Wang Jingwei

Wang Zhaoming (Chinese: 汪兆銘; Wade–Giles: Wang Chao-ming; Japanese: Ō Chōmei; 4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944), widely known by his pen name Wang Jingwei (Chinese: 汪精衞; Wade–Giles: Wang Ching-wei; Japanese: Ō Seiei), was a Chinese politician and poet who was leader of the reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan during World War II.

Wang joined the revolutionary Tongmenghui in Tokyo in 1905 while studying at Hosei University in Japan. In 1910 he gained prominence for a failed attempt to assassinate the Qing prince regent Zaifeng, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment, though he was released after the Wuchang Uprising the following year. He subsequently took part in negotiations between Yuan Shikai’s Beiyang Army and Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary forces, supporting Yuan’s presidency in order to facilitate the abdication of the Qing court.

After the assassination of Song Jiaoren in 1913, Wang initially advocated political compromise but voiced support for the opposition to Yuan during the Second Revolution. Following its failure, he went to France, though he briefly returned to China during the National Protection War. After Yuan’s death, Wang became a close associate of Sun Yat-sen, serving as his secretary and drafting Sun’s testament. After Sun’s death in 1925, Wang emerged as Chiang Kai-shek's principal rival within the Kuomintang (KMT). He was sidelined by Chiang after the Canton Coup and again left for France. Wang returned to China in April 1927 and issued a joint declaration with Chen Duxiu in Shanghai calling for cooperation between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), until their split in the July 15 Incident. By the end of 1928 Wang formed the Reorganization Group with figures such as Chen Gongbo and Ku Meng-yu and became de facto leader of the KMT left wing. In 1930 Wang joined Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and Li Zongren in opposing Chiang during the Central Plains War; after their defeat he fled to British Hong Kong.

After the Mukden Incident of 1931, Wang initially advocated resisting Japan while pursuing negotiations. In January 1932 he reached a political accommodation with Chiang: Wang led the government while Chiang commanded the military. He supported Chinese resistance during the January 28 Incident in Shanghai, but called in vain on Zhang Xueliang to resign jointly with him over the general’s alleged non-resistance in North China, after which Wang left for Europe. He returned to office in March the following year and after China’s defeat in the First Battle of Hopei, increasingly favored negotiations. In December 1938 he left China’s wartime capital Chongqing for Hanoi and called for peace with Japan. He survived several assassination attempts there by Chiang's agents and was expelled from the KMT. In 1940 Wang established a collaborationist government in Nanjing, promoting a policy of “peace, anti-communism, and national reconstruction,” and effectively administering Japanese-occupied eastern China. Both the KMT and the CCP denounced him as a hanjian. Wang died in Japan in November 1944.