Research On The Nationalist Government's Anti-smuggling During The Resistance War Against Japan(1931--1945)

With the guidance of Marxist historical materialism and dialectical materialism and based on historical data and academic researches conducted by previous scholars, the paper presents, through the integration of historical svidence and theoretical survey, an extensive study on the anti-smuggling practices of the Nationalist Government during the Resistance War against Japan, so as to make clear the difficulty, complexity and limitation of the anti-smuggling enforced by the Nationalist Government.The author of this paper thinks that the smuggling during the wartime not only helped Japan realize the conspiracy of'maintaining war with fighting', but also brought China serious impacts in the areas of economic, political and military affairs, etc. It destroyed, to a great extent, the industrial and agricultural economies, affected the Nationalist Government's finance revenue, corrupted civil servants, demoralized society, and weakened the morale of Chinese troops. In thh sense, the strategies and measures adopted by the Nationalist Government to suppres; smuggling during the war period certainly possessed certain progressive significance.The author of this paper also holds that, in order to cope with the increasing smuggling in the wartime, firstly, the Nationalist Government systematically cleaned up the customs administration, gradually built the anti-smuggling organizations and Customs Guard, strengthened the building of the anti-smuggling troops to guarantee a smooth implementation of anti-smuggling practices in all customs. Starting from modifying customs rules and regulations, the Nationalist Government reaffirmed the anti-smuggling sovereignty on the sea, abolished the system of Joint Investigation in cases of confiscation and fine by the customs house Authorities, issued Customs Preventive Law, set up Customs Penalty Board of Inquiry and Appeal, resumed China's anti-smuggling sovereignty and the jurisdiction to punish smuggling, and rectified the abnormal phenomena under the control of foreign Commissioner of Customs. Based on the ideas of state law and rights and on the spirit of national autonomy, the Nationalist Government established the modern Chinese anti-smuggling system.After the break-out of the Resistance War against Japan, the Nationalist Government fully adjusted the whole anti-smuggling structure, consolidated anti-smuggling function of the Ji-Si-Shu of the Treasury Department, urified anti-smuggling organizations, issued series of decrees and regulations, normalized anti-smuggling actions, clarified anti-smuggling obligations, really reinforced anti-smuggling information, strengthened the building of anti-smuggling police, initialed supervision systems aimed foranti-smuggling personnel, unified wartime anti-smuggling system, which all achieved notable results. The Nationalist Government fully implemented the strategy of suppressing and making use of smuggling during the late wartime, and obtained considerable strategic supplies to support the Resistance War against Japan.The author also believes that, during the Resistance War against Japan, the anti-smuggling strategies and measures adopted by the Nationalist Government basically met the changes of the Japanese smuggling tactics. But, Japan was in the offensive position in military and economic fields, the whole Nationalist Government's economic strategies were forced to be on the defensive side, and so were its anti-smuggling policies and measures. Hence, we should not overestimate the effect of the Nationalist Government anti-smuggling. Meanwiile, the fundamental deficiencies in the political, economical and military systems were a main factor for the serious corruption problem in the anti-smuggling departments and the gravity of smuggling during the War.