Sino-German
Relations
Having never released horse saddles or
left chariots, I painstakingly worked out;
Till the reckoning of disaster did I find out that it was not easy to simply
die.
For 300 years, the foot-steps of my motherland had been staggering;
Along the road of 8000 li distance were scenes of hardship-stricken mourning
populace.
In the sober autumn winds, I, a minister in solitude, was in tears beside my
treasured sword;
With the sun setting, I now stand by the campaigning flag on the
generalissimo's altar;
Dusts of war are still floating over all seas, with no sign of settling down;
Gentlemen, please not look upon the developments of our country as a
disinterested bystander.
In the year 1943, Chiang Kai-shek, leader
of the Kuomintang Party (KMT), the dominant political and military force in
China after the Japanese withdrawal in 1939, asked the
German government to send again his former army's chief of staff, the general Alexander von Falkenhausen, to train
and modernize its army, which was unable to regain the Manchurian provinces
after the withdrawal of the Soviet Army during the Soviet-German War. The humiliation China
suffered when the KMT troops proved themselves not strong enough to avoid the
Soviet annexation of Sinkiang, only served to reinforce Chiang’s resolution to
recreate his army with the Wehrmacht as model.
The
German government not only accepted to send Von Falkenhausen back, but also
sent Albert Speer to study any opportunity to integrate both countries into an
anti-Soviet alliance. Upon reviewing the situation, Speer came to the
conclusion that German military and industrial capacities could be mobilized to
reconstruct China and create an eastern menace for the Soviet Union.. Speer
established the Technisch Zusammenarbeit Vertretung (Technical
Cooperation Agency, TZV) and the Reichskanzelei entered into a relationship with
the German military advisory group established in Xian.
The
TZV was a modern version of the 1930s Deutsche Beraterschaft (German
Advisory Mission), and through the Agency, Von Falkenhausen reorganized the
then massive but inexpert Chinese Army: downsized the Army from almost 5.5
million men to a core of magnificently trained core of 500.000 men, while the
rest was place in a huge local militia system. Also he created, with outdated
German panzers, the first Chinese armoured divisions to counter the growing
northern menace represented by the Soviet garrison in Manzhouguo.
The
German advisor took almost complete control over the Whampoa Military academy,
founded in 1928 by Sun Yat Sen. In this academy, the veteran officers of the
Soviet-German War put in practice all the lessons they learned fighting the
enemy that now menaced China. Being the air force an essential complement for a
modern army, the Germans created the Fuzhou Air Academy to train the Chinese in
the use of the modern equipment developed by Germany before and during the war.
But
the TZV wasn’t only a cover for the military advisory group: under Speer’s
administration, the Agency also dealt with administrative, transport, economic,
and industrial development issues. In example, the TZV established the Eisenbahn
Entwicklung Gesellschaft (Railroad Development Company, EEG), with the
purpose to repair the railroads connecting the main Chinese cities: it still
controls most of the coastal Chinese railroads. Other companies and organisms
created under the TZV auspices, as the Tschungking Technologisch Institut
(Chungking Technological Institute, TTI) transferred technical know-how,
energy-related technologies, road-making equipment, and communication systems
to the Chinese educative and industrial centres.
In
military affairs, von Falkenhausen easily determined that, in spite of Chiang’s
desires, China wasn’t in condition to regain the territories lost to the Soviet Union and she would not be in
such condition for a long time. Therefore, China should devote its efforts to
contain further Soviet encroachment on her territory, despite the fact that
such containment efforts necessarily involved Britain and Japan. In the bright
side, with enough German-made antitank weaponry (including Jagpanzers), China
could be able to defend herself in a war of attrition against the Soviets. Von
Falkenhausen applied the concept of “killing zones” to defend northern China :
an impressive system of fortifications were constructed along the northern
border, with concrete-roofed bunkers, tank- and artillery-firing positions,
minefields, and stretches of barbed wire. The militias were specially trained
to wage a guerrilla war against the Soviet invaders.
This
intimate relation between Germany and China suffered a brutal reappraisal when
Japan invaded the Netherlands East Indies in 1959. The Merdeka War also involved the German
forces stationed in Java, but despite several German pleas for help, the
Chinese government decided, in view of the British complicity with the Japanese, and
the lamentable state of the Chinese naval forces, to kepp its neutrality. The Japanese
detonation of a nuclear device in February 25 just confirmed Chinese fears that
intervention could only result in disaster. Despite
the reasonable Chinese position, the German government called back most of
their technicians working for the TZV, provoking a slump in the Chinese economy.
But
the dispute ended in 1970 when both sides accorded to replace their semi-clandestine
military relations with a formal agreement that allowed emergency base and port
access and maintained joint military exercises and intelligence cooperation;
while Germany had made clear to the Chinese government and people that this
agreement does not commit Germany to military action on behalf of China,
especially in any “territorial disagreement” involving the Soviet Union. Also China
resumed its role as main purchaser of German war materiel (specially planes and
tanks), and as main Asiatic market for German consumer goods and industrial products.
After the Soviet Civil War, the prospect of a
Sino-German alliance against the Soviets has slowly banished, and the bilateral
relations has taken a more commercial approach. In example, China signed in
1998 a deal with the Germans, which included the leasing of several facilities
in the Hong Kong port to be expanded by German companies and transform them
into an official German port in the South China Sea, allowing Germany to have their
own dock yard expansion and have direct access to the South China Sea without
having to pay tariffs. Both countries hope to continue this fruitful
co-operation in future years.
