Wang Jingwei, Wang Ching-Wei and Wang Ching-Wei or (traditional:汪精卫; simplified:汪精卫; pinyin: Wang Jingwei) (4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944) was a Chinese politician. A close associate of Sun Yat-Sen, he was a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang (KMT) and ran a time the government of the Republic of China.
He was in the Kuomintang, one of the main rivals of Chiang Kai-shek, and was finally ousted by the latter. He later formed a government in Nanjing in collaboration with the Empire of Japan. His birth name was Wang Zhaoming (汪兆铭) it adopted its new name at the beginning of his political career.
Training And Early Political Commitments
Born into a poor family in Panyu in Guangdong Province, Wang went to Japan as an international student sponsored by the government of the Qing Empire in 1903. He joined the Tongmenghui (a movement founded by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren) in 1905. During his stay in Japan, he became a close associate of Sun Yat-sen was also informed Hu Hanmin.
Back in China, Wang Jingwei was very active as opposed to the Empire and as a militant nationalist. In 1910, he was arrested for plotting the murder of the regent, Prince Zaifeng, and remained in prison until the Wuchang Uprising the following year. On his release, he was considered a hero of Chinese nationalism.
Wang Jingwei was in the early years of the Republic of China, an essential framework of the Kuomintang, and held several positions in the governments led by Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou, making the figure dolphin potential of the founder of the Republic. After the death of Sun Yat-sen, Wang Jingwei became president of the Nationalist government, which continued to claim legitimacy facing the Republican government warlords in Beijing. However, he had to face the problem of succession to the head of the party soon briguée by rival Chiang Kai-shek.
Rivalry With Chiang Kai-shek
At the time of the Northern Expedition, Wang represented the left-wing faction of the Kuomintang, and despite his lack of affinity with the communists and the Comintern advisers, was in favor of maintaining the alliance with the Chinese Communist Party and the Third International.
The rise of Chiang Kai-shek pushed Wang Jingwei in January 1927, to move his government to Wuhan. In April, he realized the purge of Communists and the Kuomintang leftist elements, including the massacre of Shanghai. At the outset, Chang established his government in Nanjing. Wang initially maintained its alliance with the Communists but broke with them on July 15.
Having neither the financial resources nor the military resources to oppose Chiang, the Wuhan government collapsed in September 1927; Wang Jingwei's faction rallied to the Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing. At the end of the year, the time to complete the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek left the head of the Nationalist government in Yankai Tan, a close friend of Wang Jingwei. He continued, however, as head of the army, to exercise real power before assuming to himself again officially.
In 1930, Wang allied with warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan and another leader of the Kuomintang, Li Zongren, to form a coalition against Chiang Kai-shek. During the year, the allies fought militarily against the Wang Jingwei faction of Chiang Kai-shek in the Central Plains War but were defeated.
Chinese Premier
In 1931, Wang Jingwei led a dissident new government in Guangzhou. The resignation of Chiang Kai-shek after the conquest of Manchuria by Japan, Wang Jingwei, however, was allowed to return to the front of the stage. He became president the same year the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, and on January 28, 1932, Chairman of the Executive Government (Xing Zheng Yuan Zhǎng) or Prime Minister.
Chiang Kai-shek, however, remained the chief of the National Revolutionary Army, and Wang Jingwei had to face both the rival faction and the growing threat were the expansionist ambitions of the Empire of Japan. Supporters of the armed confrontation against the Japanese, however, remained powerless.
Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek preferred a wait and concentrated its efforts in the fight against the communists. Face difficulties, Wang presented his resignation several times to remove later. He also traveled in Europe, particularly in Germany, and came into contact with Adolf Hitler. In December 1935, he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt and had to abandon the head of government, again a few days later by Chiang Kai-shek.
Collaboration With The Japanese
At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese, Wang Jingwei's government accompanied his retirement in Chongqing. At that time, he organized groups of the extreme right in line with European fascist parties within the KMT. After the initial defeatsChina, Wang became pessimistic about the chances of China in the war against Japan. He became the spokesman for defeatist opinions within the leadership of the KMT. Wang believed that China should negotiate with Japan in order to survive peacefully.
End of 1938, Wang left Chongqing and went to Hanoi in French Indochina, where he escaped an assassination attempt by agents of the Kuomintang. He then returned to China and went to Shanghai, where he negotiated with the Japanese.
On 30 March 1940, he became the leader of the Republic of China, a puppet state based in Nanjing, combining the functions of Chairman of the Executive (or ruler) and Chairman of the National Government (行政院长兼国民政府主席xingzheng yuànzhǎng Jian Guomin Zhèngfǔ zhǔxí or head of state).
His government used the emblem of the Kuomintang and presented itself as the legitimate authority of the Republic; he was recognized as such by the countries of the Axis. As president, Wang Jingwei collaborated fully with the Empire of Japan and maintained contacts with all other heads of state as well as the Sphere German and Italian fascists. In November 1943, he represented China at the Conference of the Greater East Asia in Tokyo.
In March 1944, Wang Jingwei, sick, went to Japan for treatment. He died in Nagoya in November of the same year. Gongbo Chen, vice president, succeeded him as head of the regime.
Wang was buried near the mausoleum in Nanjing Sun Yat-sen in an elaborate tomb. Once defeated Japan, the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, brought the capital to Nanjing and did destroy the tomb of Wang. Today, a small pavilion was erected, recalling the betrayal of Wang Jingwei. The former nationalist leader was denounced as a renegade in both historiography in Taiwan and that of China.
- Movies
The film Lust, Caution (Lust, Caution in Canada), by Ang Lee, 2007, depicts a group of Chinese students linked to the Kuomintang and determined to assassinate a close associate of Wang Jingwei.