Xie Jishi

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Xie Jishi (Traditional Chinese: 謝介石; 1878 – 1946) was a cabinet minister in the Japanese-dominated Empire of Manchukuo, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[edit] Biography

Xie Jishi was born in Hsinchu city, Taiwan in 1878, and attended the Japanese-run Shinchiku Kokugo Denshujo, where he studied the Japanese language. He served as interpreter for Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi on his visit to Taiwan. Ito was so impressed with the young Xie that he recommended him for a scholarship to Meiji University in Tokyo, from which he graduated from the law school.

Returning to China in 1913, he served as secretary-general of General Zhang Xun in Tianjin in 1913, renouncing his Japanese citizenship for Chinese citizenship in 1915. He participated in Zhang Xun’s brief restoration to power of the dethroned Emperor Puyi in 1917, and was Assistant Officer for Foreign Affairs during the brief imperial government. After Puyi was again deposed, Xie remained a strong supporter of the Qing dynasty, and accompanied Puyi in exile from the Forbidden City in Beijing to the foreign concession in Tianjin in 1927.

Xie was later recruited by the warlord of Kirin Province, General Xi Qia, and assisted him in his negotiations with the Imperial Japanese Army after the Manchurian Incident, during which time Xi Qia declared Kirin province independent from the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China.

After the state of Manchukuo was established, Xie became first Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was re-assigned as ambassador plenipotentiary to Japan on 19 June 1935. Through his efforts, many Taiwanese emigrated from Taiwan to Manchukuo in the late 1930s. He returned to Manchukuo himself in 1937, and after serving as Minister of Industry, he left government service for the private sector. After the fall of Manchukuo in 1945, he was arrested by the Chinese communist government as a Japanese collaborator and traitor, and died in prison in Beijing in 1946.

[edit] References

• Rana, Mitter (2000). The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China. University of California Press. ISBN 0520221117. 
• Yamamuro, Shinichi (2005). Manchuria Under Japanese Domination. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812239121.