Black River Protocol

  

The Black River Protocol was a form of national communism and the primary political doctrine of the Manchu People's Republic from 1954 until 1972. The protocol was a series of major political, social, cultural and military reforms carried out during most of the reign of Qian Yiu-tong as the country's de-facto leader that aimed at making Manchuria a regional power within the Second World. Many of the reforms included the modernization of the Manchu military, the beginning of the country's nuclear weapon's program and a greater focus on heavy industry with the purpose of developing the needed weapons and equipment to modernize the army. Economic reforms included strengthening heavy industry, moderate reforms and increase to light industry and consumer products as well as the return to a non-Stalinist planned market economy. The Black River Protocol also lead to the promotion of ethnic nationalist policies in regard to the Manchu people and the demonization of "subversive peoples", mostly Han Chinese and Korean people in response to historic tensions with both countries.

Over the next eighteen years, the Black River Protocol would go on to become the dominate political doctrine of Qian's regime and became the core political and ideological doctrine of the Communist Party of Manchuria throughout most of Qian's reign. Adherence to the doctrine was rigid with party members suspected of defying it being forced to resign or disappeared as a means of maintaining the doctrine's status as the primary philosophy of the party and the nation. Other political reforms included reducing the influence and powers of both the central committee and politburo of the Communist Party and strengthening the position of First Secretary with granted Qian near-unregulated power with the only body capable of regulating his powers being the National Democratic Council which retained its position from before the protocol was implemented. The protocol strengthened Qian's position as leader within the party, but rigid adherence to the doctrine resulted in the Manchu bureaucracy becoming stagnant and ineffective. The party soon became divided with factionalism and regionalism and by the late 1970s, the doctrine had been virtually abandoned as a result of both the Zhongshan Movement and the October Crisis.

The impact and legacy of the Black River Protocol remains highly controversial and debated. Under Tao Shiyou, many of the reforms carried out by his predecessor had remained, especially military reforms and the strengthening of the office of First Secretary, but had passed new reforms as part of his policies of detente and tried to open up Manchuria to the outside world, policies that were rejected by the protocol. Tao's philosophy and ideology as categorized as Manchu Communism attempted to modernize the stagnant bureaucracy which suffered under Qian as a means of dealing with its side effects. Today the protocol is influential amongst the Manchu political left as many praise it for modernizing the country and strengthening Manchuria's position on the world stage while others criticize it for causing further corruption and nepotism in the Manchu government and for leading to ethnic cleansing in the 1970s.

Background

Qian Yiu-tong, the creator of the Black River Protocol.

In June 1950 the Korean War began and Xu Xiaobao and voiced his support and Manchuria joined the war. by 1951, over half a million troops were fighting in Korea, but the unmodernized state of the army combined with poor tactics meant that the Manchu Army suffered heavy casualties over the course of the war. By 1952, forces from the League of Nations had crossed into Manchuria and invaded the country. The next two years would see heavy fighting and losses on both sides ending with LN forces being repulsed in December 1953 and portions of northern Korea occupied by the Manchu Army before peace was achieved. The lack of a clear victory combined with both the high losses sustained by the army, damage to the country, and hostility from China saw Xiao ousted from his position and eventually purged where he was privately executed by the Shūjìchù. This saw Qian Yiu-tong succeeded Xu as party leader and the de-facto head of state of Manchuria. Qian, having fought in the war and was the most vital military leader of Manchuria during the war, he had witnessed and known the flaws of the army and the downside of Xiao's Stalinist rule which saw Manchuria remain backwards in comparison to the rest of the Second World and desired to change it.

Qian had served as both the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command under Xu and was close in his inner circle. Qian was opposed to his reign and privately denounced him as a puppet of Joseph Stalin when meeting with man of his advisors and/or other party members that were opposed to him. Due to the disastrous outcome for Manchuria during the Korean War, Qian saw an opportunity and had Xu arrested and deposed in a secret bloodless coup and succeeded as First Secretary of the Communist Party while retaining his position as the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command, the commander-in-chief of the Manchu Revolutionary Army. Qian would address the National Democratic Council on May 28th, 1954 with his what he called Manchuria's "path to self-determination and modernization". He privately unveiled his new policies for modernizing the military, stripping the powers of the central committee and politburo, reforming heavy industry and increasing light industry to modernize consumer goods. He also sought to dismantle the cult of personality that dominated Manchuria under Xu's rule, especially during the Red Terror. He would later unveil his new policies and philosophy on June 18th, 1954 when he addressed the Supreme People's Assembly in a speech commonly known as Manchuria's New Future. In the ensuing speech, Qian denounced Xu and his cult of personality, accused him of weakening Manchuria's stance in the communist world and of being a puppet of foreign actors, mostly Stalin of the Soviet Union, and blamed him for the Korean War's disastrous outcome and effects on Manchuria and how all damages would be undone under his new plan.

He dubbed his plan the Black River Protocol, naming it after the Amur River (commonly called the Black River) that ran from Manchuria into the Russian Far East. The protocol would see Manchuria modernize militarily, economically and socially and new political reforms would be brought to modernize the Manchu state and reduce the powers of Xu's loyalists in the politburo and central committee. He concluded his speech saying how Manchuria would be a dominate force in the region from Harbin to Vladivostok.