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The Liangguang Clique is an informal alliance between the Old Guangxi and Chen Cliques within the League of Eight Provinces. Chen Jiongming and his Public Interest Party of Guangdong have an equally informal leadership over Lu Rongting of Guangxi.
History[]
The Xinhai Revolution brought much change to Southern China, leading to a republican-ized Liangguang. In the place of the Qing Viceroyalty of Liangguang were the Guangxi and Guangdong Cliques.
The two provinces helped start the National Protection war and the Constitutional Protection Movement with Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, but the Guangxi Clique quickly started to oppose Dr. Sun, and with the help of Chen Jiongming in the Yue-Gui War, Lu Rongting was pushed out. In 1923, Chen Jiongming was pushed out of Guangdong by the Kuomintang forces.
After the defeat of the Northern Expedition, troops dispatched from German East Asia gained control of the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong, and the formerly ousted governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, Chen Jiongming and Lu Rongting, were restored to their provinces. During their exile in Hong Kong, the two governors worked together to try and maintain their autonomy under both the Qing Empire and the League of Eight Provinces, forging an alliance between them.
Resuming to the creation of a "Model Province" in Guangdong, Chen Jiongming was quick to reverse many of the effects of Kuomintang rule, cutting the province's military budget. Chen Jiongming has reformed the province of Guangdong into a stable and comparatively democratic province, in line with his federalist ideals.
In Guangxi, Lu Rongting has built up his power and his military. The diarchy that sustains the Liangguang Clique has the province of Guangdong provide financial support to the provinces, while Guangxi protects the provinces.
Politics[]
The alliance between Guangxi and Guangdong has allowed both provinces to exercise a good deal of autonomy from Sun Chuanfang and the League of Eight Provinces' power base in Nanjing, as any attempt to use force to reign the two in is simply not worth the trouble when considering the League's need to suppress the waves of unrest that occasionally rock east China. This means the politics of Liangguang are largely protected from Zhili interference and are able to include groups that would be banned elsewhere in China.
Guangdong[]
As 1936 opens, the ruling coalition in the Guangdong Provincial Assembly is the Gonghe Datongmen, or the Grand Republican League (Social Liberal), formed in 1928 by Chen Jiongming and Duan Qirui, former premier of the by-then defunct Republic of China and former leader of the Anhui Clique, in order to create a coalition of republicans. Though Duan has become irrelevant since its founding, the League has over time become Governor Chen's formal coalition in the Assembly.
Though it has successfully governed Guangdong for the eight years since Chen's restoration, the league has grown to become large and often unwieldy. Among its members are federalists of all leanings, Kuomintang remnants, business and gentry interests, and even syndicalists. The League is held together primarily by the need to assert themselves from Nanjing, as they often diverge heavily on a number of issues. A change in the Chinese status quo could very well bring the coalition's cracks to the forefront.
Public Interest Party[]
The coalition is led by the party of Governor Chen, the Zhongguo Zhigongdang, the Public Interest Party of China (PIP) (Social Democrat). Founded in 1925, the PIP attracted a number of disillusioned Kuomintang politicians, and is known primarily for being the main political party of the Chinese Federalist movement, calling for the reorganization of the Republic of China into a federal state and a multiparty democracy. These dreams were dashed by the Qing Restoration and the Zhili Clique's establishment of hegemony over China, but the PIP has remained in Guangdong and continues to be a significant force, despite being banned in Qing/Zhili-controlled lands for being openly republican.
Outside of federalism and republican democracy, the PIP maintains progressive stances on social and political issues, advocating for land and education reform, as well as elected assemblies in all levels of government.
Productive People's Party[]
Chen Jiongming is accompanied on the left by the Productive People's Party (Social Democrat) led by Chen Mingshu, which serves as the front for the Kuomintang's moderate-left elements in Guangdong. While they are social democratic, similar to the PIP, the PPP is distinct in that they adhere to Sun Yat-Sen's Three Principles of the People and Dr. Sun's teachings, unlike the Public Interest Party.
Following the KMT's defeat, Chen Mingshu and his contingent of the KMT's 4th Army were forced to retreat to Guangdong, where him and Jiongming were able to find some common ground on their progressive stances. For the time being, Mingshu is content enough to try to implement the Three Principles peacefully and do everything in their power to hold Governor Chen Jiongming to his progressive views. However, the bad history between Jiongming and Sun Yat-Sen, who split before the Northern Expedition, prevents the relationship between the two parties from being stronger.
Chen Mingshu's true loyalty still lies with the rest of the KMT's left, although him and most of the PPP favor Song Qingling's populist faction in Fujian, rather than Wang Jingwei and the exiled Central Committee.
Merchant Corps[]
To the right of the PIP and the PPP lies the Guangzhou Yueshang Gongan Weichihui, the Merchants' Public Safety Organization (Market Liberal), or the Merchant Corps for short. The Merchant Corps is the armed militia in the service of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1912 by businessmen seeking to defend themselves against the warlordism and banditry that was spreading across Guangdong. Since its founding, the Corps has been led by Chen Lianbo, a Hong Kong businessman and one of the most influential businessmen in southern China.
The Merchant Corps rose up in 1924 against the Kuomintang, who the merchants feared were spreading syndicalism (as the Commune of France was supplying them, and socialism began to catch on with some KMT members), however they were utterly crushed. Their remnants fled to Hong Kong, where Lianbo forged an alliance with Chen Jiongming's Federalists to maintain Guangdong's stability and autonomy. Upon Chen's return to the province and assumption of the governorship, the merchants of Guangzhou aligned with the Grand Republican League and worked with Jiongming to rebuild Guangdong.
Since the defeat of the Northern Expedition, the Merchant Corps has rebuilt and become the merchant elite's primary instrument of influence in the province. They have pragmatically worked with both German business interests in Guangzhou and Chen Jiongming's provincial government, and have thus protected themselves from both the German encroachment that spread throughout many other members of the League of Eight Provinces, as well as increasingly radical reform attempts from the provincial government. Their place in the governing coalition and their anti-union stance ensures that all progressive legislation comes out watered-down, and Chen Lianbo's carefully maintained public image means that he could prove to be a viable candidate for provincial leadership, should the situation in Guangdong change to his advantage.
Other Notable Factions[]
Accompanying the Merchant Corps, the Landowners' Association (Social Conservative) is exactly what the name implies: a loose collection of rural landowners. Though not a completely insignificant force, the Association is not a real political party, and they are represented in the Guangdong Provincial Assembly either by the Merchant Corps or as independents. Regardless, them and the Merchant Corps have worked tirelessly to frustrate any attempts at land reform, with some success.
Industrial regions such as Guangzhou have provided for some degree of support for the Chinese Syndicalist Party (Syndicalist/Totalist), as Chen Jiongming's pro-union stance and refusal to persecute them have allowed the party to grow. However, given Guangdong, like the rest of China, is primarily rural, European-style syndicalism is unlikely to become much more than a fringe ideology.
Guangxi[]
Unlike its neighbor and partner Guangdong, democracy is a long way away from Guangxi. The end of the Northern Expedition saw the return of the powerful warlord and leader of the Guangxi Clique (Paternal Autocrat), Lu Rongting, to the province that bears his clique's name. Lu has spent the eight years since then rebuilding what he saw as the centerpiece of Guangxi: the military.
The Guangxi Clique[]
The Guangxi Clique is, at its heart, little more than a militarist provincial government. The military is at the center of all of the province's operations, and the civilian government serves as a rubber stamp to the Clique's activities. As a result, there is no serious opposition to the Clique within Guangxi itself.
Curiously, the Guangxi Clique's culture is surprisingly pluralistic, recruiting many of Guangxi's ethnic minorities with little discrimination. This pluralism has been carefully and deliberately advanced by Lu Rongting, and extends even to his two adopted sons and deputies in the Clique's leadership: Ma Ji, a Hui Muslim; and Lu Yuguang, a Vietnamese.
On its own, Guangxi should not be able to support as large of an army as it does, as its economy is severely lagging in comparison to Guangdong, in part due to their insistence on a high military budget. The Clique's army is dependent on funding from Guangdong, established by the alliance between Lu Rongting and Chen Jiongming. As such, the two governments are dependent on each other for their survival: Guangdong, funds, Guangxi fights. It is doubtful, however, that this alliance can last forever: if the Federalists wish to achieve their dream of bringing democracy to all of China, then they will have no choice but to bring it to Guangxi eventually. Likewise, the Guangxi Clique may not be willing to live in Guangdong's service forever, and the alliance between the two provinces may be more fragile than it seems...
The New Guangxi Clique[]
While Lu Rongting doesn't face much opposition within Guangxi itself, he does have one major threat in neighboring Yunnan: the "New" Guangxi Clique (Authoritarian Democrat), made of the remnants of the KMT's 7th Army, led by General Li Zongren. In 1923 and 1924, Li and the New Guangxi Clique overthrew Lu Rongting with the help of the KMT and Yunnan governor Tang Jiyao. Li's forces went on to perform admirably during the Northern Expedition, being one of the only generals to win victories against Wu Peifu, despite the KMT's eventual defeat.
In the expedition's aftermath, Li and the 7th Army were forced out of Guangxi and sought refuge in the Yunnan Clique. Border skirmishes though 1930 eventually led to the southwestern governors negotiating a peace settlement, but Li's forces still patrol the Yunnan-Guangxi border in 1936. It is no secret that Li Zongren wishes to depose the "Old" Guangxi Clique and restore Kuomintang rule to Guangxi.
Ideologically, Li Zongren is firmly a part of the Kuomintang's right wing, and along with Yunnan's Zhu Peide, represents the remaining power of the KMT's right wing. Unlike the moderate Zhu Peide, Li is a militant rightist, believing in the supremacy of the National Revolutionary Army and strongly emphasizing the first two of Sun Yat-Sen's Three Principles: overthrowing the old system by force and the army's interim rule of China. Li has no love for Wang Jingwei and the Central Committee in France, and most of the KMT's left in general. It is unclear if even fellow KMT member Chen Mingshu is on Li's good side, or if the feeling is mutual.
For the time being, Li Zongren and the New Guangxi Clique are forced to wait in Yunnan and bide their time. However, Li is among the most able generals in China, and should an opportunity present itself, it is certain that Li will take the chance to restore the Kuomintang and begin the revolution anew...
Military[]
Army[]
Between the two provinces, Liangguang has 7 permanently fielded infantry divisions. In addition to this, Guangdong's Merchant Corps can be raised to defend the province should the situation call for it, and the rural gentry of Guangxi and Guangdong can also raise militia should their interests be threatened. It is widely recognized that the Guangxi Clique's forces are generally at a higher standard than their Guangdong counterparts, as the latter province's prosperity is underpinned by Chen Jiongming's military budget cuts.
Liangguang's autonomy from the League of Eight Provinces mean that these forces are able to operate independently from the League, and serve at the pleasure of their respective governors, instead of at Nanjing's.
[]
Liangguang has no navy to speak of. The only dockyard at all suitable for naval production is in the capital of Guangzhou, and the two provinces do not have the expertise necessary to develop modern naval craft, nor have they had any reason to seek such expertise out.
Air Force[]
Both provinces have tiny aviation industries, spurred by the demands of the provincial armies and their leaders. Between the two provinces, Liangguang has 20 fighters suitable for service. Though these industries are insignificant to foreign eyes, they are still a significant step up over most other provincial governments, and is enough to give them an edge over them.