The last widely recognised enthronement ceremony of the Qing Dynasty occurred in 1908 with the enthronement of Puyi. In 1915, Yuan Shikai, then President of the Republic of China, declared his intention to be enthroned as the Emperor of the Empire of China. Yuan had staged a dress rehearsal for the proposed enthronement ceremony, but then the attempt at monarchy was abandoned in the face of overwhelming public opposition. In 1917, Puyi was again enthroned without ceremony during the short-lived Manchu Restoration. Finally, in 1934 Puyi was enthroned as Emperor of Manchukuo, a Japanese-controlled puppet state in northeastern China, which was largely unrecognised internationally and which ceased to exist at the end of World War II in 1945.