The East Hebei Autonomous Government (), Japanese also known as the East Ji Autonomous Government and the East Hebei Autonomous Anti-Communist Government, was a short-lived late-1930s state in

northern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...

. It has been described by historians as either a Japanese puppet state or a buffer state.

History

After the creation of

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

and subsequent military action by the Imperial Japanese Army, which brought Northeastern China east of the Great Wall under Japanese control, the Empire of Japan and the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

signed the Tanggu Truce, which established a demilitarised zone south of the Great Wall, extending from Tianjin to Beiping (Peking). Under the terms of the truce and the subsequent He-Umezu Agreement of 1935, this demilitarized zone was also purged of the political and military influence of the Kuomintang government of China. On 15 November 1935, the local Chinese administrator of the 22 counties in Hopei province, Yin Ju-keng, proclaimed the territories under his control to be autonomous. Ten days later, on 25 November, he proclaimed them to be independent of the Republic of China and to have their capital at Tongzhou. The new government immediately signed economic and military treaties with Japan. The Demilitarized Zone Peace Preservation Corps that had been created by the Tanggu Truce was disbanded and reorganized as the East Hopei Army with Japanese military support. The Japanese goal was to establish a buffer zone between Manchukuo and China, but the pro-Japanese collaborationist regime was seen as an affront by the Chinese government and a violation of the Tanggu Truce. 非武装地带

The East Hebei Autonomous government received a response in the form of Gen.

Song Zheyuan Sòng Zhéyuán (宋哲元) (October 30, 1885 – April 5, 1940) was a Chinese general during the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Biography Early life and education Born in the village of Zhaohong, northwest of the ...

's Hebei-Chahar Political Government, which was under the Nanjing government, launched on 18 December 1935. Chinese soldiers remained in the area. In July 1936, a peasant uprising against the East Hebei Autonomous Government broke out in Miyun District. Led by an old Taoist priest, the rebels were organized by the Yellow Sand Society and managed to defeat an East Hopei Army unit that was sent to suppress them. Thereafter, the Imperial Japanese Army mobilized to quell the uprising, defeating the peasant rebels by September. About 300 Yellow Sand insurgents were killed or wounded in the fighting. The East Hebei government survived the Tungchow mutiny in late July 1937 before being absorbed into the collaborationist Provisional Government of China in February 1938.

Notes and references

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History

See also

Notes and references

Further reading