Sino-Soviet Railway War 1929

In 1929 the Chinese nationalist government, in alliance with the warlord of Manchuria, attempted to take control of the Chinese Eastern Railway from the USSR. In the secret Russian-Chinese treaty of alliance on May 22, 1896, which was directed against Japan, China approved construction of a railroad from the Russian border across Manchuria to Vladivostok, as part of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The Chinese Eastern Railway was a Sino-Russian joint venture on Chinese soil. The Soviet government negotiated a new joint-management agreement in 1924 which effectively retained the Russian share of control for the new Soviet government. China considered the arrangement a form of Soviet imperialism in Manchuria. The decision to seize control of the railway was a diplomatic and military miscalculation on the part of the Nationalist government of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Manchurian warlord, Chang Hsueh-liang, believing the USSR was diplomatically isolated and militarily weak. In fact, the Red Army had been reorganized and modernized since its victory in the Russian Civil War.

During January 1929, the Chinese arrested some 200 Soviet officials of the railway and deployed about 60,000 troops along the border with the USSR, expecting its actions to receive international support and Soviet acquiescence. Instead, the Soviet Union retaliated with arrests of Chinese citizens and a buildup of military forces on the frontier. Diplomatic efforts were made to resolve the dispute until July when the USSR broke off diplomatic relations with China and minor skirmishes took place on the border; there was no international support for China forthcoming. On August 17, 1929, Soviet forces began a limited offensive with an attack on Chalainor in which they suffered heavy losses. Battles and skirmishes along the frontier continued throughout September. In October, the Special Far Eastern Red Army, with 100,000 troops, commenced a punitive operation along the border. The city of Tung-kiang (Fukien) fell of Soviet forces about October 12th and more cities followed and Chinese casualties were heavy. On November 30, 1929, the Manchurians sought a negotiated settlement with the Soviets and the fighting ended. Soviet prisoners were released and Soviet rights in the railway were restored.

At the time, the China-USSR war over control of the Chinese Eastern Railway was the largest military engagement of China and any western power in history. Defeat forced the Nationalist government to conclude China was not able to win a military confrontation with either of its main rivals, Japan and the Soviet Union, and it would need to limit the use of armed force in regaining sovereignty. Victory proved the USSR was capable of fighting and winning a modern war and established it as a military power in East Asia. Japanese military planning turned away from the USA and towards the USSR. Diplomatically, the war marked the failure of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, less than a month after it came into effect on July 24, 1929, and signed by both the Chinese and Soviets in 1928, outlawing the use of war between signatories to settle disputes. The Soviets also received diplomatic support of other powers for their defense of foreign rights in China.

Notes

[1] Correlates of War does not distinguish Manchuria, under a warlord, from China, under the Nationalist government.

References

Brownstone and Franck, 415, 417; Clodfelter, 658; COW118; Dupuy and Dupuy, 1144-5; Walker, 1-3, 252.

Michael M Walker. The 1929 Sino-Soviet War: The War Nobody Knew. Kansas University Press, 2017.

Category

Inter-State War

Region

East Asia

Belligerents

China, Manchurians^[1], USSR

Dispute

Interests

Initiation Date

August 17, 1920

Termination Date

November 30, 1920

Duration

3 months, 14 days
(106 days)

Outcome

Negotiated Settlement
(Soviet victory)

Fatalities

Total: 3,200
China: 3,000
USSR: 200

Magnitude

3.5