Provisional Government of the Republic of China



The Provisional Government of the Republic of China (, or Chūka Minkoku Rinji Seifu) was a Chinese provisional government protected by the Empire of Japan that existed from 1937 to 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

History
After the conquest of Northern China, Japanese Imperial General Headquarters authorized the creation of a collaborationist regime as part of its overall strategy to establish an autonomous buffer zone between China and Japanese-controlled Manchukuo. It nominally controlled the provinces of Hopei, Shantung, Shansi, Honan and Kiangsu.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of China was officially inaugurated by Wáng Kèmǐn, former Kuomintang Minister of Finance, on 14 December 1937, with its capital at Beijing.

Its activities were carefully prescribed and overseen by advisors provided by the Japanese Northern China Area Army. The failure of the Japanese to give any real authority to the Provisional Government discredited it in the eyes of the local inhabitants, and made its existence of only limited propaganda utility to the Japanese authorities.

The Provisional Government was, along with the Reformed Government of the Republic of China, merged into Wang Jingwei's Nanjing-based new government on 30 March 1940, but in practical terms actually remained virtually independent under the name of the "North China Political Affairs Commission" (華北政務委員會) until the end of the war.

Provisional Government Army
The security of the first Provisional Government was at first based around a 5,000 man police force. The Provisional Government Army began to be organized in May 1938 with the organization of a Japanese-run military academy in Tongzhou. Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) began six months of training in February 1939 and the army officially formed in September 1939. At first the Army had to fill most of the officer and NCO slots with former Nationalist officers until the newly trained officers could take charge.

The army consisted of 13,200 men in eight infantry regiments of 1,650 men each. Six of the regiments were organized in three brigades of two regiments each and put under the command of a Chinese Major General with a Japanese advisor. In addition, a 400 man strong bodyguard formed to protect government officials after all of Wang Ke-min's Japanese bodyguards were killed on duty.