Politics on the Ground

Abstract

At the time of the Soviet group’s departure from China proper, Chang Tso-lin had come to reign supreme in Manchuria. His actions against the Soviet Union in Peking had extended his political influence well beyond the borders of his warlord fiefdom, reinforced, at least for a time, by the full backing of Japan. With the Soviet Union’s China policy so clearly in tatters after the events in Peking, Canton, Hankow and Shanghai, together with the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet advisers from China, the focus shifted from fears of Soviet subversion in China as a whole, to actions in Northern Manchuria specifically.