young marshal spring and autumn

From the perspective of national relations, in modern times, Germany is the only country that is relatively friendly to China under the watchful eye of the big powers—not to mention that Germany also participated in the Eight-Power Allied Forces and occupied Jiaodong Bay——in the pack of wolves When dividing the sheep and taking advantage of the fire to loot, who would be willing not to share a piece of the pie?At least in terms of strategic policy, Germany does not have much ambition for China.

Of course, it is not because of Germany’s good intentions, but due to geopolitical conditions, Germany can only seek outward breakthroughs on land: Britain has formed a position in the sea that cannot be broken through in the short term, and the Anglo-French alliance has completely blocked its westward projecting of the Atlantic Ocean. possible.The Battle of Jutland showed that the German Navy had a slight advantage in terms of winning or losing the battle.But in terms of strategic significance, Britain still maintained its maritime superiority over Germany, and Germany's attempt to break the British naval blockade failed to materialize.Since both France in the west and Poland in the east have formed an alliance with Britain, the German military circles have formed a consensus that if the Anglo-French alliance is not broken, there will be no room for the development of the Germanic nation.To surpass Britain and France, industrial transcendence is essential.

Due to the lack of naval power, the control of China can only be powerless.That being the case, far-distance and near-attack is a policy that is in line with the national situation.After World War I, Germany lost all its overseas colonies, which meant the loss of cheap and stable raw materials and labor markets, and the dilapidated domestic economy and extremely unequal trade status compared with other powers made Germany also urgently need China's A trading partner that can provide a large amount of scarce agricultural and mining raw materials, has a large domestic market and is eager for advanced technology, and is willing and able to pay international currency or conduct barter trade.

Similarly, Germany was in a dilapidated and precarious situation due to the defeat in World War I, but because it lost all its colonies in China and no longer had the opportunity to use troops overseas, China and Germany could be in a relatively equal balance of power exchange in position.Although Germany has been defeated, and the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles prevent Germany from exporting normally, Germany's various domestic industrial capabilities and technological levels are still at the forefront of the world, and it is urgent to save the declining economy by expanding production, so Germany Actively seek overseas partners.It was originally the Soviet Union and Argentina and Chile in South America (this is why there are quite a few German immigrants and influenced by German culture in South America).For the Chinese government, which is eager to modernize, such a Germany is definitely a high-quality and low-cost trading partner.

In this way, Germany's demand for raw materials and lack of interest in China's political interference prompted Germany to actively deepen and accelerate cooperation with China. Help with industrial and military capabilities.Sino-German exchanges are of great benefit.

Zhang Hanqing also saw this, so in the year when Germany was defeated, he invited German military advisers from a corner of the northeast, and gained the trust of the German military circles during the long-term cooperation process, laying a good foundation for the national government to fully develop exchanges with Germany .At the same time, China's desire to industrialize against the looming shadow of Japanese invasion deepened this cooperation.Therefore, from the 1920s, the two sides hit it off almost immediately, and carried out all-round cooperation in various aspects such as industry, agriculture, and military affairs.

The same is true in official history: During the two world wars, Germany proceeded from its own interests and took a series of measures to open up the Chinese market.These measures have continuously improved Sino-German relations, promoted the growth of Germany's interests in China, and had a profound impact on Germany's diplomatic decisions toward China. In the 20s and 20s, various factions in Germany had differences on the Far East policy, and the issue of German military advisers coming to China was one of the focal issues.There have been many disputes between the Wehrmacht and the Foreign Office over this issue, but their differences have not been substantive.Before the Nazis came to power, the traditional German ruling elites always hoped to cultivate China as their strategic ally in the Far East. Even after the Nazis came to power, they actively cooperated with the Chinese government in order to speed up the construction of Germany’s military industry and vigorously attract raw materials and foreign exchange. way of doing.

On May 1921, 5, China and Germany signed the "Sino-German Agreement". Its significance lies in the fact that it was the first treaty of equality and mutual benefit in modern China, which had an important impact on Zhang Hanqing's economic development policy.In this agreement, Germany has carefully planned the feasibility of entering the market, and based its expansion of economic interests in China on the basis of long-term and large-scale investment.Through the unremitting efforts of the German military-industrial complex at that time - the German Wehrmacht and the All-German Federation of Industry, the Chinese revitalization plan was closely integrated with German economic interests.

From 1919 to 1922, the largest trading partner of the three northeastern provinces was not Japan, which was close at hand, but Germany. The raw materials of Germany's oil and fat industry were almost completely dependent on soybean exports from the Northeast.By 1924, when the People's Party was in power, the trade volume between Germany and China was 3 million U.S. dollars, while the trade volume with Japan dropped to 475 million U.S. dollars.German industry also has a large demand for tungsten sand, antimony, manganese, tin, pig bristles and tung oil produced in China.Taking tungsten as an example, Germany is one of the main importers of tungsten sand in China. Since the Weimar period, Germany has imported tungsten sand from China through non-governmental trade. , tungsten ore has become a vital strategic material in Sino-German trade. In less than ten years, the amount of tungsten ore imported from China by Germany has increased by more than four times, and its growth rate far exceeds that of other commodities. Tungsten The rising speed of the sand price index is also very fast, with an increase of 2 times in ten years, which is unmatched by other commodities.During the past 34 years, the quantity of Chinese tungsten sand imported by Germany has continued to rise.

A group of diplomats appointed by the German government actively participated in various trade and economic cooperation between China and Germany. Some even went to Jiangxi and Guangdong in South China to inspect the production of important strategic resources such as tungsten, tweezers, and tin, and led China to Germany. under the military procurement program.In fairness, although the weapons and equipment sold by Germany to China are expensive, they are of good quality.More German military instructors have developed specific courses for the rotation training of the People's Party Officer Corps and personally participated in the explanations. Of course, they are also actively serving the German government.

Due to the rapid depreciation of the German mark, the credit problems of the Chinese currency and the current situation of currency diversification in the domestic market-basically, the "Fengtian coupons" started by "Yuan Datou" and Zhang Zuolin in China are at the same value.The two sides agreed that Sino-German economic and trade will be mainly completed in the form of barter, which is undoubtedly the best way for the current situation of the two countries.

On August 1924, 8, Zhang Zhenjiu, Minister of Finance of China, and Hapro (formerly known as Handelsgesell Schaft fur Industrielle Produckte, a private enterprise with military background) signed the Sino-German Raw Materials Agreement in Guling, Lushan Mountain. And the Treaty on the Exchange of Agricultural Products and Industrial and Other Products, also known as the "Hebulou Treaty".China began to exchange strategic raw materials such as tungsten sand and manganese sand and agricultural products for German industrial products, especially military supplies.This completely equal barter trade treaty with equal rights for both sides played an important role for both China and Germany - for China, it solved the dilemma of being unable to obtain international loans due to civil war and huge budget deficit , and the Western world’s substantial blockade of Chinese weapons imports not only promoted China’s industrial development, but also provided great help to the innovation of the Chinese military; for Germany, after the signing of the treaty, the raw materials China provided to Germany Almost all of Germany's needs are met, so that Germany hardly needs to purchase any other products in the international raw material market.

Another very important Sino-German industrial cooperation plan was the three-year plan of the same year, which was jointly undertaken by the Chinese government's Resources Committee and the German Hebulou Company.The main purpose of the plan is to build an industrial base to counter Japan in the short term, and the long-term goal is to build an industrial center in Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces for long-term industrial development.The three-year plan has several basic components, such as the exclusive management of all related businesses of tungsten and antimony, in Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan (at this stage the People's Party government has not yet gained Trust, the plan has covered) and other places to build 17 factories, including steel, fuel (coal mines and oil mines), machinery, electrical, chemical and other heavy industry factories and power plants.China pursued these plans by offering rare minerals in exchange for German technology and equipment, as outlined in the 1924 barter agreement.The three-year plan also produced a group of highly educated technical officials for the Republican government to be in charge of these national plans.

Objectively speaking, the rearmament needs of the German government must ensure the supply of strategic raw materials for its industrial products and military equipment.In view of this, large industrial conglomerates such as Krupp, Farben, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and Deutsche Industrial Bank have become a trend to invest heavily in China.Because of the restrictions imposed by the victorious countries such as Britain and the United States on German overseas investment at this time, this kind of investment is carried out internationally by means of direct guarantees for foreign investment by the state, international bank remittance settlement agreements, barter trade preparations, import licenses, and export subsidies. direct trade between them.

By April 1926, 4, the partners of Hebulou Company transferred their shares to the German Ministry of Defense, thus changing from a private company with military background to a state-owned company.On the same day, Chinese Premier Wang Yongjiang and German Chancellor WilhelmMarx signed a supplementary agreement to the Hebulou Treaty - the "Dehua Credit Loan Contract", in which the German government provided an indefinite revolving loan worth US$8 million to the Chinese government.In addition, China promised to purchase equipment and technical materials from Germany with a credit of 1 million U.S. dollars at an annual rate of 20%.For this reason, Zhang Hanqing exchanged congratulatory messages with Wilhelm, marking that Sino-German relations have entered the "honeymoon period".