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Title:: Suspicion and Distrust: Political Mentality and Trends in the Early Years of the Republic of China

Keywords:: suspicion; north and south; political mentality; political situation in the early Republic of China

Abstract:: The suspicion and distrust between different political parties were prevalent during the beginning years of the Republic of China. Intertwined with the North-South issue, this distrust became the crux of Chinese politics at that time. The suspicion spawned a series of significant changes of personnel in the political circles, which in turn intensified the distrust. The “Song Case”, which was the key node of the political disputes in the early years of the Republic of China, also occurred in the realm of suspicion. In the meanwhile, this case detonated the structural contradictions between the North and the South, and finally contributed to the separation between the North and the South. In this article, I argue that the mechanism of the political suspicion was due to three factors: firstly, the compromise between the North and the South caused the uncertainty in the power structure; secondly, the political guerrillas destroyed the political balance; finally, the intelligence collection activities conducted by different political parties against each other and false reports of the press aggravated the destructive power of rumors.