Guangzhou and was offered a post as Chiang Kai-shek's advisor. Soon, he managed to recruit 46 other German officers to advise and train Nationalist forces while he devised the strategy that allowed the Nationalists to win their 1929 campaigns against the warlords. In 1928, Bauer returned to Germany to recruit a permanent advisory mission for China industrialization efforts. However, Bauer was not entirely successful, as many firms hesitated because of China's political instability and because of Bauer being persona non grata for his participation in the 1920 Kapp Putsch. In addition, Germany was still constrained by the Treaty of Versailles, which made direct military investment impossible. After he returned to China, Bauer contracted smallpox, died, and was buried in Shanghai. Bauer provided the foundation for later Sino-German co-operation. He argued for the reduction of the Chinese army to produce a small but elite force and supported opening of the Chinese market to spur German production and exports. 1930s Sino-German trade slowed between 1930 and 1932 because of the Great Depression. Chinese progress towards industrialization was further hampered by conflicting interests between various Chinese reconstruction agencies, German industries, German import-export houses and the German army. Events did not pick up speed until the 1931 Mukden Incident, which showed the need for a concrete military and industrial policy aimed at resisting Japanese encroachment. In essence, it spurred the creation of a centrally-planned national defence economy. That consolidated, Chiang's rule in China hastened industrialization efforts. The 1933 seizure of power by the Nazi Party further accelerated Sino-German cooperation. However, this began to change as the 1930s progressed, as "the Nazi government began leaning noticeably closer to Japan" while "the advisors (and many members of the German army) continued to push for a stronger Sino-German relationship". Before the Nazi rise to power, however, German policy in China had been contradictory, as the Foreign Ministry under the Weimar government had urged neutrality and discouraged the Reichswehr from becoming directly involved with the Chinese government. The same feeling was shared by the German import-export houses for fear that direct government ties would exclude them from profiting as the middleman. On the other hand, the new government's policy of Wehrwirtschaft (defense economy) called for the complete mobilization of society and the stockpiling of military raw materials, which China could supply in bulk. In May 1933, Hans von Seeckt arrived in Shanghai and was offered to oversee economic