To this day, Wang Jingwei’s breakaway from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government in Chongqing to form the Reorganized National Government (RNG) in Nanjing remains a heated topic. Academics and others around the world continue to debate the RNG’s success and failure; and most of all, how this act reflects on Wang Jingwei as a politician. Did Wang “sell the country?” Did he try to save the Chinese nation and its spirit from being destroyed by the invading Japanese? Did he wish to provide for the people living in the areas taken by the enemy? Or were there other reasons that he and leaders of the RNG made this controversial step?
We believe that recognizing any endeavor’s stated mission is the first essential step to evaluating “success” or “failure.” “Good” or “bad” is a judgment should be decided by the people who were most affected by the endeavor. More than eight decades later, finding answers to these questions requires a through examination into the situation at the time. What Wang Jingwei’s objective in establishing tbe RNG can be found in his voluminous writings. Some of the most representative works are published in Wang Jingwei zhengzhi lunshu (Wang Jingwei’s Political Discourse). Other leaders of the RNG such as Chen Gongbo, Zhou Fohai, Chu Minyi and Lin Baisheng also gave speeches and published writings on the subject that are increasingly accessible via online databases. Another way to assess the RNG is by examining its 10-point policy announced on March 30, 1940, which was also translated into English the same year in the April 10th issue of East Asia Review :
Political Program of the National Government
1
To adopt a policy of good neighborliness and through peace diplomacy secure the independence and integrity of China’s Sovereignty and Administration to enable her to share the responsibility for the establishment of permanent peace and a new order in East Asia.
2
To respect the legitimate rights and interests of friendly Powers; to readjust Sino-Foreign relations; and to promote Sino-Foreign friendship.
3
To unite with all friendly Powers for the purpose of counter-acting the subversive and peace-disturbing activities of the Communist Internationale.
4
To rehabilitate the troops who support peace and national reconstruction, to pacify and settle the guerrilla units; to organize a National Defence Army; and to delimitate the respective function of military administration and military command with object of destroying military dictatorship.
5
To establish various grades of representative organs of the people; to enlist people of ability from every walk of life; and to consolidate national public opinion in order to build up the foundation of democracy.
6
To convene a National Assembly (Kuo Min Ta Hui) to enact a constitution and to enforce Constitutional Government (Hsien Cheng).
7
To invite the participation of foreign capital and the technical cooperation of friendly Powers in the economic rehabilitation and industrial development of the country.
8
To promote foreign trade with a view to securing the equilibrium to the balance of international payments; to establish the Central Bank of China and unify the currency system with a view to stabilizing the financial system.
9
To readjust the system of taxation with a view to lessening the burden of the people; to rehabilitate the rural districts by rendering relief to the homeless refugees in order that they may return to their homes and resume their peaceful vocations.
10
To adopt Anti-Communism, Peace and National Reconstruction as the guiding principles in the educational policy; to promote scientific education and discard all misleading tendencies in the educational system of the past.