The May Thirtieth Movement () was a major labor and anti-imperialist movement during the middle-period of the Republic of China era. It began when the Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on Chinese protesters in Shanghai's International Settlement on 30 May 1925. The shootings sparked international censure and nationwide anti-foreign demonstrations and riots such as the Hands Off China protests in the United Kingdom.
Background The Shanghai Mind of the Western World
The establishment of treaty ports going back to the unequal treaties, which concluded the Opium War on October 24th, 1860, created a largely colonial society within China, diminishing their sovereignty. It also proposed a 'treaty port mentality' or 'Shanghai Mind' as described by British journalist, Arthur Ransome, in a 1927 editorial from the newspaper, the Chinese Puzzle. In the essay, Ransome argues that the combination of ethnocentrism, arrogance, and racism from British Shanghai led to the events of May 30th, otherwise known as the May 30th Tragedy in China (Simplified Chinese: '五卅惨案', Traditional Chinese: '五卅慘案', pinyin:Wǔsà Cǎn'àn). He described British policy as "controlling the bottle neck through which the bulk of the China trade must pass; they prosper upon it coming and going."
By the 1920s, Shanghai had 37,600 foreigners living in the French Concession area. There were around 14,000 Japanese, 14,000 Americans and Frenchmen, and 9,000 British who dominated with the greatest foreign investment in the city with control over the administration of the International Settlement. In the first decade after WWI, there was a huge new wave of increasingly American influence in Shanghai as they established their own schools, churches, business associations, and social clubs. Foreign businessmen and their families saw their economic and social well-being intimately tied to the question of Shanghai's future, resisting any radical change that may impede that future.
In a reflection pertaining to the leadup to the anti-imperialist May 30th movement, an American journalist, Milly Bennet, wrote:
"...the only way to gain access to the business and social circles…was to echo their hidebound dogma which came to something like that the Chinese were a dirty, low, mongrel race, that they should be everlastingly grateful for being booted around by the extremely superior British, and how what the Chinese really needed was the firm British government to guide them."
Many westerners considered their ideas on modern municipal administration superior to the 'backwards' way of Chinese civilization as Shanghai was thought to be a tiny fishing village before it opened to the West in 1843. During the 1920s, this superiority complex was threatened by the declining power of the British empire. Hence, they attempted to maintain their privilege by doubling down on investments in the city as well as enforcing stricter political guidelines. Foreign settlements, with modern infrastructure and common law models, incentivized students to study and appreciate these systems rather than denouncing them as imperialist institutions which must be reclaimed. A 1922 Washington Conference raised discussions about China's chaotic state and the corruption and greed of warlords, showing how necessary it was, both for foreigners and Chinese, that the special privileges of foreigners continue until China has 'put her house in order.' Much of the blame was pushed onto students who according to westerners, misunderstood democratic institutions and culture and were incapable of independently overcoming the internal strife plaguing the nation.
The Shanghai Mind of the foreign settlers also believed that the powers must force China to respect the treaties it signed more than half a century earlier. A headline by American Rodney Gilbert, an editor for North China, read: "Every Concession to Chinese Officials means Fresh Attacks on Foreigners: Treaty Violations come from Weakness and Vacillation."
Putnam Weale, an Englishman who was an editor for Peking Leader, notoriously was a proponent of scientific racism. He argued that the Chinese are incapable of leadership in Shanghai and nor can they outpace the productivity of individual foreigners because:
"It has been calculated that the nervous energy of the educated Chinese is 0.24 of the white man; and that of the laborer 0.18...In an office it thus takes four Chinese to do the work of one foreigner, and in manual work five."
The Growing Anti-Imperialist Movement
The moral authority of western powers was increasingly challenged by the growth of radical nationalism in China and also by anti-imperialist sentiment at home in support of the Chinese. The new era of nationalism of the 1920s identified foreigners as the top cause for China's misfortunes, and after 1923, the First United Front began to prepare protest and unionizations of local workers in Shanghai. The foreigners saw two major threats: the external military campaign from Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist armies, and the internal armed rising led by communists backed by the Soviet Union after the recent Russian revolution. A 1923 declaration by A.O. Land, chairman of the Court of Directors of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, stated:
"The doctrine that China must work out her own salvation has been tried and found wanting. It is…derided by most intelligent Chinese…We have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the time has come to give foreign interference a trial, not in any aggressive spirit, but with the firm and friendly determination to save the country from the chaotic conditions to which military mis-government and political demoralization have brought it."
In the aftermath of the 1924 Second Zhili–Fengtian War, China found itself in the midst of one of the most destructive periods of turmoil since 1911.Waldron, Arthur, (1991) From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, p. 5. The war had involved every major urban area in China, and badly damaged the rural infrastructure. As a result of the conflict the Zhili-controlled government, backed by varied Euro-American business interests, was ousted from power by pro-Japanese warlord Zhang Zuolin, who installed a government led by the generally unpopular statesman Duan Qirui in November 1924. Though victorious, the war left Zhang's central government bankrupt and Duan exercised little authority outside Beijing. Authority in the north of the country was divided between Zhang and Feng Yuxiang, a Soviet Union-backed warlord, and public support for the northern militarists soon hit an all-time low, with southerners openly disparaging provincial governors as junfa (warlords). With his monarchist leanings and strong base in conservative Manchuria, Zhang represented the far right in Chinese politics and could claim few supporters. Meanwhile, the KMT (Nationalist) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), allied as the First United Front, were running a diplomatically unrecognized Soviet-backed administration in the southern province of Guangdong.
Alongside public grief at the recent death of China's Republican hero Sun Yat-sen (12 March 1925), the KMT and CCP were particularly involved in unionizing in Shanghai through the far-left Shanghai University.Ku, Hung-Ting (1979). Urban Mass Movement: The May Thirtieth Movement in Shanghai. Modern Asian Studies, Vol.13, No.2. pp.197-216 Shanghai's native Chinese were strongly unionised compared to other cities and better educated, and recognised their plight as involving lack of legal factory inspection, recourse for worker grievances or equal rights.B.L (Jul 15, 1936). Shanghai at Last Gets Factory Inspection Law. Far Eastern Survey, Vol.5, No.15. Educated Chinese were also offended by the council's plan to introduce a new censorship law, forcing all publications in the Settlement to use the publisher's true name and address.
In 1924, CCP cadres formed a night school in Hsiao-sha-tu bordering Shanghai; this would later turn into the Fu-hsi kung-jen chih-lo-pu, or, The Western Shanghai Workers' Club. During early months of 1925, strikes on those matters intensified. A cotton-mill worker, Sun Liang-hio, a CCP member, was the head of the Western Shanghai Workers' Club. During the early months of 1925, strikes on those matters intensified. Japanese-owned cotton mills were a source of contention, and disputes between Japanese owners and Chinese employees around the #8 Cotton Mill became regular occurrences. In February that year, a dispute between Chinese workers at the No. 8 Mill of the Naigai Wata Kaisha and Japanese management concerning layoffs led to the KMT helping to form the Shanghai Cotton Mill Union during the strike. Although matters were settled, the workers felt unsatisfied about the situation and sought a bigger victory. In early May, workers at Shanghai Naga Wata Kaisha company began striking again in an effort to force company management to negotiate. On 15 May, a Japanese guard employed by the company shot and killed a worker named Ku Chen-hung. The killing resulted in public outrage. The Shanghai Students Union began fundraising campaigns and delivered speeches condemning the killing. The Party also led strikes to shift from the economic struggle to a political struggle against Japanese imperialists and Chinese warlords, eventually turning into an anti-west movement more generally.
A week after the killing, a group of students, heading for Gu's public "state" funeral and carrying banners, were arrested while traveling through the International Settlement. With their trial set for 30 May, various student organisations convened in the days before and decided to hold mass demonstrations across the International Settlement and outside the Mixed Court.
The Nanjing Road incident
On 30 May 1925, with the mobilization of students from University of Shanghai, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the trade union, thousands of workers, students and citizens took to the streets and marched towards the British concession on Nanjing Road.. The Nanjing Road incident started according to an article on Wenhuinet, immediately after the May Thirtieth Incident, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party held a meeting and decided to launch a general strike, suspension of business, and suspension of classes throughout Shanghai.
Just after the trial of the arrested students began, Shanghai Municipal Police arrested 15 ringleaders of a student protest being held on and around Nanjing Road, in the International Settlement where it is controlled by other countries. The protesters were held in Louza (Laozha) police station, which by 2:45 pm was facing a "huge crowd" of Chinese that had amassed outside. The demonstrators demanded the arrested ringleaders be returned to them. According to the recollections of the eyewitness Ding Jinxian published on Wenhu News, she and five other classmates were escorted into the old gate detention house by the police. Inside the detention center, they witnessed classmate Qu Jingbai being beaten to the point of vomiting and losing teeth by the British police for shouting anti-imperialist slogans.