Former Manchukuo State Council (Xinjing/Changchun)

The State Council of Manchukuo (満洲国国務院, Manshūkoku Kokumuin) was the supreme executive organ of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, established in the purpose-built capital city of Xinjing (新京, literally "New Capital"), the renamed city of Changchun in northeastern China. From its founding in March 1932 until the collapse of Manchukuo in August 1945, the State Council served as the nerve center of the puppet government's administration, overseeing the ministries that managed everything from finance and justice to transportation and industry across Manchuria.

The State Council building itself was one of the most ambitious architectural projects undertaken during the construction of Xinjing as a modern capital. Designed by Japanese architect Tatsuro Ishii (石井達郎), the building was completed in 1936 as part of the "Great Hsinking Metropolitan Plan," an urban development scheme that envisioned Xinjing as a showpiece "Garden City." The imposing structure — a four-storey main block rising to six storeys at the centre, 48.8 metres high and then the tallest building in Xinjing — was built in reinforced concrete with a portal frame construction and featured a distinctive pseudo-oriental roof with towers, blending Chinese, Japanese, and Manchurian architectural elements in what became known as the "Manchurian style." It stood at the northern end of Xinmin Avenue (then Shuntian Avenue), at the head of the government quarter popularly known as the "Eight Grand Ministries" (八大部, Badabu) after the eight ministries placed under the State Council.

While the State Council was formally placed under the authority of Chief Executive (later Emperor) Puyi, real political power resided with the Japanese officials embedded within the system. Each ministry was headed by a Manchukuoan minister of Manchu or Han Chinese ethnicity, but every ministry also had a Japanese vice-minister appointed by the Kwantung Army leadership who exercised actual control. The General Affairs State Council (総務庁), staffed almost entirely by Japanese nationals, served as the coordinating body that directed policy across all ministries, making it the true seat of power within Manchukuo's governmental apparatus.

Following Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, Soviet forces occupied Changchun. The city subsequently changed hands between Nationalist Chinese and Communist forces during the Chinese Civil War. The State Council building survived these upheavals largely intact and was eventually incorporated into Jilin University. Today it houses the College of Basic Medical Sciences.

In March 2013, the former State Council building was designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level. Together with the other surviving Eight Grand Ministries buildings along Xinmin Avenue — which was itself recognized as a Historically and Culturally Famous Street of China in June 2012 — the State Council stands as one of the most significant architectural legacies of Japanese imperial expansion in Manchuria and a tangible reminder of the Manchukuo puppet state that existed for thirteen years under Japanese domination.