Collaborationist Chinese Army The Collaborationist Chinese Army in the Second Sino - Japanese War went under different names at different times depending on which leader or regime it was organized under . Several Chinese military organizations fought on the side of Japan in the 1930s and 1940s , and these were affiliated with more than one collaborationist regime . Japan occupied Manchuria , or northeast China , in 1931 . A puppet state called Manchukuo was organized to administer this area in 1932 . After the Sino - Japanese War began in 1937 , most of China ' s populated area came under Japanese occupation . Wang Jingwei , a defector from China ' s ruling Nationalist Party , led the Nanjing Nationalist Government in 1940 - 1945 . This regime administered eastern China . During the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 , General Xi Qia organized the " New Jirin " Army , while Zhang Haipeng at Taonan in the Liaoning Province organized the Xingan Reclamation Army . Both armies unsuccessfully fought Nationalist Chinese forces in Heilongjiang Province and at Harbin . Along with Zhang Jinghui ' s army and other forces , they were incorporated into the Manchukuo Imperial Army , which was formed in March 1932 . In it ' s early years , this force was plagued with disloyalty . In April 1932 , War Minister Ma Zhanshan defected with artillery and several thousand soldiers . But by the end of the war , it was a well - equipped and disciplined force of about 200 , 000 . The commander and senior officers were Japanese , while junior officers were Chinese . During the Battle of the Great Wall in 1933 , Li Chi - chun ' s " National Salvation Army " , which used the five - striped flag of the pre - 1928 Chinese government , and Zhang Haipeng ' s Taoliao Army of Manchukuo fought on the Japanese side . At the beginning of their intervention in Inner Mongolia the Japanese used Chinese forces under Liu Guitang and Li Shouxin . Later , they used Wang Ying ' s Grand Han Righteous Army to form part of an Inner Mongolian Army and later the Mengjiang National Army . Once they formed the Autonomous Government of Eastern Hopei they established the East Hopei Army . In the early years of the Second Sino - Japanese War ( 1937 - 1945 ) , the Japanese created various collaborationist armies with names such as " IJA Assistant Army " , " Peace Preservation Corps " or " Police Garrisons . " Later , these forces were organized as divisions , corps and armies under Wang Jingwei ' s regime in Nanjing . The Japanese - occupied area of China was in continuous need for troops to suppress revolts and to defend against sabotage to supply lines , which diverted much of Japan ' s manpower . In order to solve its manpower shortage on the front line , especially after 1942 and the outbreak of the Pacific War , and maintain rule over already occupied areas in China , the Japanese began employing existing local soldiers and recruiting local people to be responsible for the occupied areas ' public security . Accordingly , the Japanese occupied area puppet regimes established the North China Zhi ' an Army and Nanjing collaboratist army . The various puppet regimes had nominal control over their own collaborationist army only , but Japanese military officers were authorized to command and transfer any collaborationist army units as they saw fit . In 1938 , there were about 78 , 000 soldiers in the puppet armies . Most of these served in North China under the Provisional Government of China . After Wang Jingwei ' s regime was established in 1940 , the number rose to 145 , 000 men . Most of these had been serving in local forces in Eastern , Central and South China . From 1942 to 1943 , probably as a result of the United States ' entry into the war , the Imperial Japanese Army commanders permitted the collaboratist army commanders faced with a disadvantageous situation ( often a result of being caught between the Communists and the Japanese army ) to preserve their strength by temporarily surrendering to the Japanese , and then joining the Nanjing collaborationist army en masse . The result was the collaborationist army manpower started growing rapidly . According to the Chinese Communist Party statistics at the end of the Second Sino - Japanese War , about 62 % of the men in the Chinese collaborationist army were originally with the Nationalist Army . Though these results could possibly have been trumped up and used as propaganda due to the longstanding rivalry between both the Kuomintang and the Communists . Furthermore , the worsening situation for Japan from 1943 onwards meant that the Nanjing collaborationist army was given a more substantial role in the defence of occupied China than the Japanese had initially envisaged , and this army was almost continuously employed against the communist New Fourth Army , and the target of guerrilla and sabotage operations led by the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Communist New Fourth Army . In March 1943 , a British intelligence report estimated the total number at 345 , 130 men . Despite rapid growth in manpower and increased responsibility to support the Japanese , the collaborationist Chinese army suffered from very low morale because the general public in the occupied areas viewed them as Hanjian , or traitors to China , and many surrendered quickly to Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek ' s forces during military engagements . Enemy prisoners of low rank were persuaded to renege and fight alongside anti - Japanese forces , but high - ranking prisoners were executed . Many commanders of collaborationist army secretly cooperated with the Chinese Secret Service under General Dai Li , exchanging intelligence about IJA troop movements as well as taking orders from him to suppress communists activities .