The Daitouasensou: The clash of the Dragon and the Sun

It seems that ITTL, assuming the postwar political division in Asia is to be permanent, the concept of a singular "China" will be seen as an anachronism, like a cross between what we think about the Ottoman Empire or Soviet Union. Asians ITTL might think of China more in terms of OTL's "Greater German Reich." The use of Japanese kanji simplification only further suggests that there is no power strong enough in the Chinese cultural sphere to project meaningful authority.
 
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It seems that ITTL, assuming the postwar political division in Asia is to be permanent, the concept of a singular "China" will be seen as an anachronism, like a cross between what we think about the Ottoman Empire or Soviet Union. Asians ITTL might think of China more in terms of OTL's "Great German Reich." The use of Japanese kanji simplification only further suggests that there is no power strong enough in the Chinese cultural sphere to project meaningful authority.

Technically speaking the Chinese cultural sphere includes Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, i.e. nations which at some point in their histories were under direct or indirect Chinese rule/influence. I wouldn't say 'no power strong enough...to project meaningful authority', since from the look of things Japan is the regional hegemon.
 

The Han 10-year state project



The Han 10-year state project, henceforth referred to as the 10-year project, is often compared to the 5-year plans of the Soviet Union. Most historians agree that despite having some influence from the 5-year plans, especially in name, the 10-year project was very different. As mentioned above, the 10-year plan was nearly all-encompassing in the Chinese State, unlike the primarily economically based 5-year plans. The thought process behind the nature of the 10-year project was that simplification would burgeon national identity and unity, and to promote the newly-restored meritocratic bureaucracy that was traditionally utilized in the dynasties of centuries past.
 

The Economy

The economy was the primary focus of the 10-year project. China in 1928, despite reasonable growth and modernization during the years of Sun Yat-Sen, was still an agrarian and relatively backwards society. A large percentage of the labour force were still farmers, and factories only populated the coastal cities in small numbers. Hu Hanmin used looted Qing treasures and artifacts in order to fund massive state-run factories and increased tax burdens on the rural populace, inciting a mass migration of nearly 10 million Chinese to the coast in order find jobs and be relieved of the heavy “farming tax”, as it was known commonly. It is estimated by Japanese economists that the average GDP growth during the duration of the 10-year project was at a staggering 8.7%, more than double of the booming post-war Japanese economy, and the industrial output of the Chinese economy eclipsed that of Japan’s in 1933 (note that the economy was still smaller as a whole due to the powerful service sector of Japan).


 

The Military

The military was massively funded and expanded; especially during the last 4 years of the 10-year project. In 1927, the post-civil war Kuodaotang Army (the military was the armed branch of the party) was numbered at 720,000 (including reserves). By the end of the 10-year project, the army was numbered at 2,130,000, the navy at 70,000, and the air force at 9,000. The immense industrial output of the economy successfully supplied the army with licensed Mauser Kar98s, and even successfully began producing a line of tanks known as the type 34 (三十四式), a tank based off of the Mark IV heavy tank of the British. This model later influenced the super heavy infantry tanks of the war.

The Chinese Air force, known as the Han Aerial Army (漢空軍) was almost entirely bought from foreign nations (primarily Germany), with many of those in the Chinese Military believing that China had more important military priorities (the Spanish Civil War had not occurred yet to show the capabilities of strategic bombing). Much of the Han Aerial Army’s industrial capabilities were focused on repair, and towards the end of the 10-year project, the reproduction of licensed German and American Aircraft. Notable examples were the American attack aircraft, the Vultee V-11, and the German medium bomber, the Heinkel He 111. They were redesignated as the 閃光三十七式 (Flash model 37) and the 鷲三十七式 (Eagle model 37) respectively. The doctrine was mainly focused on fighters (the Flash model 37) and tactical bombing/ground support (the Eagle model 37).


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The Chinese Navy was very unsophisticated and basic; before the 10-year project, it was miniscule, and after the project it was made up of 36 destroyers, 5 light cruisers, 2 heavy cruisers, 24 submarines, and one battleship. The battleship was purchased from the French after its decommissioning, while the rest of the ships were either purchased from other nations or built in chinese docks by foreign advisors (a pattern well-established within the Chinese armed forces).
 

Society


Chinese society was greatly affected during the 10-year project, in which the KDT used mass propaganda and indoctrination to create a “Nationalist Revolutionary State for the Han People (漢民革命国家).” The concept of the NRS, as it was often abbreviated in the west, was the idea of a State for the Han ethnicity and the Han alone through revolution, ethnic cleansing, subsidies to Han businesses, and the promotion of the newly formed Great Han People’s Bureaucracy (大漢民官僚). A whole subject known as Revolutionary Studies was created in primary and secondary schools was for the sole purpose of teaching “Han history and principles.” For the rest of the population, radio broadcasts (as the radio was gaining popularity at the time), leaflets, and posters were utilized for indoctrination. A prominent feature of this societal change was the increasing jingoistic and nationalistic outlook of the society. The free press often decried Japan and Britain, and praised the KDT for its works. The indoctrination was one of the most successful in history, with nearly all ethnic Han supporting the party in an unbiased American poll done in secret. Beginning in 1935, the KDT bought out a small film company in Fujian province, and began to produce propaganda movies. These movies had some of the largest budgets of any movies throughout the world, and were huge successes in China, with even some success abroad. The bureaucracy was gigantic; in 1936, the central facility in Beijing alone was staffed by 38,000 bureaucrats. The sheer size of the 10-year project required many bureaucrats; because of this, the meritocratic nature of the dynastic bureaucracies was put on the sideline as the bureaucracy need manpower, and quickly. In order to compensate for the lack of skill in the lower ranks, the bureaucracy was organized in military fashion, with skilled “NCOs” organizing small teams of bureaucrats to administer their assigned villages and towns. The Nationalistic propaganda and spirit of the times helped reduce corruption and regionalism within the bureaucracy that was widespread in centuries past.
 

Overall effect of the 10-year project



The 10-year project was indisputably the greatest success in the history of central planning of a state. In only a decade from 1928 to 1938, China was transformed from a backwards, decentralized and exhausted nation into a vibrant, centralized, and militarily strong economic powerhouse. Living conditions vastly improved, and were comparable to those of 1880s Japan. Perhaps the most significant change was how the government of the National State of the Han held onto power through Nationalism and Strength instead of the mandate of heaven like dynasties of the past. This ensured that China could not easily be overthrown through sequences of bad omens and the resulting civil unrest, and instead had to be destroyed to the bitter end like any other western, cohesive state (aside from France), and would prepare China for a final struggle with her greatest rival: Japan.
 
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