ABSTRACT
After 1917, China was an international system in miniature. Ruled by military lords, different provinces and regions acted as though sovereign nations. They made war on each other, negotiated and signed agreements, formed alliances, and brooked no interference with their rule over subject populations. Anarchy prevailed. Admitted Marshall Wu Pei-fu, head of the Chihli clique, to an interviewer,
China is . . . a country without system; anarchy and treason prevail everywhere. Betraying one's leader has become as natural as eating one's breakfast. This is the underlying cause of today's chaos through-
out China. Underlings think of nothing but getting rid of their leaders in order to take their place, so disorder keeps spreading without end.1
