CHINA - ADMINISTRATION Since the revolution of 1911, which abolished the Imperial Office and the time-honoured machinery of administration, China has passed through a bewildering series of political changes and civil wars (see under History). On the eve of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese hostilities of 1937 a quieter phase had super vened and constructive forces were obviously at work, but the factors in the political situation were still extremely complex and the legacy of militarism, which the civil wars had bequeathed, increased the difficulty of administrative reconstruction. A Con stitution was promulgated (autumn 1928) embodying certain principles to which, in theory at any rate, all Chinese Nationalists adhere and the outlines of a new system seemed to be appearing. It would be rash to assume that its foundations were stable or that there was any finality in the arrangements. None the less they exhibited certain tendencies which, subject to the vicissi tudes of foreign war, will probably have a greater degree of per manence since they reflect the mental attitude of a large section of the educated class. The new Constitution and the administra tive arrangements which it contemplates were the work of the Kuomintang or People's Party, which is not only supreme in China but is the only party whose existence is recognized. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Kuomintang, has since his death been regarded in some sense as its patron saint and his will or statement of three essential principles is regarded as a kind of instrument of government. It is far too long to be quoted in extenso or even summarized here, but certain features of it, espe cially those which have a direct bearing on the new Nanking Con stitution, may be briefly noticed. The "three principles of the people" have been translated as:— (I ) Nationalism ("National emancipation and racial equality") .
(2) Democracy ("Political rights for the people").
(3) Socialism ("Economic rights for the peasants and workers") .
Under the first principle ("Nationalism") Dr. Sun states what is necessary for the development of a strong national conscious ness so that China can escape from the position of being "a colony of every Great Power." One of the steps on which he insists is that "we must organize our people into one strong organic group. This can be accomplished only by utilizing such strong units as clans and local organizations." Many old characteristics must be revived, including "our old learning as found in the Great Learn ing" and "we must revive our creative power, the power which we once had in inventing new things." He adds "we must do all these things, but, aside from that, we must also go out to learn what is best in the West." Under the second principle ("Democ racy") Dr. Sun first states the case for democracy and maintains that China in this respect has little to learn from the West, since "the West has, in the last century, progressed much more rapidly in material things than in those that concern man and his welfare. In politics, very little advance has been made." He makes the interesting point that whereas the Western peoples had formerly too little personal freedom and had to fight hard for liberty, in China "our people have had too much personal freedom" and, as a result, "have become a plate of sand ... helpless in the face of foreign imperialism and its economic conquest." "So what we need now is not to fight, for more personal freedom, but to sacrifice some of our personal freedom, in order to gain our national free dom." China has to face two problems, in the solution of which, he maintains, she is helped neither by her own nor by Western experience : how to have a strong central government and at the same time to remove the fear of the people of such a government. To build up a powerful Government machinery and to enable the people fully to exercise their power and control of the machinery two things are essential: (a) The organizing of government "on the five principles—legislative, judicial, executive, entrance to public office by examination, and censorship" ; (b) safeguarding the people with "the power of election, power of recall, power of initiation of new laws, and power of revision or abolition of old laws." Under the third main principle ("Socialism") Dr. Sun insists that "we must centre all our problems around the welfare of the people" and avoid the Western mistake of taking "material prob lems as the central point in human history." "None of the forms of Socialism developed in the west are fitted for our own country." China has to avoid the dangers of industrialism. "Our great and immediate problem is not economic inequality but economic poverty, not a fight against capitalists, but the prevention of the rise of capitalists in the future. Our method of solving this prob lem is to develop State industry." He enumerates a series of measures for increasing production and concludes: "on the one hand there is an urgent need of improving our old methods of rais ing raw materials. On the other hand, we have to develop our own textile industry as rapidly as possible. This is at present hindered by the treaties which forbid us to have tariff autonomy. So our first step in solving the problem (of clothing) is to remove all unequal treaties so that we may carry out a policy of protection." The official programme of the Kuomintang, passed at a plenary session of the central executive committee, with delegates from all provincial committees, in Oct. 1926, at Canton, is essentially an elaboration of the main points and an application of the ab stract "principles" contained in the famous will (the quotations cited are from the translation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's will given in an appendix to Sir Frederick Whyte's China and Foreign Powers. The same appendix contains the programme of the Kuomintang) .
The administrative areas (1931, Jan.) include 28 provinces, namely, Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, Kiangsi, Fukien, Hupeh, Hunan, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Szechwan, Kweichow, Yunnan, Shantung, Honan, Hop-eh (formerly Chihli), Liaoning (formerly Fengtien), Kirin, Heilungkiang, Shansi, Shensi, Kansu, Sinkiang, Hsikiang, Chinghai (or Koko-nor), Ninghsia, Suiyuan, Chahar, Jehol and five special municipalities under the control of the Executive Yuan, namely, Nanking, Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow, Tsingtao. There are in addition two special administrative dis tricts, namely, Eastern Provinces special district (Chinese Eastern Railway zone) and Wei-hai-wei. The provinces are subdivided into 1915 districts and 1 1 municipalities. Sixteen of the 2 2 provinces were (July 1939) entirely or partially under Japanese control.
The actual framing of the Constitution, in accordance with the theoretical aims which have been briefly surveyed, has been con ditioned both by: (I) divergence of view as to the interpretation of the doctrines, since within the Kuomintang are both conserva tive and extremist groups ; (2) The power of the great military chiefs and groups who assisted in the triumph of the Nationalist party. The organization of government is as yet by no means complete. Historic divergencies between the North, the Yangtze Kiang Basin, and the South break out when the central power is weakened and these differences, combined with rivalries of mili tary leaders and communist elements, are important sources of difficulty. The Constitution gives the views of the moderate or conservative side of the Kuomintang. The following are the chief features of "the organic law of the National Government," as ordained by the Kuomintang:— I. A government council consisting of not more than 15 mem bers, vested with supreme power. It is to control the army, navy and air force and is alone competent to declare war, conclude peace and negotiate treaties with foreign States. Its chairman is the official head of the State, representing the nation in inter national affairs, and at the same time is commander-in-chief of all the forces.
2. Five yuan (or councils) for the following functions : executive, legislative, judicial, examination and control (i.e., cen sorship or supervision). Of these the executive yuan is the highest organ of the national government "and shall establish Ministries to which will be entrusted various executive duties." The presi dents and vice-presidents of the five yuan are to be appointed from the government or state council, which shall also settle dis putes arising between the yuan themselves. It will be observed that the five yuan or councils are in accordance with Dr. Sun's proposals under his second essential "principle." The control or supervisory yuan revives the functions of the censorate under the Imperial regime. So too is revived the system of public examinations as the test of admission to public office, and a special yuan comes into existence to supervise it, but whereas in the old days the State was concerned only with the conduct of examina tions, it is now responsible for a national system of education. This, indeed, has been in existence for several years, and notwith standing the dislocations caused by the civil wars, has made considerable progress. The system, first established during the last years of the Manchu dynasty, has been twice re-organized under the Republic, first on the Japanese and later on the Ameri can model. It now consists (subject to revision by the Nanking Government) of : 1. A six-year primary school course (covering approximately the ages six to twelve) divided into two grades : lower and higher primary, each of three years duration. In theory this is obligatory, but only in one or two provinces has the ideal as yet even approached realisation.
2. A six-year middle or secondary school course (12-18), sim ilarly divided into lower and higher grades, the higher tending to be vocational in character.
3. A four-year university course. In some cases there are in dustrial higher primary and middle schools, which are parallel and alternative to those mentioned above. There are also normal schools both lower and higher for the training of primary and middle school teachers respectively, and also higher professional or technical colleges of various types.
The educational programme of the Nanking Government con templates a revision and extension of this scheme and the devotion of a high proportion of public revenue to the schools and colleges. Two new features were the introduction of military training and the compulsory registration under Chinese law of all missionary schools and other schools established by foreigners.
While the machinery of the Government has thus been "or dained," that part of Dr. Sun's programme which indicates popu lar control through "power of election" and "power of recall" has yet to be worked out, and it is precisely on this subject that the differences between the moderates and extremists are most acute. Presumably the local branches of the Kuomintang will choose representatives for provincial assemblies and from these the dele gates to a national "parliament" will be selected. The extent to which the Kuomintang local branches can be related to the existing village and clan organizations may be a question of great impor tance. The system of village government by the council of elders, with the Hsiang-chang (village headman) as its elected represent ative, still survives and is perhaps the most important legacy of the old China. Revolutionary as he was, Dr. Sun had certainly a real respect for the ancient institutions of his country and desired, as some of the quotations which have been given from his will suggest, that the new organization should spring from the old foundations. It is indeed difficult to imagine that any political superstructure can be stable or command for long the confidence of the people unless it rests on the system of local self-govern ment which has been from time immemorial the bedrock of Chinese society.