While China was busy making frantic efforts to free herself from the foreign control and assert her sovereignty, a fresh threat to her independence was posed by Japan. In 1931 Japan embarked on a career of large-scale conquests starting with Manchuria.
As the Western Powers were pre-occupied in dealing with the situation arising out of economic crisis and the possible rise of Italy and Germany, they could not come to the rescue of China. This left Japan free to exert necessary pressure on Inner Mongolia and North China. On 7 July 1937 Japan exploited the incident at Morco Polo Bridge, south of Peking, to extend her conquests to the south.
It may be noted that Japan was not interested in conquering China and merely wanted to force the Chiang Kai Shek Government to accept terms which would give Japan effective control over Chinese resources. The Japanese tried to bring round the Chinese leaders to their way of thinking through the threat of use of force as well as by seeking their co-operation, but did not achieve any success. The Kuomintang Party in particular tried to influence the public opinion against the Japanese and organized secret boycotts.
Wherever the Chinese were not strong enough to meet the threat of Japanese soldiers they retaliated against the helpless Japanese civilians. In the meanwhile, the Kuomintang and the Communists also agreed to co-operate with a view to end Japanese encroachment in China.
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Ultimately towards the close of 1937 Japanese decided to resort to military action against China. On 9 November 1937 Nanking fell. Soon the Japanese conquered the whole coast of China and occupied key economic centres in the interior of the country.
They set up puppet governments in Peking, Canton and Nanking. The Chinese did not take all this lying down and serious clashes ensured. In fact during the next four years (1937-41), a sort of virtual war raged between China and Japan.
During this period Japan invaded China, blockaded her costs and showered bombs on the defenseless cities of China. The Chinese offered two types of resistance to the Japanese. While Chiang Kai Shek tried to contain the Japanese with the help of Nationalist armies, the Communists in the north China and Manchuria resorted to guerilla warfare.
It was only as a result of the Second World War and involvement of United States that Japan ultimately surrendered and China gained independence from foreign control.