Anhui clique

The Anhui clique was a military clique that rose to prominence in the early 20th century. Its influence and power were greatly diminished at the beginning of China’s warlord period. By 1925, Chief Executive Duan Qirui only controlled his home province of Anhui.

Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Yuan Shikai demonstrated a desire to fill the power vacuum by becoming China’s next emperor. This caused the generals of his Beiyang Army to oppose him. When the Beiyang Army dissolved into factions, the Anhui clique was the first to organize itself under a native of the province, Duan Qirui. It refused to reunite with the army when Yuan died and his successor Zhang Xun sought stability.

In a move to recentralize authority, Zhang sought to re-establish the Qing dynasty in 1917. However, he failed in this attempt, allowing the Anhui and Zhili cliques to form a coalition government. Feng Yuxiang was president with Duan Qirui as his prime minister. After a year, Feng was dismissed due to internal disagreements over how to respond to Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary government in Guangzhou.

With the support of the Japanese, the Anhui remained the sole ruling power from 1918 until 1920, although Duan shuffled between positions as the Great War proceeded, never retaining the position of premier for long. In 1919, Duan’s dealings with Japan and his secret motion to transfer Shandong to the Allies resulted in an outburst of outrage known as the May Fourth Movement, due to occurring on 4 May.

Duan and the leaders of the Zhili clique, Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, mutually attempted to have each other dismissed from their government positions, a struggle which ended up in the Zhili-Anhui War from 14 July to 18 July, 1920. This was a defeat for the Anhui. Many joined the Fengtian and Zhili factions, although Duan’s protégé Jin Yunpeng was appointed premier in August.

Greatly weakened and fractious, the remaining Anhui dispersed. Duan retreated to a Japanese settlement in Tianjin. The clique’s fortune returned in 1924, following the Beijing Coup that ended in defeat for the Zhili clique. One of the ringleaders of that event, Zhang Zuolin, named Duan the Chief Executive on 24 November, 1924.

It was Duan Qirui that tiredly called for Sun Yat-sen’s leadership to seek the reunification of China in the early months of 1925.