If someone takes your property without your permission then the judge and the person the property was taken from has the right to say what property was his or hers. The law did not help the government maintain order because it was hard to prove the property had originally been yours and there were not punishments for stealing, they simply had to return the items.
After the fall of the Ching Dynasty, the Republic of China (RoC) emerged. However it was riven by internal strife. Much of the early years was spent fighting the various warlords. After the death RoCs founder Sun Yat-Sun, he was succeeded by Chiang Kai Shek aka Generalissimo. He spent much of his time building up the Chinese army and fighting other warlords and the Communists. It was effectively strongman politics. Sun Yat-Sun and Chiang Kai Shek were not elected, so in a sense, similar to Communists. Chiang was aligned with the West. Mao with the Soviets. An interesting bit of trivia is that the crack Chinese units were trained by the Germans. They gave a good account in the Battle for Shanghai, although their strength was depleted after that. This is why some Chinese officers used the Mauser C96 aka Broomhandle pistol.
