Hello, and welcome back to another development diary for The New Order! Today’s diary will take us from the smoldering ruins of Chongqing to the hustle and bustle of Nanjing, the modern capital of the Reorganized Government of China. But before we see what has become of the Middle Kingdom, I want to take the time to thank those who have gotten us to this point. My contributors Sino, BFKeller, SPQR, and Valrin (and special guest former China lead and current professional shitposter/idea guy Roniius) have all put in the work these last few weeks and it shows. Greytides charlesthe50th and deathgriffin have also contributed some quality event that you’ll be seeing later, so if you see them in the Discord say hey! Otherwise, we have no time to waste for the Japanese approach so let us begin with a brief history.

“How was power to be shared in a country that in its three-thousand-year history had never once witnessed a peaceful struggle for power?” - Richard Bernstein

In the streets of Chongqing, two titans of the Republican era died fighting side by side. Their bodies were retrieved, strung, and hung before the backdrop of a razed city. With that the Republic would capitulate and in its place would rise the Reorganized Government of China. Claiming to be the legitimate executor of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s vision, the RGOC was founded in collaboration between prominent Kuomintang figure Wang Jing-Wei and the Empire of Japan. Unreleased treaties between the governments arranging for Japanese support would reveal a grim picture for China’s future as a colony for the Japanese.

The end of the Pacific War brought the beginning of a new era for China. One of increased oppression, of mass rape and lootings, of setbacks, but then: stability. What followed the 1947 peace agreements was unpleasant to many but offered peace and the potential for growth to a country that had spent the previous decades in constant chaos. The Japanese occupation purged dissent and Japanese subsidies allowed for the rebuilding of infrastructure and homes, meaning the Chinese people could finally worry less about war and more about working. The transition was not all pleasant—the Japanese pillaged what industry they could and seized control of former business assets—but it was calm enough. Former soldiers returned home, trading rifle for plow and tending to the soil long neglected in the face of war. What resulted was the “Agrarian Boom” of the 1950s, an explosion in Chinese crop exports that sent food prices across the war-torn Sphere spiraling down. Regions on the brink of famine were saved and the newly-Japanese possessions were able to rebuild faster than otherwise possible. For this contribution, the Reorganized Government is often called the “Breadbasket of the Sphere”, a demonym that shows the importance of China within the sphere but also its limitations. In truth, the war and subsequent occupation of China meant that China had regressed into an agrarian society with pockets of poorly utilized industrial sectors surrounding urban areas. Commerce was Japanese and what was manufactured in China usually did not stay there long.

We are the poorest and weakest state in the world, occupying the lowest position in international affairs; the rest of mankind is the carving knife and the serving dish, while we are the fish and the meat. - Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

China still wears the mantle of the “Breadbasket of the Sphere”, with many internal resources going towards the expansion and maintenance of the agriculture sector. The status-quo of China’s export-focused agrarian society means Japan is hesitant to subsidise the expansion of other production sectors in China meaning that any industrial expansion must be undertaken by China alone. The other edge of this blade, however, is that China produces a majority of the crop exports for the sphere, meaning that the Japanese would not feel the need to intervene in industrial expansion, should China present it as a mutually beneficial venture.

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