The Manchukuo Government (known as the Manchukuo Temporary Government until 2019), commonly known as Manchuria, is an organization established in 2004 in Hong Kong.[1] On its website, it claims to be the government in exile of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet statewith limited recognition which controlled Manchuria from 1932 to 1945; it seeks to revive the state and to separate it from the People's Republic of China, which controls its claimed territory.[2] Journalists and internet users have expressed doubts about its authenticity and aims.[1] On its website, it claims to have merged with other Manchu independence organizations as of 2019.
Structure and symbols
Media summaries of its website state that the Manchukuo Government includes an emperor, a royal family, a prime minister, and a cabinet. It continues to use the old National Anthem of Manchukuo and Flag of Manchukuo.[1] The website has accounts of the history of the region and its people.
The leadership of the Manchukuo Government is formed by electing an emperor and a prime minister. In the 2008 elections, the emperorship was won by "Aisin Gioro Xiaojie" (愛新覺羅‧孝傑), stated to be a student in the University of Hong Kong's history department; his actual relation to the Aisin Gioro clan is suspect, as his generation name "Xiao" (孝) does not fit with the actual clan genealogy.[1] However, that emperor dropped out of contact with the Manchukuo Government, so in April 2010, it held another election, won by "Aisin Gioro Chongji" (爱新觉罗‧崇基).[5] Jason Adam-Tonis was elected as Prime Minister in May 2010. At the time, Adam-Tonis was a New York University student and also a chairman of the Songun Politics Study Group, a North Korean front group based in the United States.[6] As of April 2011 The Manchukuo Government have merge with the Imperial Qing Restoration Organization, The Manchukuo Government and the entire cabinet resign and Adam-Tonis handed over power and the royal seals to His Imperial Majesty 李志栓 as the next emperor, Adam-Tonis was appointed Prime Minister of the combined Organization. As of 2015 Fu Jun led a few supporters that is against the merger to form a separate Manchukuo Government and according to its website, Dokuritsu Aisingyoro has ascended to the throne in 2015, who appointed a president named Cheung Siu Bong, who was president until it merged with other Manchu organizations, at which time Fu Jun became president. The organization also questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 United States presidential election.[7]
The Manchukuo Government received occasional media attention in the context of the politics of Taiwan around the time of the 2009 elections, as its members may be distant relatives of Kuomintang general-secretary and ethnic ManchuKing Pu-tsung, and it was jokingly suggested that King himself might be one of its secret agents.[1][11] Some internet users suspected the entire website of being a scam set up for the purpose of raising money.[1] Hong Kong political scientist Simon Shen, an expert on Chinese nationalism and the internet, also expressed suspicion of the website and its attempt to portray the revival of Manchukuo as a movement undertaken on behalf of Manchu people; he pointed out that the people who ever felt genuine identification with the state of Manchukuo were mostly not Chinese or Manchu but rather Japanese.[5] Another news commentator similarly suggested that Japanese nationalists were behind the site.[2] On the other hand, Shen also suggested that the whole website might simply be a spoof designed by internet trolls.[12] James Leipold of the China Policy Institute described it as "thick on anti-communist vitriol" while failing to address Japanese hegemony in Manchukuo.[13]
The Manchukuo Government also provoked angry reactions from some quarters. A NOWnews guest columnist in May 2011, in the midst of other arguments against Taiwan independence, called the Manchukuo Government "the shame of the people of Northeast China".[4] Its stated political positions, such as support for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan independence movement, as well as its calls to disrupt the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, earned it the ire of internet users in mainland China.[1] At one point, rumours were spreading in mainland Chinese internet forums that one "Toshiaki Kawashima" (川島志明), whom they alleged to be the nephew of Yoshiko Kawashima and prime minister of the Manchukuo Government, was working as a secret agent for Chen Shui-bian in Papua New Guinea with the aim of fomenting violence against Chinese people there.[14]
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