Zhou Longxiang () (1905–1969) was a politician in the Republic of China. He was an important politician during the

Wang Jingwei regime The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pu ...

. He was born in

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

Biography

He went to Japan where he graduated the

Kyushu Imperial University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. It was the 4th Imperial University in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, one of the top 10 Desig ...

in 1932. Later he returned to China, he became a Japanese interpreter for

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 ...

. At the end of 1937, he served the positions in the Bureau for Information of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In May 1938 Zhou Longxiang went to Japan with Gao Zongwu () suggested by Wang Jingwei, and negotiated with Japanese Government about peace between China and Japan. In May 1939 Wang escaped from China to Japan and negotiated with Japanese Prime Minister Kiichiro Hiranuma, on that time Zhou served as interpreter for them. Zhou was appointed Central Member of 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 ...

(Wang's clique) on same August. In November Zhou Longxiang,

Zhou Fohai Zhou Fohai (; Hepburn: ''Shū Futsukai''; May 29, 1897 – February 28, 1948), Chinese politician, and second-in-command of the Executive Yuan in Wang Jingwei's collaborationist Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China during th ...

, Tao Xisheng () and

Mei Siping Mei Siping (; 1896 – September 14, 1946) was a Kuomintang politician of the Republic of China and associate of Wang Jingwei. He served in various posts in Wang's government in Nanjing, as well as president of Southern University in 1945, and bri ...

() negotiated about conditions for peace with Sadaaki Kagesa () who was Chief to the 8th Section of the General Staff Headquarters,

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 ...

. In March 1940 Zhou Longxiang was appointed Member to the Advisory Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Central Political Committee. In April he was promoted to be Executive Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (he took office formally on same July) and Chief to the Bureau for Asia of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In June 1941 Zhou visited Japan in the suite of Wang Jingwei, and Zhou served as interpreter. In October Zhou was appointed Political Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (his position was reformed to Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs in January 1943). In September 1942 Zhou Longxiang was promoted to be Chief Secretary of the Executive Yuan. In November when Wang Jingwei went to Japan for

Greater East Asia Conference was an international summit held in Tokyo from 5 to 6 November 1943, in which the Empire of Japan hosted leading politicians of various component members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The event was also referred to as the Toky ...

, Zhou was in Wang's retinue, and served as interpreter. In May 1944 Zhou was appointed Vice-Chief Secretary to the Supreme National Defense Council of the Central Political Committee. In November Wang died in Japan, Zhou was transferred to Chief of the Civil Servant, and served a Japanese interpreter for Chen Gongbo. After the Wang Jingwei Regime had collapsed, Zhou Longxiang defected to Japan in the suite of Chen Gongbo, but in October 1945 he was extradited to China under diplomatic pressure from Chiang Kai-shek. Later because of the charge of treason and surrender to enemy (namely Hanjian), Zhou was sentenced to life imprisonment. Zhou Longxiang died of illness at

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 flowin ...

in 1969.

References

* * Zheng Renjia (), "The Biographical Sketch of Zhou Longxiang" ()
'Biographical Writings'' () Website (need Traditional Chinese font) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhou Longxiang 1905 births 1969 deaths Politicians from Wuxi Republic of China politicians from Jiangsu Kuomintang collaborators with Imperial Japan Chinese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the People's Republic of China