page_title: Wang Jingwei regime
section_title: International recognition and foreign relations
hierarchical_section_title: Wang Jingwei regime / Government and politics / International recognition and foreign relations
caption_attribution_description: English: Unused example of a Wang Jingwei regime passport, circa 1941.
context_page_description: The Wang Jingwei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, the government of the puppet state of the Empire of Japan in eastern China called simply the Republic of China. This should not be confused with the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek, which was fighting with the Allies of World War II against Japan. The country was ruled as a one-party republic under Wang Jingwei, a very high-ranking former Kuomintang official. The region that it would administer was initially seized by Japan throughout the late 1930s with the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Wang, a rival of Chiang Kai-shek and member of the pro-peace faction of the KMT, defected to the Japanese side and formed a collaborationist government in occupied Nanking in 1940. The new state claimed the entirety of China during its existence, portraying itself as the legitimate inheritors of the Xinhai Revolution and Sun Yat-sen's legacy as opposed to Chiang Kai-shek's government in Chunking, but effectively only Japanese-occupied territory was under its direct control.
context_section_description: The Nanjing Nationalist Government received little international recognition as it was seen as a Japanese puppet state, being recognized only by Japan and the rest of the Axis powers. Initially, its main sponsor, Japan, hoped to come to a peace accord with Chiang Kai-shek and held off official diplomatic recognition for the Wang Jingwei regime for eight months after its founding, not establishing formal diplomatic relations with the National Reorganized Government until 30 November 1940. The Sino-Japanese Basic Treaty was signed on 20 November 1940, by which Japan recognised the Nationalist Government, and it also included a Japan–Manchukuo–China joint declaration by which China recognized the Empire of Great Manchuria and the three countries pledged to create a "New Order in East Asia." The United States and Britain immediately denounced the formation of the government, seeing it as a tool of Japanese imperialism. In July 1941, after negotiations by Foreign Minister Chu Minyi, the Nanjing Government was recognized as the government of China by Germany and Italy. Soon after, Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Denmark also recognized and established relations with the Wang Jingwei regime as the government of China. China under the Reorganized National Government also became a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact on 25 November 1941.
  After Japan established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1942, they and their ally Italy pressured Pope Pius XII to recognize the Nanjing regime and allow a Chinese envoy to be appointed to the Vatican, but he refused to give in to these pressures. Instead the Vatican came to an informal agreement with Japan that their apostolic delegate in Beijing would pay visits to Catholics in the Nanjing government's territory. The Pope also ignored the suggestion of the aforementioned apostolic delegate, Mario Zanin, who recommended in October 1941 that the Vatican recognize the Wang Jingwei regime as the legitimate government of China. Zanin would remain in the Wang Jingwei regime's territory as apostolic delegate while another bishop in Chongqing was to represent Catholic interests in Chiang Kai-shek's territory. Vichy France, despite being aligned with the Axis, resisted Japanese pressure and also refused to recognize the Wang Jingwei regime, with French diplomats in China remaining accredited to the government of Chiang Kai-shek.
  The Reorganized National Government had its own Foreign Section or Ministry of Foreign Affairs for managing international relations, although it was short on personnel.
  On 9 January 1943, the Reorganized National Government signed the "Treaty on Returning Leased Territories and Repealing Extraterritoriality Rights" with Japan, which abolished all foreign concessions within occupied China. Reportedly the date was originally to have been later that month, but was moved to January 9 to be before the United States concluded a similar treaty with Chiang Kai-shek's government. The Nanjing Government then took control of all of the international concessions in Shanghai and its other territories. Later that year Wang Jingwei attended the Greater East Asia Conference as the Chinese representative.
  The Wang Jingwei government sent Chinese athletes to compete at the 1940 East Asian Games held in Tokyo for the 2600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire by Emperor Jimmu, which were also a replacement for the cancelled 1940 Summer Olympics, including the national football team. None of the top Chinese players were on the team.
caption: Unused example of a Wang Jingwei regime passport, circa 1941
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