Discussions On The Anfu Congress

After Zhang Xun restored monarchy, Duan Qirui re-formed the cabinetby "giving a new life the republican". The cabinet had no congress and nopresident, which was very disproportionate for the always enounced"republican" of republic. For conforming to the law, also for adapting thedemocracy current, also for the factional benefits, under the aggressive planof Yanjiu Party and the Wan Party's politician, Xu Shuzheng, Wang Yitang,et al, Duan Qirui re-called the temporary Senate, re-set the parliamentelection law, and organized the emperor party, Anfu Party, and fullyresponded for election to control the congress. Because the members of thenew congress were of Anfu Party mostly, so the congress was called Anfucongress.During the election of the Anfu Congress, for more elections on thepeople from Duan and Xu and occupying the majority, making a congressunder the control of Wan's warlord, Xu Shuzheng, Wang Yitang, etc., madeaggressive plans, used wealth and power, luring and intimidation, not onlyrestricted electing qualifications strictly, but also manipulated the election,making the election of the Anfu Congress deviated far away from the orbit andthe frame of the democracy.Along with strengthening of the warlord governing, comparing withearly congress, the Anfu Congress has the differentiation on the politicalstructure and its councilman compositions. First, the members of AnfuCongress decreased greatly, and the main reason was for the sake ofmanipulation; because the young bourgeoisie were rejected at outside, theaverage age of councilman increased; the revolution party accepting themodern educations were discriminated, and the members of gentlemansenators accepting traditional educations increased; because the Wan'swarload's operations, lots of bureaucrat, politician and brokers floodedamong them, making the congress more mixed up with bad people. Although the legitimacy the Anfu Congress was once doubted by thesouthwest provinces, it after all controlled Chinese political arena for twoyears, many of history activity still affected the Chinese politics profoundly.Its main history activity includes:(1)Election of the great president: Under theaggressive operation of the Anfu Party, Xu Shichang was chosen for the greatpresident, and this is the first performance of the Anfu Party after the AnfuCongress came to the world.(2)Passed some important proposals: During theperiod of Anfu Congress, Wan's warlord borrowed lots of funds and weaponsfrom Japan for the sake of the maintenance, and because its man's naturalcharacter, Anfu Congress passed all the proposals reflecting the Wan's will,such as borrowing funds from Japan, Sino-Japanese military agreements, andetc..(3)Exchanging the cabinet: During the two years of Anfu Congressexistence, the cabinet was replaced continuously. Because the congress wascontrolled by the Wan Party, when its member disobeyed its political mindset,it would exchange the cabinet by all means. Frequently exchanging of thecabinet reflected the complicated faction conflicts, and further reflected thereactivity and the uses for the emperor of the Anfu Congress.(4)Break thesouth-north peace negotiations: For the sake of its own benefits, Anfu Partycouncilman made every effort to break the south-north peace negotiations,focused on the representative's candidate and the cease-fire in Shanxi, whichfinally extincted the only faint fire of peace in China. (5)The argument of《theChina republic constitution drafted plan》: This constitution was produced bythe Anfu Congress. Because of the break out of the war between the Zhi andthe Wan, that drafted plan was not reviewed by the Senate and House, also didnot come into practice, but the law was the feedback of the politicalconsciousness, and also an outline of its political target. We still can peek thegeneral assertion of the Anfu Congress up to the Chinese politics from itsestablishment. The Anfu Congress was produced by the Wan's warlord through bribeand compulsion, which ran in opposite direction with the real democracycurrent. So, when a kind of force was replace by another force, a kind ofso-called "democracy" overthrowed another kind of so-called "democracy",the destruction of the Anfu Congress became inevitable. The variation of theobjective politics, social environment was surely important, but its owninborn shortage was the main cause of its destruction. First, the imperfectionof the political faith made Anfu Congress lose the most basic direction, as aresult the pursuit of practical benefits became necessary. The inner slack,abruption and deviation tendency became very severe; Next, the economycan't stand any frustration and test; Last, the Anfu Congress relied on thewarlord, which also destined that it was mutually and always with thepolitical destiny of the warlord, the rises and the falls of the warlord decidedits final destination directly. When a person falls from power, his hangers-ondisperse. For the evaluation of the Anfu Congress, it is all the condemning phrasesin the Chinese history. But dialectically speaking, as any thing all has the bothsides, although the Anfu Congress was once controlled by the warlord of Wanand lost the natural character of the democracy completely, and then becamethe governance tool of the Wan's warlord, it was also not completely with thetrack of Wan's warlord. At the time of returning to autarchy and falling behind,it also resisted some autarchy and falling behind; at the time of strangling thedemocracy and civilization, it also promoted certain democracy andcivilizations. So, when discussing the history desert the Anfu Congress, weshouldn't only emphasize its negative influence but neglect its positive effect.Only objective and comprehensive discussion can depict the original history ofthe Anfu Congress clearly.