The Manshū Nippō and the Issue of Chinese Reunification at the turn of 1929

The Manshū Nippō, alternately named Manshū Nichinichi Shinbun in 1907-27 and again in 1935-44, was for several years the largest newspaper circulated in Northeast China. It was based in Dairen/Dalian and belonged to the media network of the South Manchuria Railway Company, or Mantetsu for short. As a quasi-official press organ, it played a major role in the dissemination of views favorable to Japanese interests in the surrounding region. Despite being a prime source for the study of imperial Japan’s relations with China from the standpoint of public communication, the ManNichi has attracted so far little attention in the scholarly literature. In particular, with the exception of the second half of 1929, there a lack of discourse analysis on the crucial period between June 1928 and the summer of 1931. It means the interval from the conclusion of the Northern Expedition, waged by the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) against the “warlords” who controlled central and northern China, up to the months preceding the outbreak of the Manchurian incident. The purpose of this essay is to clarify how the ManNichi, within that span of time, dealt with a turning point in Chinese politics: the “change of banner” which on December 29, 1928, marked the formal submission of the Northeast, or Three Eastern Provinces, to the Nationalist Party and the central government it had recently established in Nanjing. More precisely, the articles examined here cover a period of about one month between the announcement of the flag replacement and the aftermath of a closely related incident that upset the factional balance of power in the “Fengtian clique,” that is the shooting of Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai by order of Zhang Xueliang on January 10, 1929. Through a comprehensive survey of editorials, opinion pieces and factual reports, this study aims to ascertain the character of the resulting narrative in comparison with the editorial views of the two leading newspapers of Japan, as well as with opinions that appeared later in the ManNichi, after a change of government in Tokyo. The findings prove that the ManNichi fully supported the dualistic policy of the Tanaka cabinet toward “Manchuria” and “mainland China,” which it considered functional to the protection of Japan’s vital interests in the Northeast. However, the relative influence of various imperial agencies in the process of discourse formation below the surface remains unclear.