December 9th Movement
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The December 9th Movement () was a mass protest led by students in
Beiping "Beijing" is from pinyin ''Běijīng,'' which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various ...
(present-day Beijing) on December 9, 1935 to demand that the
Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mili ...
actively resist
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
aggression.


Background

After the Japanese Imperial Force occupied
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
following the
Mukden Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...
in 1931, it attempted to follow up with an invasion into northern China. Between June and July 1935, the Chin-Doihara Agreement was negotiated between Japan and the Chinese
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
(KMT) government as a way for the former to gain control of Chahar Province. A puppet state known as " Eastern Hebei Anti-Communist Autonomous Government" was then set up by a Yin Rugeng with Japanese help. In response to the demands by Japan to create a separate regime in Northern China, the KMT government was forced to establish the " Hebei-Chahar Political Council". The
Chinese Communists The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...
, on the other hand, called for a voluntary mobilization of all Chinese people to resist Japanese aggression in a proclamation published on August 1, 1935.


Preparation

On November 18, student representatives from several major universities in Beiping gathered in a meeting and secretly formed the Beiping Students Union. An election was held and Guo Mingqiu became the executive president while the communists selected
Huang Jing Huang Jing (; 1912 – 10 February 1958), born Yu Qiwei (), was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician who served as Mayor and Communist Party Chief of Tianjin municipality, Minister of the First Ministry of Machine Building, and Chair ...
and
Yao Yilin Yao Yilin (; September 6, 1917 – December 11, 1994) was a Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1979 to 1988, and the country's First Vice Premier from 1988 to 1993. Early life and career He was born in Hong Kong in 1917, and sp ...
to participate in leading the Students Union. On December 3, the Beiping Students Union decided to correspond with as many universities as possible to organize a mass petition. Three days later, 15 schools published a declaration opposing the formation of the Anti-Communist Autonomous Government of Northern China. It demanded the KMT government to arrest Yin Rugeng and also called for a national armed resistance against Japan. A 9-point political agenda was passed the same day, among which called for the KMT to immediately stop its armed campaign against the communists in the
Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
. Since December 9 was rumored to be the day that the Hebei-Chahar Political Committee was to be established, the Students Union chose that day for the petition.


Events

On the early morning of December 9, police and soldiers surrounded many schools and closed the city gate at
Xizhimen Xizhimen () was a gate in the Beijing city wall and is now a transportation node in Beijing. The gate was the entrance of drinking water for the Emperor, coming from the Jade Spring Hills to the west of Beijing. The gate was demolished in 196 ...
. Petition students were enraged. They successfully broke the police enclosure lines. At around 10:30, they arrived at the Beiping branch of the KMT Military Committee in
Zhongnanhai Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council of the People' ...
. In front of the
Xinhua Gate Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council (central government) of China. Zhong ...
, they sent the petition letters to
He Yingqin He Yingqin, (; April 2, 1890 – October 21, 1987) also Ho Ying-chin, was a politician and one of the most senior generals of the Kuomintang (KMT) during Republic of China, and a close ally of Chiang Kai-shek. Early years A native of Guizhou, H ...
, then head of the KMT Military. Angry students waved their arms and shouted slogans such as "Down with Japanese imperialism" and "Immediately stop the civil war", while a 6-point demand was given to the KMT government headquarter. # Oppose the Autonomous Government of Northern China and similar organizations; # Oppose any secret deals between China and Japan and immediately publicize the diplomatic policies combating the current crisis; # Protect and secure
freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
, of
press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...
, and of
assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...
; # Stop the civil war and prepare for a self-defense war against external threats; # Prohibit
arbitrary arrest Arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention are the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of ...
of the people; # Immediately free students who were arrested. Representatives of He Yingqin was able to talk to the students, but they refused to let students open Xizhimen so that
Tsinghua Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...
and Yenching university students can enter the city. Students then began to march en masse. The number of marching students subsequently increased to about 6,000. When the line entered Xidan and East
Chang'an Avenue 250px, Chang'an Avenue hosts military parades. Here are 1999 National Day parade.">50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China">1999 National Day parade. Chang'an Avenue (), literally "Eternal Peace Street", is a major thoroughfare in ...
, some students were attacked by police and soldiers armed with wooden sticks, whips, water pumps and sabers. Hundreds were injured and more than 30 were arrested. Students from Tsinghua and Peking University who were unable to enter the city via the gates stood their ways outside the city wall in bitter cold. Some of the students wept in telling surrounding residents about atrocities the Japanese army committed in Manchuria. They blamed on the KMT government for its non-resistance policy. At the end of the day, this movement by the students forced the Hebei-Chahar Political Committee to adjourn its planned opening.


National response

The protest movement was supported by students all over the country. Response was very positive as similar petitions and assemblies were organized in many large cities. The Students Union in Communist-occupied
Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
-
Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
district also sent telegraph to voice their support. On December 18, the
All-China Federation of Trade Unions The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is the national trade union center of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest trade union in the world with 302 million members in 1,713,000 primary trade union organizations. The ACFTU ...
called for its workers to protest the betrayal by Japan and the arrest of numerous students in Beiping. Meanwhile,
Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. W ...
and
Soong Ching-ling Rosamond Soong Ch'ing-ling (27 January 189329 May 1981) was a Chinese political figure. As the third wife of Sun Yat-sen, then Premier of the Kuomintang and President of the Republic of China, she was often referred to as Madame Sun Yat-sen. ...
wrote articles in praise of the brave actions done by the students in Beiping. They and other social elites donated money in support. In Beiping, a propaganda troupe was also organized in which students from Beiping would tell peasants living in nearby provinces about the need of resistance against future Japanese aggression.


Impact

The student demonstrations generated a public outcry and forced the formation of the Hebei-Chahar Political Council to be postponed to December 18, 1935. The movement also boosted the profile and prestige of Communist student activists at a time when the
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
-led government was actively suppressing Communists. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the December 9 Movement has been commemorated as a patriotic movement. In 1985, during the 50th Anniversary of the December 9 Movement, students demonstrated in Beijing, calling for democracy and reform to save the nation.Gerard Barmi, "History for the Masses" in Jonathan Unger ed. ''Using the Past to Serve the Present: Historiography and Politics in Contemporary China'', M.E. Sharpe, 1993, p. 281-82
/ref>


See also

*
Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm ''Children of Troubled Times'', also known as ''Fēngyún Érnǚ'', ''Scenes of City Life'', ''Children of the Storm'', and several other translations, is a patriotic 1935 Chinese film most famous as the origin of "The March of the Volunteers", th ...


References

{{Authority control Student protests in China Protests in the Republic of China (1912–1949) 1935 in China December 1935 events 20th century in Beijing Anti-Japanese sentiment in China