The Mandarin Observer - A Chinese ATL

[A Piece of History]

A mass grave of Imperial officers and their commanding officer has been discovered on the road to Shenyang

The mass grave, which includes the corpse of Zhang Xiluan, was discovered during the final advance on Shenyang by soldiers under the command of General Duan Qiru. According to eyewitnesses, there are approximately ten corpses, all of whom appeared to have been shot in the back of the head. Imperial soldiers were led to the grave by a eyewitness who says he helped dig the grave, but was told it was going to be used as a ammunition dump.

According to the Ministry of War, Zhang Xiluan had been based in the Three Eastern Provinces as Zhang Zoulin's deputy, but after the war ended, began covertly sending reports of Zhang's lust for power, including accepting gifts from the Japanese and outlawing criticism of his governance. He stopped writing about ten days before the invasion began. It is presumed that the ten officers found with him were loyalist soldiers who refused to follow the Warlord's dictates.

The bodies were carefully loaded onto a wagon and were taken far form the battlefield, where they will be identified by their families and buried in their home provinces.

Duan, who, at the start of the campaign, was appointed Supreme Commander of Imperial Forces in the Provinces, vowed to his soldiers. "We will make the warlord pay for this outrage. Mark my words. He will bleed like a stuffed pig",

Zhang Xiluan{1]

{1} In our timeline, Xiluan was one of Zoulin's rivals for control of Manchuria. I thought he deserved some acknowledgement.

 

[A Piece of History]

What would you like to see addressed in future posts? I have several ideas of my own, but I want to get some opinions about other things I could address.

 

[A Piece of History]

A uprising of Manchu peasants has overthrown the military junta in Shenyang.

Calling itself the Imperial Provincial Resistance, the rebellion, consisting of both disaffected bandits and suffering peasants, stormed the Warlord's residence and took the Warlord captive. They rallied behind a tattered, homemade flag depicting ten crows surrounding a burning skull as they soon took over Shenyang, which had been bombed thrice a day by the Imperial Air Force.

The first signs something was going on behind enemy lines was when a Imperial Air Force pilot reported seeing white flags atop several buildings in the city and he reported this to his commanding officer in Hebei Province. A small collection of Imperial soldiers approached Shenyang and the rebels immediately turned over Zhang Zoulin, allegedly saying "Here's the pig. Now stop bombing us",

Acting upon orders from the Supreme Court, Zhang Zoulin was executed not long after the turnover. Imperial occupation of the city began not long afterwards.

The spine of the rebellion has been broken, with the Board of War predicting a total restoration of Imperial authority over Manchuria, save for the Japanese-controlled Liaondong Peninsula, by December of this year.

The patriotism and loyalty of the Imperial Provincial Resistance should be praised by every pure and true Chinese citizen. It matches the patriotism and loyalty shown by the soldiers of the Imperial Chinese Army, who like the Manchu peasants, have answered the call of duty to do battle for the Emperor and the nation.

Shenyang before the Expedition. Shenyang had one of the first tramways in China.

Two Imperial soldiers and their commanding officer pose for a photograph outside of Shenyang.

 

[A Piece of History]

The provincial Party newspaper in Jiangsu Province has announced that a communist organization, consisting of Chinese citizens, has been founded within the confines of the French Concession in Shanghai.

The newspaper is relying upon a unidentified source who attended the so-called ‘National Congress’ within the French Concession held between 23 July – 31 July. The ‘Congress’ took place in a house and was attended by twelve people. The source was able to photograph the resolutions of the Congress, which call for the establishment of a communist party, as a branch of Communist International

The Governor of Shanghai has officially sent an official complaint to the French government, declaring that allowing the existence of the ‘Congress’ posed a threat to the stability of China. The French government has not replied.

In the 1848 Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx wrote

The Communists, therefore, are, on the one hand, practically the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the lines of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement. The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat

In a 1902 screed entitled ‘What is to be Done?’, Vladimir Lenin describes vanguardism as a strategy where by the most ‘advanced’ sections of a given country’s working class draws in larger sections of that working class towards 'revolutionary politics'. He wrote

Our task is not to champion the degrading of the revolutionary to the level of an amateur, but to raise the amateurs to the level of revolutionaries

This si what this so-called ‘Communist Party of China’ will set out to do. It will attempt to undermine the stability of the Great Qing by spreading lies and disinformation about our State. The Supreme Court of the Qing has supplied us with a statement officially clarifying that membership of any organization whose interests are deemed to be contrary to those of the Great Qing can be punishable by death.

Communism, much like opium, is a European poison and just ike any poison, it must be cleansed out of the Chinese body by any means necessary. If you know someone who is a Communist, report them to the local authorities.

The location of the French Concession

"Death to the bourgeoisie and it's lapdogs. Long live the Red Terror",
A clue as to the ideological orientation of the Communist movement.

 

[A Piece of History]

LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF THE GREAT QING
Justice Minister Shi Huang


Preface​

The 1919 Tienanmen Revolution has effectively brought an end to the useless regime that began with the Reform of the Wuxu Year. The Prime Minister has convinced the Emperor that great change must come to our legal system to prevent threats to it from surfacing.

The idea that China’s destiny was democracy was a fault even the Emperor, as sovereign and blessed he is, can admit. The Mandarin Observer, a trusted government paper, has talked about how dissent, especially when it is encouraged by anti-Chinese elements within Chinese communities overseas, can be used to block the development of our country. Specifically, the newspaper reported on social disturbances brought about by the ‘Railway Protection Act’ of 1914, which were encouraged by the traitor Sun Yat Sen. Though the Revive China Society is effectively dead within the Chinese mainland, any whiff of social discord being emanated by one of it’s members must be wiped out and the Legal Principles shall do this.

The Emperor’s decision to replace the three administrative divisions of the old absolute regime with a modern provincial system (except for the Three Northernmost Provinces) was a excellent innovation, but the manner in which the provincial governments were designed allowed corruption to set in. under the 1898 regime, governors controlled too many things. They were allowed to control funding to the local garrisons of the Imperial Chinese Army, they were allowed to cancel elections if they felt as if their provinces were under threat and governors often prevented money from going to the poorest peasants. In other words, the old province system allowed a abscess of corruption to grow. The Railway Provinces Act only encouraged this by allowing the provinces to determine their own railway policies. This only allows for corruption, which will be the second sin to be wiped out by the Legal Principles.

The Eight Abominations and the Death Penalty​

What are traditionally known as the Eight Abominations shall continue to be punished under this legal code. Within legal documents, the Eight Abominations shall be…

• Conspiring to rebel against the Great Qing or the National Enlightenment Party
• Intentionally damaging royal property with the intent on cursing the sovereign
• Committing treason by defecting to a state at war or in diplomatic conflict with the monarchy
• To commit murder against one’s own family
• To murder three or more innocent people
• To show disrespect to the Emperor, his family or the National Enlightenment Party
• To abuse one parents’ or grandparents
• To harm one’s husbands or elder relatives
• To murder one’s superiors or local government officials.
• Having sex within the family unit

Paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9 shall be punished by death. In the modern era, the death penalty shall only consist of the following actions

• Firing squad
• Hanging
• Beheading
• Gunshot to the back of the head

Depending on the ruling of a judge, the death sentences shall be within a enclosed space or in public to intimidate other potential wrongdoers. That same judge shall also dictate the means of execution.

[CENTER[The right to appeal, legal representation and commutation[/CENTER]

Every citizen of the Great Qing shall have the right to appeal his or her sentence and they shall have unabridged access to a legal attorney. If they cannot provide one, one shall be provided to them.

However, the right to appeal shall be denied in the instances of Paragraphs 1,2, 3, 6 and 9 as mentioned above.

The Great Qing shall have the right to commute judicial sentences. In previous ages since the Great Tang, nobility had the unfortunate privilege of being considered for commutation of sentence before anyone else, in what were once called the Eight Deliberations. This privilege shall not exist within the territory of the Great Qing. All judges shall consider each applicant’s cases equally and without discrimination

Corporal punishment and crimes which warrant it​

‘Corporal punishment’ shall be defined as the act of striking any part of a convict’s body with a piece of bamboo. Such punishments shall consist of a public exhibition in the capital of a province or in extreme cases, the national capital. The following crimes shall warrant the accompanying number of strikes

• Corruption – 20 strikes
• Theft – 10 strikes
• Prostitution - 20 strikes
• Homosexual acts for the purposes of prostitution – 15 strikes
• Profaning national symbols - 30 strikes

Financial penalties

'Financial penalties' shall be defined as financial penance for a crime. There shall be no nation-wide system of financial penalty. Each provincial organ of the National Enlightenment Party shall have the responsibility of dictating said penalties for the following crimes.

1. Causing the harm or death of animals in contravention of the First Precept

2. Disrespecting parental figures

3. Offending public morals

4. Destroying objects of religious or cultural significance


Criminal detention

Crimes which incur financial penalties and corporal punishment shall also warrant criminal detention, which may range from 12 months imprisonment to Life. The presiding judge shall have the final decision on judicial sentence. Prison sentences shall be subject to appeal.

Confiscation of property

Property may be confiscated as a punishment for any of the aforementioned crimes. This may range from farm animals to farm implements to habitations. The State has the right to sell said property if a convict is given a life sentence or is slated for execution.

 

[akramos2012]

Great chapter
I hope the party will not become ccp v2

 

[A Piece of History]

I hope the party will not become ccp v2

I don't know if you can consider these spoilers. But, I'll just say this. There will be no equivalent of the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution. The Party, as I just demonstrated, may be extreme in some areas, but unlike Mao, the Party's leadership have some basic understanding of agriculture and how China's economy will benefit from that.

Also, as you'll see in future posts, the NEP's stance on China's ancient past is VERY different from that of the CCP.

 

[A Piece of History]

The Ford Motor Company will have a presence in Hunan Province, according to a pact signed between the Ford Motor Company and the Government today.

The pact, two years in the making, will see the Ford Motor Company construct a factory in the province which will construct automobiles for the average Chinese consumer, with Chinese labour performing the task of constructing the vehicles.

The agreement contains several clauses which make it clear that the FMC will not act as a representative of the American government or be considered as an American concession. Chinese law shall apply to the region, including a ban on collective bargaining, which serves to prevent Communist-inspired work disruptions and the Company shall sent engineers and executives to China. In exchange, the agreement also promises that under no circumstances would the factory, which would remain under the perpetual ownership of the Company, would be forced to produce weapons for the Chinese war effort, in line with Mr. Ford's pacifist ideals.

The Ford Motor Company is not the first American company to open business in China. The oil company, Mei Foo, a rebranding of the American company Standard Oil, which sells cheap, tin kerosene lamps to Chinese farmers and alongside the Ford Motor Company, is seeking to buy property and expand it's influence in China.

 

[A Piece of History]

The Communists love the colour red. To them, it symbolizes revolution and the blood of their martyrs, but to us, it is so much more.

Rather than representing meaningless sacrifices for the cause of a madman, the colour red, to the average citizen of the Great Qing, represents life and good fortune. it is painted on the carriages of His Majesty the Emperor and adorns the walls of our most beautiful temples. According to the Theory of the Five Elements, red represents the season of summer which is brimming with energy, just as the Chinese people is brimming with hopes for the future.

It is important that the people of the Great Qing maintain the integral meaning and importance of the colour red. It is this importance that has driven the August and Blessed Government to begin the 'Red is Chinese' movement, which encourages citizens to wear red armbands with one of three phrases 'strength', 'unity' and 'peace'. embroidered on them. These are the same phrases that adorn our national flag. The campaign also encourages red paper lanterns to be hung from houses and businesses. Of course, it is also encouraged to fly the national flag.

The movement's intention is to preserve the dignity and integrity of our culture and rob the Communists of the opportunity to misappropriate such a blessed cultural treasure. Communism was imported from Europe to destroy us from within. We must do everything we can to preserve our culture against Communist infiltration.

 

[A Piece of History]

It is by decree of the Emperor of China that the Embroidered Uniform Guard, otherwise known as the Jinywei, be restored.

The Jinywei shall have three duties.

- Protecting the welfare of the Emperor and his family.

- Arresting, detaining and interrogating those citizens suspected of committing one of the the Eight Abominations

- Maintaining order within the military

The Jinywei shall have authority comparable to that of regular law enforcement, including the right to make arrests and take suspects to trial before the courts. They shall not answer to the Justice Minister or the War Minister. They shall instead answer to either the Emperor or the Prime Minister.

Membership in the Jinywei shall be drawn from police officer and/or soldiers of virtuous character, showing extreme loyalty to the Emperor.

Their headquarters shall be in the west of Tienanmen Square

They shall wear regular plain clothes when on and off duty, except for a golden tablet on the belt, and the only weapon they shall posssess is a small blade hidden somewhere on their person.

Any and all crimes against Jinywei personnel and their families shall be punished by death

Jinywei conduct shall not be subject to review by the Supreme Court. The Emperor and the Prime Minister shall be the sole arbiters of conduct within the organization.

 

[A Piece of History]

The August and Blessed Government has announced the creation of a Board of Agriculture and with it, an road map for agriculture in China.

The plan seeks to close the wealth disparity that has formed between the rich landlords and their tenants, who have mostly lived miserable existence as tools of said landlords. The policy setting will be focused on ‘Farming Land Owned by Farmers, Farming Land Used for Farming business’, in other words, farming land cannot be owned by non-farmers and farming land cannot be used for non-farming business. Policies have been set and reinforced to balance out the right of land ownership during this phase. The key policies are:

1. Maximum Rent of Land: on the annual basis, the rent cannot exceed 37.5% of the income of the main crop. This will be to ensure farmers’ income.
2. Land Rental with Option to Buy: farmers can rent farming land owned by government, with the option to purchase the land. This will be to ensure land were not monopolized by riches, and providing farmers a chance to become business owners.
3. Mandatory Land Resumption: Government will purchase farming land from land owners and deploy the land through ‘Land Rental with Option to Buy’ to the current farmers of the purchased land. With the ‘Land Rental with Option to Buy’ implementation, the number of farmers for the privately owned farming land will decrease. Subsequently, the income level for the riches will drop, many farming lands will become idle, with this policy, land owners are able to off load idled land to the government.
4. At the same time, many agricultural infrastructure projects were implemented. They were: irrigation system, agricultural production improvement system (crops, fertilizer, pesticide etc.), tax system, and pricing improvement etc. During this period, the agriculture industry was also leveraged to groom other industries.

The fast growing economy will shape the policies of this phase. For agriculture production, the focus will be to ensure ample supplies for domestic consumption, expansion to agricultural ranch operation, and to improve operational efficiencies. The first phase of land reform created plenty of family owned farming entities, the overall traits were small lot, limited production, old fashion operation and difficult to implement modern operation or technologies to optimize production, improve income and to build a future for the community. The specific policies of this phase included:


Long-term low interest commercial loan for ranch expansion (purchase of land, equipment etc.)

• Cooperative operation with agriculture associations
• Process improvement to expedite qualification of farming land
• Promotion of mechanical farming
• Consignment type of farming operation
• Elimination of inheritance tax when land passed down to one child
• Land owners reclaimed rented land under 37.5% policy for operational expansion

For the agriculture land management: the focus will be to ensure ‘Farming Land for Farming Business’. During the economic booming period, farming land will be heavily sought out for factory buildings. To avoid production loss, policies were established to prevent re-zoning of agricultural land and release of unusable agriculture land. The notable polices included are as follows:

Construction on Farming Land

The urgency to protect agricultural land will be heightened due to 1) the fast growing of population, non-agriculture industries, city development and commercial land requirements, which have caused high number of re-zoning of agricultural land; 2) oil crisis, food shortage at global level; 3) during this period, the domestic production of rice was compromised by natural disasters, and purchase from abroad was difficult due to the market condition. The thought leadership at the time was: farming production has to be self-sufficient first, to accomplish such a goal, protection of farming land must be mandatory, especially the premium land.

Existing policies of re-zoning of farming land will be reviewed, based on food requirements, city development and resource utilization, policies were revised to reinforce ‘Farm Land owned by Farmers, using for Farming Business’:

• Tighten the re-zoning of agricultural land
• Agricultural land included in official land management
• Agricultural land owners should have farmer or farming entity
• Release of Unusable Agricultural Land

1. As continuous monitoring and management of land utilization of the country, new policies will be devise to support the release of unusable agricultural land. The specific policies will include:
   • To ensure continuity and wholesomeness of agricultural production, and environment, re-zoning of agricultural land needs to be executed as a whole, not arbitrarily.
   • To ensure safety of habitat, water source and prevention of pollution, all required facilities to be re-zoned agricultural land and adjacent land need to be planned ahead of time.
   • Re-zoning will be registered upon the completion of all required facilities by the new owner.
   • Proceeds from the re-zoning will be divided evenly for central agricultural and local agricultural agencies.
   • Cost of required facilities on the re-zoned land belongs to the new owner, cost of the required facilities on the adjacent land belongs to the new owner and local government.
2. The released land can be purchased by other industries, for different purpose. This policy provides a balance to the real estate market where prices for land were escalated, and the trickledown effect, a higher cost of living, has a much significant impact to all citizens.
   
   

 

[A Piece of History]

Dozens of Chinese soldiers have been court-martialled and shot for mingling with Communist troops across the frontier region bordering the USSR.

When Imperial troops overthrew the bandit state in 1920, one of the first priorities of the military government, under the command of Viceroy Duan Qiru, was to station troops on the border with Russian Siberia. After the official end of the Russian Civil War, the so-called Union of Soviet Socialist Republics took over control of the Russian border with the Provinces.

According to witness testimonies, it is not uncommon for Communist troops and Imperial troops to congregate near the border and institute a bartering system. This, of course, is considered treason under Chinese law.

10 Imperial soldiers, since the liberation of the Three Northernmost Provinces, have been court-martialled and shot after being caught participating in such activities and their corpses cremated. The executions are in public and their attendance is mandatory by whole regiments. Executions can happen for something as small as trading a cigarette.

Executions have also occurred in Mongolia, though they are rare since the Communists don't seem to have much interest in reinforcing the border. One particular officer, General Altan Chinbatin, brandishes his pistol to a correspondent. "I have killed five of my own soldiers with this very pistol and I would it again. If troops want to serve in Mongolia, then they must learn to fear Mongol discipline", he said.

To the Buddhist, Christian and Islamic chaplains of the units in Mongolia, even talking to a Communist is seen as a great sin. The Buddhist chaplain is most emotional because as the soldiers have sinned, then they are denied the reward of a good rebirth. "Since they obviously crave material goods, then they will be reborn in either the the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm or the hell realm. None of these are good places to end up", a Buddhist monk said after attending a sky funeral. As he was saying this, vultures were swarming around the corpse of the executed man.

Soldiers from units afflicted by executions have said that the executions show discipline sitll needs to be enforced with an iron fist and with iron will, with one Mongolian soldier even saying "If I see one of my friends shake the hands of a Communist, I will blow his brains out myself", after attending a meeting in which speaking in both Mongolian and Mandarin, General Chinbatin stressed "The need to show strength in the face of Communist and collaborationist weakness",

As the Imperial Chinese Army continues to modernize, including the introduction of tanks through the use of French-designed Renault vehicles, the tenants of discipline and tradition must never be forgotten. Communism represents the ultimate degradation and destruction of civilization. The idea that some soldiers within the Emperor's army willingly shake hands with Communists is treasonous and unforgivable. Such disunity must be harshly cracked down upon.

 

[Whiteshore]

What are the "Three Northernmost Provinces", I may ask?

 

[A Piece of History]

What are the "Three Northernmost Provinces", I may ask?

That's what the Qing Dynasty called Manchuria. Instead, they called the region the 'Three Northernmost Provinces'. The word 'Manchuria' is Japanese in origin, so you can see why the Qings never used that word to describe the region. Even today, the term 'Manchuria' is avoided when discussing the region.

 

[A Piece of History]

In the aftermath of a Communist-inspired work stoppage at the Xian to Dujjanyang branch line, the ringleader has been identified

The Communist's name is Chen Duxiu. According to university records, he attended Qushi Academy from 1898-1902 before going to Nanking to participate in anti-Qing rhetoric and then going to Japan. He would then become the dean of Beijing Universityi n 1917, where he is suspected of meeting with the founders of the CCP. For clarification, the claim that the workers go unpaid and are treated as slaves are utter lies. Workers who volunteer for six hour work days are given a reasonable sum of twenty yuan per day. If any working conditions are lacking, then that is the fault of provincial governments, as the project covers numerous jurisdictions, too many for the central government to assume full control over the dispersal of the bare essentials.

Also in the aftermath of the strikes, the Jinywei carried out a raid on the Shanghai Chronicle, a socialist newspaper which had been in operation in Shanghai since 1920. One of the many arrested is Grigori Voitinsky, a Russian national. Under interrogation, he has admitted to being a member of the Far Eastern Bureau of Communist International. He has confessed that he helped guide the formation of the illegal Chinese Communist Party. Not only did he give up the name of the organizer of the workers' strike, but he also gave up the name of another prominent Communist, Li Dazhao.

The officer who led the Jingwei raid declared "We have done damage to the money trail between Moscow and China. Let's hope this damage is irreparable",

The current whereabouts of the two individuals is unknown, though it is unlikely that they are in China. The Jingwei have announced that a five thousand yuan bounty has been posted for information that will lead to the capture of these criminals

A photograph of Chen Duxiu

The supposed house in the French Concession where the CCP was founded

A photograph of Li Dazhao (sitting to the right) and two unknown individuals, discovered during the raid

The Russian agent Grigoi Voitinsky

 

[Whiteshore]

How many White Russian emigres are there in China compared to OTL? I imagine the Chinese Eastern Railway, while Chinese-owned ITTL, is largely operated and managed by White emigres.

 

[A Piece of History]

How many White Russian emigres are there in China compared to OTL? I imagine the Chinese Eastern Railway, while Chinese-owned ITTL, is largely operated and managed by White emigres.

I'm actually planning on mentioning them in a future update. Long story short, there are about the same level of White Russians in Manchuria and Shanghai as in OTL and as a preview of what their update will be about, it will talk about how they fit the Party's definition of 'Good Europeans' and how the Party gives them opportunities that other Europeans wouldn't get.

 

[A Piece of History]

A mortal sin against the Chinese people was corrected today as Japan officially ceded Shandong Peninsula over to the authority of the Great Qing

The so-called 'Nine Power Treaty' was signed on November 27th 1922 and was signed between China, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United States during the ongoing Washington Naval Conference.

The Treaty was signed in the name of the 'Open Door Policy'-a colonialist policy in which countries with concessions in China would be allowed trade equally, with no exclusive trading rights. The Treaty formally abrogates Japan's economic and military control of the Shandong Peninsula and respects China's sovereignty in all affairs. Among the territory to be recovered is Qingdao, which was once a concession of the now fallen German Empire and which Chinese and Japanese soldiers gave their lives to secure.

The Party has called for mass celebrations in Beijing, Nanking and Shanghai to mark the occasion, with children given the day off school for the day and 1/2 of all factories in China to shut down. The group of ambassadors to the Naval Conference including Foreign minister Yan Huiqing and Vi Kyuin Koo, will be decorated with a medal by the Prime Minister for their efforts in regaining Shandong. The ambassadors are the same ones who represented China to the Treaty of Versailles, which they refused to sign after the unfair and colonialist terms of the treaty became clear.

The Shandong Peninsula

Foreign Minister Yan Huiqing

Ambassador Vi Kyuin Koo

 

[akramos2012]

Great chapter
So are the position of China as a great power improving in the eyes of the west or they still seeing it as the sick man of Asia
And what is the opinion of Japan of the rise of China

 

[A Piece of History]

So are the position of China as a great power improving in the eyes of the west or they still seeing it as the sick man of Asia

It's neutral. The European powers are calculating the economic cost of maintaining their concessions, but they're not taking China that seriously yet.

And what is the opinion of Japan of the rise of China

Well, they gave up the Shandong Peninsula because they can see China is starting to grow some teeth (as opposed to OTL where it was just a patchwork of warlord cliques), but aside from that, Japan is just content to stay out of China's way. Besides, it's going to have it's own issues to take care of.