North China Buffer State Strategy

The North China Buffer State Strategy (華北分離工作, Kahoku Bunri Kōsaku^?) (simplified Chinese: 华北五省自治; traditional Chinese: 華北五省自治) is the general term for a series of political manoeuvrings Japan undertook in the five provinces of northern China, Hebei, Chahar, Suiyuan, Shanxi, and Shandong. It was an operation to detach all of northern China from the power of the Nationalist Government and put it under Japanese control or influence.

In China the affair is referred to as the “North China Incident” corresponding only to the time between the series of "North China Autonomy Movements" orchestrated by the Japanese army since May 1935 and the founding of the Hebei–Chahar Political Council under Song Zheyuan in December. It is recognized as ranking alongside the Manchurian Incident, the Shanghai Incident, and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Between the winter of 1934 and January 1935 small-scale clashes between the Chinese and Japanese armies were occurring frequently along the cease-fire lines established by the Tanggu Truce and the Japanese army was coming to the view that they needed to clear anti-Japanese forces out of northern China.

On 7 December 1934 a decision was reached at a meeting of the Army, Navy, and Foreign Ministries of Japan concerning issues relating to policy toward China and an agenda was laid out to see to it that the power of the Chinese government did not extend to North China by setting up a pro-Japanese puppet government and extending Japan’s economic rights and interests in the area, and by suppressing anti-Japanese sentiments there. In addition, the same policy was also advocated at the Dalian Conference, a meeting of intelligence operatives working in China and Mongolia hosted by the Kwantung Army early in January 1935.

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