Feng Guozhang steps down

The British chronology of the war records under 11 October 1918 that the President of China, Feng Guozhang, left office. In fact the transfer of power took place a day earlier, on 10 October, the seventh anniversary of the outbreak of the revolution that had overthrown the empire. That day in Peking Xu Shichang, elected by parliament on 4 September, took office as president, and Feng handed power over to him at a ceremony of transfer. Feng was neither dismissed nor overthrown. The term that Yuan Shikai had begun in 1913, and that Li Yuanhong had continued after his death, was simply coming to an end.

Feng had been acting president since July 1917. As vice-president he took over the duties in Nanking when Li Yuanhong went into hiding from the monarchist coup of General Zhang Xun, and after the collapse of the Manchu Restoration he came to Peking and remained in office until the end of the term. During his presidency China declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, but throughout that time he was in conflict with the premier, Duan Qirui. Feng, leader of the Zhili clique in the Beiyang Army, wanted a peaceful settlement with the southern government in Canton, while Duan, at the head of the Anhui clique, wanted to unite the country by force and sought money and arms for this in Japan, with which in 1918 he concluded a secret military agreement. On 12 August 1918, the day the new parliament opened, Feng announced that he would not stand for election.

On 7 October, a few days before leaving office, Feng sent a telegram to the whole country. In it he admitted that he had failed to end the civil war and took the blame on himself, writing that it was due to his “lack of virtue and incompetence”. At the same time he gave it to be understood that responsibility also lay with the leaders of both sides, who stubbornly clung to their positions while the nation suffered. He called on the North and the South to make concessions as quickly as possible.

Feng’s departure was one half of the compromise that made Xu’s election possible. The new president’s first order, issued on 10 October itself, was to accept the resignation of Duan Qirui. The interior minister, Qian Nengxun, became acting premier. Duan nevertheless kept his influence as head of the war participation office and patron of the majority in parliament. In the spring of 1919 Feng went back to his home town of Hejian in Zhili province and turned to business. He died in Peking in December 1919. His faction outlived him, however, and in 1920, now under Generals Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, defeated the Anhui clique in a short war for control of Peking.