The National Government of China1

The government at Nanking set up in April, 1927, by the Kuomintang (Nationalist party), in promulgating an “organic act” on October 4, 1928, took the title “national government.” On the seventeenth anniversary of the outbreak of the Republican revolution, October 10, 1928, the system of government provided for by the act was inaugurated. The act was drafted by the law codification bureau at Nanking and revised by a committee composed of Wang Chung-hui, deputy judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Hu Han-min, and Tai Chi-t'ao.Since November, 1924, when, upon the ousting of President T'sao K'un, the “permanent” constitution adopted a year before was suspended, China has been without a fundamental instrument of government. The four intervening years, like the eight which preceded them, have been filled with interregional warfare. At Peking a provisional president, Tuan Ch'i-jui, was followed by a dictator, Chang Tso-lin. Elsewhere, regional capitals exercised the actual powers of government. From Canton in May, 1926, was initiated a campaign to bring all China under Kuomintang authority. The success of the campaign enabled the Nationalists to establish a government which received recognition by the United States on July 25, 1928, and has since been recognized by every state having important relations with the country. Japan has extended recognition of the government as de facto only.