.1925-1926 Boycott Of Foreign Goods Movement Study

For the Chinese people in modern history, the boycott movement aganinst foreign goods is a way to resist foreign aggression, as well as a common way to express patriotism. The nationwide climax of the boycott against British and Japanese goods came with the May Thirtieth Movement, 1925, and as the successive incidents of Hankow Events, Hong Kong General Strike, Shanghai Case Re-investigation and Wanxian Tragedy arose, the boycott continued until the end of 1926. Starting first in Shanghai, the Boycott Movements expanded rapidly to twenty-seven provinces, among which that of Shanghai and Guangdong were most intense. The boycott movement happened in1925 were against a wide range of foreign goods both from Britain and Japan, which even extended to other countries. For example, the "Knife" brand cigarettes produced by the U.S. had become one of the main targets of boycotts by the Chinese people, but with the later proposal of "Single on the British"policy, the British goods gradually became the main target.During the process, most of the Boycott Movements were presented in the form of groups, which consisted mainly of students, businessmen, workers and other lower classes. Among these groups there were not only the old ones like Chamber of Commerce, Union of Students, Foreign fan club, Avenge Organization, but also the new- emerging ones such as the Committees for Checking the Sub-standard Products and the League against Sub-standard Products. Calling up the general public's awareness of the importance to participate into the Boycott Movements, the resistance groups launched a series of rigorous measures. The Movements were developed on the one hand through the peaceful resistence such as marches, demonstrations and propaganda, and on the other violent ways like prohibiting the cargo, burning down the goods, and destructing the advertisements. However, during the process, businessmen were with infirm attitude, among whom some unscrupulous merchants took the opportunity to speculation, colluding with English and Japanese businessmen and the local warlords, doing private sale of goods.Consequently, collision arose in the Boycott Movement between students and businessmen because of the seized goods. Boycott Movements of this period assumed regional differences, depending on the differences of the ways of resistence, but more exactlyon the complex domestic political forces at that time. As the leading force in China, Duan Executive Government initially assumed a supportting attitude towarding the boycott, but with the development of the movement, the government turned to repression of the Movement, after having achieved the objective of taking advantage of the public opinions. Standing on their own position, the warlords Chang Tso-lin and Yan Xishan only took their own benefit into concideration, thus the suppression of the Boycott Movement from them often occurred.As the Chinese Nationalist Party leader, Feng Yuxiang could always stand in the interests of the Chinese nation and bear a supportting attitude towards the Boycott Movement. This move from the KMT also caused the British government's intense attention and alert. The disparate attitudes from warlords and political parties towards the resistence of the cargo caused the regional differences. The movements in Guangzhou, Henan provinces were more active than those in Zhili, Shanxi, the Northeast China and other regions. The ideology of Chinese Communist Party at that time was having a pervasive influence on the general public, affected by which some of the students and merchants chose to participate into Boycott Movements. The Communist Party of China has always supported the patriotic movements of the students and businessmen through which it has spread its ideas.China's Boycott Movements also caused the international community's huge response. The United Kingdom, Japan, the United States and other countries have been deeply aware of the impact on them, and they have telegrammed to the Chinese execute government, hoping that the government would put down the domestic resistence movement, the British businessmen even threating with force. The overseas Chinese also supported actively the resistence movement by orgnizing the Domestic Products Company Ltd. and promoting the domestics merchandise overseas. Despite of the little overall impact of the Boycott Movements on foreign trade, the sales of products in China of the British and Japanese tobacco, cotton and the flour industries have suffered a heavy blow. But the National Industry and Commerce during this period have developed rapidly. The Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, the Wing's flour industry and the Liu Hongsheng match industries have involved themselves in various ways of Boycott Movements, during which they have gained strength in development. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the KMT, the majority of students and businessmen in Jinan has actively organized various groups to promote the development of Boycott Movements. However, due to the suppression of the Zhang Zongchang government, neither did the Boycott Movement in Jinan make great progress in the society, nor did it produce much impact on the economy .