Liang Hongzhi; (; Wade-Giles: ''Liang Hung-chih''; Hepburn: ''Ryō Koushi'', 1882 - November 6, 1946) was a leading official in the

Anhui clique The Anhui clique () was a military and political organization, one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique in the Republic of China's Warlord Era. It was named after Anhui province because several of its ...

of the

Beiyang Government The Beiyang government (), officially the Republic of China (), sometimes spelled Peiyang Government, refers to the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Peking (Beijing) between 1912 and 1928. It was internationally r ...

, later noted for his role as in the

collaborationist Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian Gerhard Hirschfeld, "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to t ...

Reformed Government of the Republic of China The Reformed Government of the Republic of China was a Chinese puppet state created by Japan that existed from 1938 to 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The regime had little authority or popular support, nor did it receive international ...

during World War II.

Biography

Liang was a native of

Changle (, Foochow Romanized: Diòng-lŏ̤h) is one of 6 District (China), urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, Fujian Province, China. It occupies a land area of and a sea area of . Changle was established i ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

province. From 1888 to 1890, he lived in Japan, where his father had been dispatched to by the government of

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

China. In 1903, he passed the

Imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

and in 1905 was accepted to the predecessor to

Beijing University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

. In 1908, he was sent as an official to

Shandong province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...

. After the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...

and the formation of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, he was recruited to the nationalist government by

Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...

. After the death of Yuan, he gave his allegiance to

Duan Qirui Duan Qirui (; ) (March 6, 1865 – November 2, 1936) was a Chinese warlord and politician, a commander of the Beiyang Army and the acting Chief Executive of the Republic of China (in Beijing) from 1924 to 1926. He was also the Premier of the R ...

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

of the

, serving as secretary to

Duan Zhigui Duan Zhigui (; 1869 – March 1925) was a Chinese general. Born in Hefei, Anhui, he attained the post of Heilongjiang governor in the late Qing dynasty and between 1912-13 was governor of Chahar and the military governor of Hubei between 1914 ...

. After the defeat of the Anhui clique in the

Zhili–Anhui War The Zhili–Anhui War was a 1920 conflict in the Republic of China between the Zhili and Anhui cliques for control of the Beiyang government. Prelude Tensions between the two factions developed during the Constitutional Protection War of 1917. ...

, he fled to the Japanese concession in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

. He returned to Beijing in November 1924 after the

Beijing coup The Beijing Coup () refers to the October 1924 ''coup d'état'' by Feng Yuxiang against Chinese President Cao Kun, leader of the Zhili warlord faction. Feng called it the Capital Revolution (). The coup occurred at a crucial moment in the Second ...

and put in charge of a provisional government after an agreement with

Zhang Zuolin Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...

and

Feng Yuxiang Feng Yuxiang (; ; 6 November 1882 – 1 September 1948), courtesy name Huanzhang (焕章), was a warlord and a leader of the Republic of China from Chaohu, Anhui. He served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1930. He was ...

, but fled again in 1928 after the successes of

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

. When a warrant for Liang's arrest was issued by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

, he fled to

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

in the

Kwantung Leased Territory The Kwantung Leased Territory ( ja, 關東州, ''Kantō-shū''; ) was a leased territory of the Empire of Japan in the Liaodong Peninsula from 1905 to 1945. Japan first acquired Kwantung from the Qing Empire in perpetuity in 1895 in the Trea ...

under Japanese jurisdiction together with Duan Qirui. After the

Manchurian Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...

of 1931, Liang returned with Duan to Tianjin, and then to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

and was with Duan when he died in 1937. After the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

broke out in 1937, the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

quickly overran northern and portions of eastern China, and the Japanese

Imperial General Headquarters The was part of the Supreme War Council and was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime. In terms of function, it was approximately equivalent to the United States ...

authorized the creation of a collaborationist regimes as part of its overall strategy to establish an autonomous buffer zones between

North China North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north ...

and Japanese-controlled

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

. The Provisional Government of the Republic of China based in Beijing was formed on December 14, 1937, with

Wang Kemin Wang Kemin (; Wade-Giles: Wang K'o-min, May 4, 1879 – December 25, 1945) was a leading official in the Chinese republican movement and early Beiyang government, later noted for his role as in the collaborationist Provisional Government ...

as its president of the five provinces of northern China. The

based in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

was subsequently created on 28 March 1938 in eastern China and Liang was recruited to take the post of chairman. The Reformed Government of the Republic of China was assigned nominal control of the provinces of

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

and

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

as well as the two municipalities of

and

. However, its activities were carefully prescribed and overseen by “advisors” provided by the Japanese

China Expeditionary Army The was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1939 to 1945. The China Expeditionary Army was established in September 1939 from the merger of the Central China Expeditionary Army and Japanese Northern China Area Army, and was headqu ...

. The failure of the Japanese to give any real authority to the Reformed Government discredited it in the eyes of the local inhabitants, and made its existence of only limited propaganda utility to the Japanese authorities.Black, World War Two: A Military History, page 34 The Reformed Government was, along with the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, merged into

Wang Jingwei Wang Jingwei (4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944), born as Wang Zhaoming and widely known by his pen name Jingwei, was a Chinese politician. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang, leading a government in Wuhan in oppositi ...

's Nanjing Nationalist Government on March 30, 1940. In the new regime, Liang held only ceremonial posts, including the nominal governorship of

Province and chairman of the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

, retiring before the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Liang was arrested by the government of the

after the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

and tried for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

. He was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

and executed by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

in Shanghai on November 6, 1946.

References

* * David P. Barrett and Larry N. Shyu, eds.; ''Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932-1945: The Limits of Accommodation'' Stanford University Press 2001 * John H. Boyle, ''China and Japan at War, 1937–1945: The Politics of Collaboration'' (Harvard University Press, 1972). * James C. Hsiung and Steven I. Levine, eds., ''China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945'' (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1992) * Ch'i Hsi-sheng, ''Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937–1945'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982). * Frederick W. Mote, ''Japanese-Sponsored Governments in China, 1937–1945'' (Stanford University Press, 1954). *Howard L Boorman and Richard C. Howard, eds.; ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, Volume I: AI - CH'U'', Columbia University Press, 1967.

External links

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liang, Hongzhi 1880s births 1946 deaths Politicians from Fuzhou World War II political leaders Fascist rulers Chinese people executed for collaboration with Japan Republic of China politicians from Fujian Executed Chinese people Governors of Jiangsu Executed Republic of China people People executed by the Republic of China by firing squad 20th-century executions by China Executed people from Fujian Heads of government who were later imprisoned Imperial University of Peking alumni