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Yunnan Province, Republic of China

Coordinates: 25°00′N 101°30′E / 25.000°N 101.500°E / 25.000; 101.500
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yunnan Province
雲南省
Province of the Republic of China (1912–1951)
1912–1951

Yunnan Province (red) as claimed by the Republic of China
CapitalKunming (1912–1949)
Bangkok, Thailand (in exile) (1950–1951)
Area 
• 1947
420,465 km2 (162,342 sq mi)
Population 
• 1947
9,066,000
Historical era20th century
• Established
1912
• Defection of the Provincial Government
9 December 1949
• PRC establishes full control of Yunnan
1951
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Yunnan
Yunnan
Today part of China
 Myanmar

Yunnan was a province of the Republic of China. It was one of the 22 provinces set up during the Qing dynasty. As one of the 6 provinces in South China, the territory it administers was slightly larger than the present-day Yunnan.

As the ROC does not recognize changes in administrative divisions made by the PRC, including this province, official maps of the ROC government shows Yunnan in its pre-1949 boundaries.

Administration

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Map showing the claims of the ROC
1979 Official ROC Map showing the claims of the ROC

The province inherited the borders of the Qing-Dynasty province, bordering Sikang, Szechwan, Kweichow, Kwanghsi, and the countries Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and India. The claimed boundaries of the province included all of today's Yunnan and parts of Panzhihua, Sichuan and Myanmar (Jiangxinpo, Namwan and parts of Wa states). The province had an area of 420,465 km2.

History

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1939 Detail map of Yunnan during ROC era showing Jiangxinpo (shown as top left yellow), Namwan (show at center left orange and protruding), and Kokang (shown bottom left red)

Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Yunnan came under the control of local warlords, who had more than the usual degree of autonomy due to Yunnan's remoteness. They financed their regime through opium harvesting and traffic.

Cai E is regarded as the founder of the Yunnan clique when at the request of Liang Qichao in 1915, he declared Yunnan's opposition to Yuan Shikai's monarchy. Cai died from natural causes shortly after the successful National Protection War. His chief lieutenant, Tang Jiyao, took over Yunnan and demanded that the National Assembly be restored. When this was accomplished, Yunnan officially reunified with the national government but kept its provincial army separate due to the Beiyang Army's grip in Beijing politics. In 1927, Long Yun seized control of the clique; Tang died shortly after. Long then re-aligned Yunnan under the Nationalist government in Nanjing but stringently guarded the province's autonomy.[1]

In Second Sino-Japanese War, Yunnan served as, among other things, a home base for the Flying Tigers. The Burma Road was constructed, along which supplies travelled into the province and then into the heart of China. In 1942 the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight with the British against the Japanese invasion, eventually fighting to a standstill across the Nu River for 2 years. The province was also a refuge for people, especially university faculty and students, from the east. These had originally retreated to Changsha, but as the Japanese forces were gaining more territory they eventually bombed Changsha in February 1938. The 800 staff faculty and students who were left had to flee and made the 1,000-mile journey to Kunming. It was here that the National Southwest Associated University (commonly known as Lianda) was established. In these extraordinary wartime circumstances for eight years, staff, professors and students had to survive and operate in makeshift quarters that were subject to sporadic bombing campaigns by Japan. There were dire shortages of food, equipment, books, clothing and other essential needs, but they did manage to conduct the running of a modern university. Over those eight years of war (1937–1945), Lianda became famous nationwide for having and producing many, if not most, of China's most prominent academics, scholars, scientists and intellectuals. Both of China's only Nobel laureates in physics studied at Lianda.[citation needed]

After the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Long was removed from office.[2] During the Chinese Civil War, Nationalist forces retreated to the southwest provinces of Szechwan, Sikang, and Yunnan. In 9 December 1949, Chairperson of the Provincial Government Lu Han defected to the Communists and most of the Nationalist troops were defeated in the province. Remnants of the Nationalist forces, led by Li Mi and using Mong Hsat as a base, engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Communists, briefly capturing parts of Yunnan territory. In 1951 the provincial government in exile was dissolved and in 1954, Li Mi's remaining troops retreated to Taiwan.

Demographics

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Population of Yunnan[3]
Year Households Population Male Female Average people per household Gender ratio
1912 1,904,000 9,468,000 4,976,000 4,492,000 4.97 110.70
1928 None 13,821,000 None None None None
1936 to 1937 2,390,000 12,042,000 6,226,000 5,816,000 5.04 107.04
1947 1,715,000 9,066,000 4,552,000 4,513,000 5.27 100.82

List of governors

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  Kuomintang (Nationalist)

Chairperson of the Provincial Government

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Portrait Name
(Birth–Death)
Term of office Political party
1 Long Yun
龍雲
Lóng Yún
(1884–1962)
17 January 1928 2 October 1945 Kuomintang
Yunnan clique
Of Yi descent. Removed from office.
Li Zonghuang
李宗黄
Lǐ Zōnghuáng
(1888–1978)
2 October 1945 1 December 1945 Kuomintang
2 Lu Han
盧漢
Lú Hàn
(1896–1974)
1 December 1945 9 December 1949 Kuomintang
Of Yi descent. Defected to the Communists.
3 Li Mi
李彌
Lǐ Mí
(1902–1973)
21 December 1945[4] 1954 Kuomintang
Post abolished.

References

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  1. ^ 中共雲南地方組織創始人李鑫:被捕後寧死不屈,雲南日報2011年6月10日。
  2. ^ 《抗戰勝利後的「驅龍」事件》,《文史春秋》2013年03期.
  3. ^ 民国人口:研究史の整理と展望
  4. ^ 總統府第五局, ed. (31 December 1949). "《總統府公報》第貳肆伍號".

25°00′N 101°30′E / 25.000°N 101.500°E / 25.000; 101.500