A Critical Dimension of State Building: Taxation in Nationalist China, 1928–1949

Abstract:The Republic of China on the mainland (1912–1949) was hardly a unified nationstate. During times of division, however, China's state building continued, and a case in point is the increasing capacity of the Guomindang (GMD) state to impose and collect new taxes under difficult circumstances. This paper identifies three themes that emerge in some recent studies on the taxation initiatives taken by the GMD state, in the context of its differentiation from and competition with other subnational power-holders. International standing and state legitimacy (and capacity), ideological justification for taxation and institutional growth in taxation, and the negotiations and compromises between the state and society over taxes were some of the crucial elements in the unfolding of state building under the GMD state.