Collaborationist Chinese Army
Military forces of the Republic of China during the Nanjing regime
The term Collaborationist Chinese Army refers to the military forces of the puppet governments founded by Imperial Japan in mainland China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. They include the armies of the Provisional (1937–1940), Reformed (1938–1940) and Reorganized National Governments of the Republic of China (1940–1945), which absorbed the former two regimes.
Those forces were commonly known as puppet troops but went under different names during their history depending on the specific unit and allegiance, such as Nanjing Army. In total, it was estimated that all pro-Japanese collaborationist Chinese forces combined had a strength of around 683,000.
Provisional Government
Originally, the Japanese did not allow Wang Kemin's Provisional Government of the Republic of China to have an army of its own and instead relied on a police force of 5,000 men for security. In May 1938 steps were taken towards forming an actual army for his government by opening a military academy in Beijing, with an initial intake of a hundred cadets for a one-year course. In February 1939, a Training School was opened for non-commissioned officers with one thousand cadets undergoing a six-month course. The target strength the Provisional Government wanted to reach was 13,200 men divided into 8 infantry regiments, with six of them being formed into brigades, commanded by a Chinese major general and a Japanese advisor. Along with graduates of the academies, who were given the rank of lieutenant or second lieutenant, there were also former Nationalist and warlord officers. In addition, there was also a 400-man bodyguard unit for Wang.
The Provisional Government Army's order of battle was as follows:
1st Brigade 'Beijing' (Maj.
“Collaborationist Chinese Army” enters the record as military forces of the Republic of China during the Nanjing regime. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Collaborationist, Chinese and Army can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q699084. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1937, 1940, 1938 and 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “Collaborationist Chinese Army” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.