Beiyang government

National flag 1912-1928

The Beiyang government (Chinese: 北洋政府; pinyin: beiyang zhengfu) or warlord government collectively refers to a series of military regimes that ruled from Beijing from 1912 to 1928 at Zhongnanhai. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate government of China. The name comes from the Beiyang Army which dominated its politics with the rise of Yuan Shikai who was a general of the Qing government. Though Yuan's death fractured the army into competing factions, the government was always under the control of Beiyang generals with a "constitutional" or civilian facade. Overall, it was extremely corrupt, incompetent, and tyrannical. Most of the revenue was spent on the military forces of whichever faction that was currently in power. The short lived legislatures did have civilian cliques and debates but were subject to bribery, forced resignations, or dissolution altogether. The brightest spot was its foreign ministry which had a renowned diplomatic corps with figures such as Wellington Koo. Because the generals required their skills, the foreign ministry was given substantial independence.

Domestically, its legitimacy was challenged by Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou based KMT government in 1917. Sun's successor, Chiang Kai-shek, led the Northern Expedition in 1928,wiped out the Beiyang warlords in Beijing and other warlords in Southern and Northern China,after the unification, international recognition was given to the Nanjing based KMT regime. And so the flag of China was changed into the "Blue sky white sun" flag. The "Five-colored flag" used by the Beiyang was adopted by Manchukuo, a puppet states set up by the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The "Five-colored flag" was suggested to be the future Federal China flag.