May Thirtieth Movement

Meanwhile, the KMT (Nationalist) and Communist parties (allied as the First United Front) were running a diplomatically unrecognized Soviet-backed administration in the southern province of Guangdong.

[3] Shanghai's native Chinese were strongly unionised compared to other cities and better educated, and recognised their plight as involving lack of legal factory inspection, recourse for worker grievances or equal rights.

[4] Educated Chinese were also offended by the council's plan to introduce a new censorship law, forcing all publications in the Settlement to use the publisher's true name and address.

The escalation of ill-feeling culminated on 15 May, when a Japanese foreman killed a demonstrator named Ku Cheng-Hung (顾正红; pinyin : gù zhèng-hóng).

[citation needed] A week later a group of Chinese students, heading for Ku's public "state" funeral and carrying banners, were arrested while traveling through the International Settlement.

With their trial set for 30 May, various student organisations convened in the days before and decided to hold mass demonstrations across the International Settlement and outside the Mixed Court.

They then convened at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, where they gave a list of demands, including punishment of the officers involved in the shooting, an end to extraterritoriality and closure of the Shanghai International Settlement.

The Municipal Council declared a state of martial law on Monday, 1 June, calling up the Shanghai Volunteer Corps militia and requesting foreign military assistance to carry out raids and protect vested interests.

The incident shocked and galvanized China, and the strikes and boycotts, quickly spread across the country, bringing foreign economic interests to a near standstill.

Only the Justice Finley from America disagreed and recommended sweeping changes, including the retirement of the chief of the Settlement Police, Commissioner McEuen, and Inspector Everson.

The Kuomintang's support for the movement, and its Northern Expedition of 1926–27, eventually led to reforms in the governance of the International Settlement's Shanghai Municipal Council and the beginning of the removal of the Unequal Treaties.