HITLER AND CHINA

January 1933, more than 8,000 kilometers away from Berlin, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was dreaming of the union and prosperity of his new China. His Nationalist government, the Kuomintang, was now recognized by the European powers as the legitimate ruler of the Chinese territory. But after the tumultuous period of the Warlords, there were still many military factions opposing the government established in Nanjing. China was all but united. Against the backdrop of the civil war, Chiang began economic and military cooperation with Berlin in the 1920s.

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The arrival of Hitler did not frighten the Chinese leaders. Cooperation could even be strengthened by the new Nazi policy of defense economy. This policy called for the complete mobilization of German society in order to harvest the maximum amount of raw materials for its military industry. In this field, China was a natural ally. But the Chinese had been deceived so many times by these Western powers. Could the Chinese leader really take the risk of trusting the Nazis?