How to Get More Lend-Lease Aid for China in WWII?

China, in contrast to the Soviet Union, received comparatively little material aid during World War II, partly due to the blocking off of the Burma Road in 1941 and because of the difficulties involved in sending aid over the Himalaya mountain range. But aid was also hampered by a perception that the KMT was too corrupt to be trusted with significant funding, as well as the dysfunctional relationship between General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-shek.

Would more L-L for China be plausible, or were the OTL geographical and diplomatic challenges too severe for much more to be done in the 1940-1944 timeframe? Would increased L-L have had meaningful effect on Chinese performance?
 
China, in contrast to the Soviet Union, received comparatively little material aid during World War II, partly due to the blocking off of the Burma Road in 1941 and because of the difficulties involved in sending aid over the Himalaya mountain range. But aid was also hampered by a perception that the KMT was too corrupt to be trusted with significant funding, as well as the dysfunctional relationship between General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-shek.

Would more L-L for China be plausible, or were the OTL geographical and diplomatic challenges too severe for much more to be done in the 1940-1944 timeframe? Would increased L-L have had meaningful effect on Chinese performance?

You really can't carry anything more over the Hump than iOTL. I suspect OTL's amount would be called ASB from another TL.

What you really need is a GOOD land or sea connexion. Sure, a fair bit of stuff was carried over the Burma Road, while it was open, although it was done VERY inefficiently (trucks not maintained, etc., etc.), but what you REALLY want is a railway. Get the Yunnan-Burma RR completed by the time the Japanese head south, and it would make a huge difference. Then, of course, you have to keep most of Burma, somehow, so that materiel can get from the ocean TO those roads/railways.


I really think the political limitations are the least of your worries until the logistics bottlenecks are cleared up.
 
FYI, a couple of years ago I met one of the pilots who flew supplies Over the Hump.

He didn't have much to say about it, but I was very impressed.
 
Then essentially there are two ways, one pre-'41, the other post-'41, that can get more LL to China and both involve the Burma road. One is to build the railroad before the Japanese get to it, and the other would be for the Americans to place more value on Burma. How likely are either of these options?
 
China, in contrast to the Soviet Union, received comparatively little material aid during World War II, partly due to the blocking off of the Burma Road in 1941 and because of the difficulties involved in sending aid over the Himalaya mountain range. But aid was also hampered by a perception that the KMT was too corrupt to be trusted with significant funding, as well as the dysfunctional relationship between General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-shek.

Would more L-L for China be plausible, or were the OTL geographical and diplomatic challenges too severe for much more to be done in the 1940-1944 timeframe? Would increased L-L have had meaningful effect on Chinese performance?

Yeah, there's the blocking of the Burma Road. There's corruption, and stuff.

The biggest problem, I think, is Jiang himself. You need to radically alter his attitude towards corruption and warlords. If that's done, everything will be fine.

The problem isn't exactly getting MORE Lend-Lease Aid. The problem is keeping it. Corruption seriously sapped the government's money, and reducing it won't just retain more aid, but it'll also improve the Stillwell-Jiang relationship, get a bit more aid, allow for better performance against the Japanese, and overall just lead to better stuff.
 
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