Federalism Of Modern China

The federalism of modern China originated from Chinese bourgeois revolution, advocated by some Chinese bourgeois revolutionaries on state structure. Its boom was greatly impacted by the local power and the consciousness about provincial boundary of later Qing Dynasty, as well as the western federalism. But in the eyes of most Chinese people, the state structure of federalism was a great departure from the traditional culture of state structure of grand unity, and accordingly was opposed to and rejected. Therefore, this concept didn't become the main stream of the consensus of that time, much less becoming the revolutionary program of the Alliance Party. What's more, the federalists didn't expound and discuss their concept, associating it with Chinese situation. Their concept was not perfect and the theory was also superficial.However, with the outbreak of Wuchang Rebellion and the independence of every province, the federalism sprang up once again and based on it, every province called upon one another to struggle, and the provisional central government was founded built on this concept. Considering the chaos in every prince, however, Chinese people, rather than it, preferred the mono-system of state structure and the centralization of state power. So Nanjing provisional government rejected the federalism and this trend of thought died out.After SunYat-sen tool over power to Yuan Shikai, some Kuomintang(the Nationalist Party) members advocated local power so as to guard against Yuan Shikai's tyranny. So 1912 and 1913 witnessed the struggle of centralization of state power and local power in the political life, and in the process of fighting against Yuan Shikai, Kuomintang gradually united their thought and actions, struggling against Yuan's Beiyang government and his supporting party or organization. This struggle didn't involve state structure, but coated with federalism. In another word, the argument of local power by Kuomintang was criticized as federalism, which, was viewed by the centralizationalists as a symbol of separating the country. In the struggle the party of local power was defeated, the "Second Revolution" came to an end in failure, and the congress was dismissed. However, in the third and fourth year of the Republic of China, federalism campaign sprang up again, which resulted from Yuan Shikai's tyranny. This time not only did federalism have a great influence upon people's thought, it also became a theory basis of the campaign of protesting against Yuan Shikai and defending the Republic. But with Duan Qirui's coming to power and the unity of the country, it came to an end again. Later Duan Qirui imposed on people his policy of the centralization of state power and uniting the country by means of force, federalism campaign restored again. Some people, suffering from tyranny and the situation of the state separation, attempted to unite the country by means of federalism, taking in democratic constitutional spirit. Thus, this concept once again overwhelmed public opinions, and gradually in theory became the origin of inter-provincial autonomy.In 1920, the war between Zhi (the northern authority of China) and Wan (the southern authority of China) broke out, and the law-protecting government was dismissed. As a result, the separation situation became rampant. It was under this condition that people for a second time put up a banner of federalism, which now developed into a new stage -- the thought and campaign of inter-provincial autonomy. As for the thought, it was a continued part of federalism with a characteristic of the new times. As regard to the campaign, it derived from the outcome of cooperation between the party of inter-provincial autonomy and the local warlords. This time the federalists put forward their theory systematically. They were not only the advocators of the theory, but also the organizers of autonomic party and firm supporters of the campaign. Nevertheless, owing to lack of enough power, loose organization, and non-violent means, only relying on the local power, their dream of setting up federal state structure and bourgeois democratic constitutional government and ultimately realizing the unity and peace of the country could not come true. They became nothing but a cat's paw. In fact, the local warlords, who took advantage of public power, controlled the whole campaign and thus made their separation reasonable and legal. Therefore, the ideal of bourgeois inter-provincial autonomy became hopeless.In summary, since the later Qing Dynasty, the bourgeois federalism campaign had risen and fallen from time to time thanks to the situation. It was just a tool made use of by others, and it also didn't coincide with Chinese situation and history. It was an outcome of the special condition that China was going through a social transform in modern China. Accordingly it was destined for failure. However, the federalism which lasted 30 years or so was still very democratic and progressive, aiming its target at Qing Dynasty and the centralization of state power of Beiyang Government as well as the local warlords' separation. Their concept and practice, attempting to solve the problem between the central government and the local government, though impractical, were somewhat valuable. Actually it showed a great impact on the idea of state structure in the first conference of Kuomintang and also the second conference of Communist Party of China. In another word, both parties took in some political resources from the concept and practice of federalism. In addition, going back to federalism of modern China is also beneficial in the process of the current political reform and realizing the unity of the country.