1935 (Crisis Reappears)

Author: Li Jifeng, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-04-01
Features: On New Year's Day in 1935, Hu Shi, a professor at Peking University, arrived in Lingnan and visited Guangdong and Guangxi. Like many other travelers, his impressions of these two provinces were vastly different. To counter Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, the authorities in Guangdong and Guangxi had remained united as brothers. When the Red Army passed through, their fear was not the advancing Red Army but the Nanjing troops that followed. Two months after retreating from the Central Soviet Area, the Central Red Army suffered an unprecedented defeat. At the Battle of Xiangjiang, even those who witnessed the tragic scene of the Red Army's blood staining the Xiangjiang River still felt deep sorrow. In January 1935, in Zunyi, Guizhou, the Red Army commanders could no longer tolerate such heavy casualties and supported Mao Zedong's return to power. Mao's return later became widely recognized as a major turning point for the Red Army, the Communist Party of China, and even the fate of China. But at the time, no miracle occurred. To escape the pursuit, the thinly clothed, malnourished Red Army had to seek a way of survival in the increasingly desolate southwestern and northwestern directions. In that region, their enemies were more like the harsh tests of nature than the Nationalist Party's pursuing forces. Hunger, cold, grasslands, and other factors all threatened this ever-decreasing army. In 1935, the Nanjing government's pro-Japanese policy was unforgettable, but Japan mercilessly cut off the Nanjing government's lifeline.
On May 17, 1935, Japan first decided to elevate the diplomatic relations between the two countries from the level of chargé d'affaires to that of ambassadors, and Britain, the United States, Germany, and others followed suit. However, just as the people had begun to smile with relief, the crisis in North China arrived, followed by the silver crisis. Everyone immediately felt both laughing and crying, sensing impending disaster. In 1935, the Nanjing government's pro-Japanese policy was unforgettable, but Japan showed no mercy in cutting off the Nanjing government's lifeline.