華北自治運動是內政外交雙重因素交互影響的產物,不僅是日本有預謀的蠶食華北、實施其侵略中國計劃的重要步驟,亦是《何梅協定》達成后,在國民政府對日妥協背景之下,華北政治失序、中央與地方矛盾沖突激化的結果。華北各地方實力派面對日軍與國民政府的雙重壓力,為保存實力,一方面均主張對日妥協退讓,另一方面他們對待中央的態度迥異,地緣政治成為影響各派勢力政治選擇的重要變量。此外,日本蠶食華北,國民政府對日政策猶疑不定,使得中央與地方的結構性矛盾在日軍侵略的外在壓力下愈發激化,成為國民政府控制華北難以克服的關鍵性因素。

The North China autonomy movement was the combined product of internal affairs and foreign policy.It was not only an important step in Japan’s plan to nibble away North China and invade the whole country,but also the result of political disarray in North China and the intensification of conflict between the central and the local governments against the background of the Kuomintang government’s appeasement of Japan after He-Umezu Agreement.The local power-holders in North China faced twofold pressure,from the Japanese and from the Kuomintang government.In order to maintain their power,they agreed to appease Japan while retaining dissimilar attitudes toward the central government.Geopolitics became an important variable affecting the political choices of the different forces.In addition,Japanese encroachment and the Kuomintang government’s vacillation over its Japan policy intensified the structural contradictions between the central and the local governments amid the external pressure of Japanese aggression,forming a key factor that rendered it hard for the Kuomintang to assert its control of North China.