Manchuria since c. 1900

In the closing decades of the 19th century, foreign powers, particularly Russia and Japan, began to eye Manchuria as a fruitful field for imperialist expansion. The conflict between Russia and Japan for the control of Manchuria first raged over the possession of the Liaodong Peninsula. As the prize of its victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, Japan demanded from China the cession of the Liaodong Peninsula. But Russia, backed by France and Germany, compelled Japan to abandon this claim. By means of intrigue and intimidation, Russia then (in 1898) acquired from China a 25-year lease of the Liaodong Peninsula and the right to build a connecting railway from the ports of Dairen (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Lüshun) to the Chinese Eastern Railway. The clash of Russian and Japanese interests in Manchuria and Korea led to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. After its defeat, Russia ceded to Japan all its interests in southern Manchuria.

After the Chinese Revolution of 1911, Manchuria came under the nominal control of the local warlord Zhang Zuolin, who was forced to grant the Japanese vast concessions in the region in return for their tacit military support. The notorious Twenty-one Demands that Japan presented to China in 1915 compelled the Chinese to extend Japan’s lease on the territory of Kwantung (Pinyin: Guandong; at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula) for 99 years and to grant the Japanese far-reaching civil and commercial privileges in Manchuria. During the Chinese civil war Japan exercised a controlling influence in south Manchuria with the support of its Kwantung Army.

The overambitious Zhang Zuolin ran afoul of the Japanese and was assassinated in 1928. His more patriotic son and successor, Zhang Xueliang, ignored Japanese warnings and decided to cast his lot with the Nationalist government in Nanjing. On Sept. 18, 1931, Japanese military forces attacked the Chinese barracks in the city of Shenyang, and by the next day the Japanese had occupied the city. The Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) government in Nanjing chose not to resist the Japanese, as they were ill equipped to mount a full-scale war against Japan and their support base was weak. This response enabled the Japanese to occupy all of Manchuria within five months.

On March 9, 1932, the Japanese created the puppet state of Manchukuo (Pinyin: Manzhouguo) out of the three historical Manchurian provinces. The last Qing (Manchu) emperor, Puyi, was brought to Manchuria from his retirement in Tianjin and made “chief executive,” and later emperor, of the new state. The Manchukuo government, though nominally in Chinese hands, was in fact rigidly controlled and supervised by the Japanese, who proceeded to transform Manchuria into an industrial and military base for Japan’s expansion into Asia. The Japanese took over the direction, financing, and development of all the important Manchurian industries, with the fortunate result that by the end of World War II Manchuria was the most industrialized region in China. Manchuria was a land under Japanese colonial rule from 1932 to 1945. After the fall of Manchuria, many former Manchurian soldiers, aided by armed civilians, cooperated with the Chinese communist underground in organizing a vast anti-Japanese guerrilla movement.

At the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin demanded the restoration of all former Russian rights and privileges in Manchuria as a price for Soviet entry into the Pacific war, an offer readily accepted by his fellow Allied heads of state. In May 1945, Soviet troops began to move from Europe to Asia. On August 8 the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria early on August 9. By August 15 the war was over, however. The next day the Manchukuo emperor Puyi was captured by the Russians. Having struck a good bargain for joining the war, the Soviets now plundered Manchuria as a conquered territory, systematically confiscating food, gold bullion, industrial machinery, and other stockpiles.

To the Nationalist government the political damage of the Soviet occupation of Manchuria was even greater than the economic ravages. Under the protection of the Soviet army, the underground Chinese communist guerrillas there united with communist forces from North China to form the United Democratic Army. Equipped with Japanese arms turned over to them by the Russians, the communist force occupied much of Manchuria. Nationalist progress in taking over the major Manchurian cities was slow. The United States, the major supplier of arms and equipment to the Nationalists, at first had discouraged the Nationalists from military intervention in Manchuria, opting instead to sponsor negotiations aimed at peacefully resolving the differences between the Nationalists and communists. These talks failed. By June 1946 the Nationalists had occupied Changchun, but by then the communists were well established in the countryside. Nearly 500,000 of the elite Nationalist troops found themselves surrounded by communists in Changchun, Shenyang, Jinzhou, and Yingkou. By the end of 1948 most Nationalist forces in Manchuria had been defeated—a prelude to the Nationalists’ loss of the entire Chinese mainland to the communists in 1949.

The communist rehabilitation of the Manchurian economy began with land reform in 1946, and by the end of 1949 all the lands had been redistributed among the peasants. The power of the landlords was eliminated. Industrially, the initial task of the communists was to reconstruct industrial plants so that Manchuria could serve as a major base for the further industrialization of China. During the First Five-Year Plan of 1953–57, what is now called Northeast China received the bulk of Chinese industrial investment. Today it is still one of the industrial heartlands of China.