page_title: Tanks in China
section_title: Post World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Tanks in China / History / Post World War I
caption_attribution_description: 中文（繁體）‎: 中華民國的FT-17
context_page_description: From the early half of the 20th century, tanks were initially obtained from other countries; eventually indigenously designed Chinese tanks started manufacture and became used during the Cold War and towards the modern era.
context_section_description: The Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin introduced tanks to China. France had dispatched a small contingent of Renault FT tanks to Vladivostok in 1919, during the joint Allied intervention that began in August 1918, and these were later passed on to the Manchurian Army under Zhang Zuolin. The Manchurian Army purchased 14 more FTs in 1924-25, and these were used in the fighting with the warlord Wu Pei-fu in 1926.
  Surprised during the Northern Expedition by Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army, he bought several Renault FT tanks armed with 37 mm guns from France in 1927. However, by 1929 the FTs were under the Chinese Nationalists and nominally attached to the 1st Cavalry Brigade of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army (NRA), which by 1930 had acquired in various ways about 36 FTs. However, the Japanese Army seized nearly all of Chinese/Manchurian FTs in 1931 when they occupied Manchuria. The tanks captured by the Japanese army were deployed in the Kwantung Army and later used during the Mukden Incident.
  In 1929, 24 of the British  Mk VI Carden Loyd tankettes were purchased by the Chinese Nationalists and it is known they fought on the Lunghai front, apart from its armoured train fleet.
  Influenced by the Japanese tank performance during the First Battle of Shanghai, the Chinese Nationalist government started the mechanisation of the army in 1933, with the 24 British Carden Loyd Mk VI tankettes. Later they bought 20 Vickers 6-ton tanks between 1934 and 1936, which were used in combat against the Japanese in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. They also bought 29 Vickers Amphibious Tanks, which were developed in 1932 but not used in the United Kingdom.
  The Sino-German cooperation, which had begun between Germany and China since before World War I had been instrumental in modernizing the industry and the armed forces of the Republic of China, so it was natural to look to German military advisers to help them. The Chinese urgency to modernize the military and its national defense industry, coupled with Germany's need for a stable supply of raw materials, put the two countries on the road of close relations from the late 1920s to the late 1930s.
  In 1927, after the dissolution of the First United Front between the Nationalists and the Communists, the ruling Kuomintang purged its leftist members and largely eliminated Soviet influence from its ranks, and General Chiang Kai-shek severed the ties with Russia. Chiang Kai-shek then turned to Germany, historically a great military power, for the reorganisation and modernisation of the National Revolutionary Army, and  German advisors started to come in. The Nationalists hired many German military advisers to help them with their buildup of the mechanisation and training of the army.
  When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and disregarded the Treaty, the anti-communist NSDAP and the anti-communist KMT were soon engaged in close cooperation with Germany training Chinese troops and expanding Chinese infrastructure, while China opened its markets and natural resources to Germany.
  The German military advisers made the Nationalists purchase many European weapons through a German company with which the German advisers cooperated.  The Nationalists bought Italian CV-35 tankettes, German Panzer I Ausf. A light tanks, and British 12-ton tanks. The exact name of the British 12-ton tank is unknown. The Nationalists bought 29  Vickers Carden Loyd amphibious tank in 1935, and they were organized into the 1st tank battalion.   Also, 20 of the British Vickers 6-Ton Mk E & F tanks were purchased by the Nationalists and used in the 1st and 2nd tank battalions. They also purchased other British designs, such as the Carden Loyd M1936, two-man light tank, fitted with radio equipment, in service in 1936. 29 more of the British VCL Mk VI Carrier's were purchased in 1936 and used as part of the 2nd tank battalion.
  There is an information, that in the 1930s, Poland sold three companies of Renault FTs to China, but it was only to cover up their sale to Republican Spain. Also about 6 or 10 Renault UE light
caption: Chinese FT
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