), 6.5, 1933, p. 45.Google Scholar

129. “Ranisha no kaiso shugi no tenkō nara ni saikin no dōkō” (“The shift of Blue Shirt reorganizationist thought and its most recent trends”) (n.p.: [1934]), p. 4. Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, (Hei-wang-lu, pp. 8–10)Google Scholar suggests that the anti-Japanese aspects of the Blue Shirt “Programme” had been proposed by Chiang Kai-shek in 1932 merely as window-dressing, without any intention at least immediately of carrying out a programme of resistance to Japan. It is incontestable, however, that at least after 1934 the Blue Shirts were a major concern of the Japanese in North China and Manchuria. This was evidenced not only by the secret intelligence reports of the Japanese regarding specific Blue Shirt activities, but also in the arrests of Blue Shirts by Japanese (North China Herald, 13 November 1935, p. 262.3) and the provision in the Ho-Umezu agreement of June 1935 calling for suppression of the Blue Shirts which were “inimical to Sino-Japanese relations.” (Bisson, T. A., Japan in China (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938), p. 55).Google Scholar

130. Iwai, , Ranisha ni kansuru chosa, p. 234; “Ranisha no kaiso shugi no tenkō …,” pp. 15–21; “Ranisha no soshiki …,” pp. 33–43; and “Ranisha ni tsuite,” pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

131. Ibid. p. 229.

132. Chü-wai-jen, , “Chi tang-nien ch'uan-shuo-chung te ‘shih-san t'ai-pao,” in Ch'un-ch'iu, Vol. XCVI, part II, 1 07 1961, p. 5. On the dissolution of the Blue Shirts, see also Ch'en Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, pp. 58–68.Google Scholar

133. Van Slyke, Lyman P., Enemies and Friends: The United Front in Chinese Communist History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), pp. 84–5.Google Scholar

134. Shao-hsiao, Ch'en, Hei-wang-lu, p. 67.Google Scholar

135. Ch'ien, Tuan-sheng, The Government and Politics of China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961) pp. 126–8, 130.Google Scholar

136. Woolf, S. J., “Did a fascist economic system exist?” in Woolf, S. J. (ed.), The Nature of Fascism (New York: Vintage Books, 1969), p. 119.Google Scholar

137. Kogan, N., “Fascism as a political system,”Google Scholaribid. p. 16.

138. James Gregor, A., The Ideology of Fascism: The Rationale of Totalitarianism (New York: The Free Press. 1969), p. 12.Google Scholar

139. Mosse, George L., “Fascism and the intellectuals,” in Woolf, (ed.), The Nature of Fascism, p. 208.Google Scholar

140. This discussion is drawn largely from Woolf, (ed.), The Nature of Fascism, and particularly the contribution by Kogan, N., pp. 11–18Google Scholar. Objections to a definition of fascism based upon ideological traits are raised in “Discussion – fascism and policy,” ibid. pp. 51–61, a discussion which simply emphasizes the difficulty, if not impossibility, of establishing a precise definition of fascism.

141. N. Kogan states: “Racism was not an essential characteristic of fascism,” (ibid. p. 17). On racism in Italian fascism, see the sophisticated analysis of Gregor in The Ideology of Fascism, pp. 241–82.

142. Solé-Tura, J., “The political ‘instrumentality’ of fascism,” in Woolf, (ed.), The Nature of Fascism, p. 44.Google Scholar

143. Dao-lin Hsu, “Chinese local administration under the Nationalist Government: democracy and self-government versus traditional centralism” (unpublished manuscript), chapter 1, p. 31. Emphasis added. The term “Whampoa Clique” was often used loosely to refer to the Blue Shirts.Google Scholar

144. “CC dan ni kansuru chosa” (“An investigation of the CC Clique”) prepared by the special investigation section of the Japanese embassy in Shanghai, 1939, pp. 101–2; “Ranisha no gainen …,” (no pagination); Ch'en, Shao-hsiao, Hei-wang-lu, pp. 44–6.Google Scholar

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