Ankara as a Role Model during the Second Sino-Japanese War: "Chongqing is Our Ankara!"

Abstract

The cadres of the 1911 Chinese Revolution and the early cadres of the Communist Party of China (CPC) were especially interested in the Turkish Revolution (Demircan & Zhangxu, 2023; Akalın, 2023). Underlying this interest was the War of Independence against imperialism led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the achievement of full economic and political independence through the Republican Revolution. The Chinese resistance to Japanese imperialism during the Second Sino-Japanese War drew an analogy between the move of the capital to Chongqing after the fall of Nanjing and Türkiye's move of the capital to Ankara after the occupation of Istanbul. On December 4, 1937, just two weeks after the Guomindang government announced on November 21, 1937, that it had moved its capital to Chongqing, Yun Fu, editor of the journal United Review (统一评论), wrote an article titled "Chongqing is Our Ankara!". The United Review was a political journal edited by Zhang Yunfu (张云伏) and published by the United Review Press, which was founded in Chengdu in November 1935 and ceased publication in November 1939. The weekly United Review was on a mission to reunite a warlord-ridden and politically divided China. This approach parallels Türkiye's policy of uniting all sectors against imperialism during the War of Independence.