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Wangjingwei.png|right|thumb|Wang Jingwei
* Courtesy name: Jixin (季新)
- Alternate name: Zhaoming (兆銘).
Rise to prominence
Born in Panyu, Guangdong, Wang went to Japan as an international student sponsored by the Qing Empire government in 1903 and joined the Tongmeng Hui in 1905. He was jailed for plotting an assassination of the regent, the 2nd Prince Chun, and remained in jail from 1910 until the Wuchang Uprising the next year.
Wang Jingwei, the "Chinese Quisling", pursued a complex and often inconsistent pattern of political life, ranging from far Left to far Right, interspersed with periods of exile. He was one of the more important members of the early Kuomintang, and was an assistant to Sun Yat-sen and presided over his will.
In the early 1920s Wang held several posts in Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Government in Guangzhou, but following Sun's death in 1925 he faced a powerful challenge for leadership of the KMT.
Rivalry with Chiang Kai-shek
During the Northern Expedition, Wang was the leading figure in the left-leaning faction of the KMT that called for continued cooperation with the Communist Party of China and the Comintern and for a halt in the Northern Expedition. Wang's faction, which had set up a new KMT capital at Wuhan, was opposed by Chiang Kai-shek, who was in the midst of a bloody purge of Communists in Shanghai and was calling for a push north. Lacking the military or financial resources to resist the increasingly powerful Chiang, the Wang faction collapsed and Chiang Kai-shek continued his purge.
In 1930, Wang tried another abortive coup against Chiang, this time with the aid of Féng Yùxíang and Yán Xíshān. During these incidents, he traveled to Germany, and maintained some contact with Adolf Hitler. After this failure, Wang reconciled with Chiang's Nanjing government in the early 1930s and held prominent posts for most of the decade, and accompanied the government on its retreat to Chongqing during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). During this time, he organized some right-wing groups under European fascist lines inside the KMT. Wang was originally part of the pro-war group, but after Chinese defeats in the Battle of Shanghai (1932) and the Defense of the Great Wall, Wang became known for his pessimistic view on China's chance in a war against Japan. He often voiced defeatist opinions in KMT staff meetings, much to the chagrin of his associates. Wang believed that China needed to negotiate with Japan peacefully in order to survive.
Japanese collaborator
In late 1938, Wang left Chongqing and eventually ended up in Shanghai, ostensibly to negotiate with the Japanese invaders. On March 30, 1940, however, he became head of state of a puppet state based in Nanjing, serving as the President of the Executive Yuan and Chairman of the National Government (行政院長兼國民政府主席), and also maintaining his contacts with German and Italian fascists. Wang lived in Japan during the wartime, along with official Japanese advisers, until his death following an illness four years later in Nagoya.
Wang was buried in Nanjing near the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, in an elaborately constructed tomb. A few years later, with Japan defeated, the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek moved its capital back to Nanjing, and blew up Wang's tomb. Today the site is commemorated with a small pavilion.
For his role in the Pacific War, Wang has been vilified by most post-World-War-II Chinese historians. However, some regard his collaboration with the Japanese as a good faith attempt to salvage China from Japanese hands.
Further reading
- David P. Barrett and Larry N. Shyu, eds.; Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932-1945: The Limits of Accommodation Stanford University Press 2001
- James C. Hsiung and Steven I. Levine, eds. China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945 M. E. Sharpe, 1992
- Ch'i Hsi-sheng, Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937–1945 University of Michigan Press, 1982
See also
External link
1883 births | 1944 deaths | Chinese politicians | Chinese World War II people | World War II political leaders
Wang Ching-wei | Wang Jingwei | Wang Jingwei | 汪兆銘 | Wang Jingwei | 汪精衞 | 汪兆銘
"Wang Jingwei"