Wen Shizhen

This is a Chinese name; the family name is 溫 (Wen).

Wen Shizhen (traditional Chinese: 溫世珍; simplified Chinese: 温世珍; pinyin: Wēn Shìzhēn; Wade-Giles: Wen Shih-chen; English name:S. T. Wen) (1877–1951) was a politician and diplomat in the Republic of China. He was Mayor of Tianjin during the Provisional Government of the Republic of China and the Wang Jingwei regime (Republic of China-Nanjing). His adult name was Peishan (佩珊). He was born in Tianjin.

Contents

Biography

In the Beijing Government

Wen Shizhen was graduated from the Beiyang Naval College (北洋水師學堂) in 1898. He served for 4 years in the Chinese Navy as a lieutenant, while he went to United Kingdom for training. Later he transferred to a staff of Li Hongzhang. In 1906 he was appointed a secretary for foreign affairs to the Viceroy of Liangguang.

In 1913 Wen Shizhen was appointed advisor in foreign affairs to the Military Governor (Dudu; 都督) Zhejiang. In 1916 he was given an additional post as High Diplomatic Advisor to the Military Governor Jiangxi Li Chun (李純). In August 1917 Li Chun became Military Governor Jiangsu, Wen also accompanied him. In October 1920 he was appointed Superintendent of Customs of Nanjing. In next Month he became concurrently Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in Nanjing. In next year he became a member of the Chinese Delegation to the Washington Naval Conference as the honorary councilor.

In 1923 Wen Shizhen was treated with an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. By Zhili clique's backup, Wen was appointed Commissioner of Foreign Affairs and concurrently Superintendent of Customs of Shanghai in September 1924. In same year Zhili clique was beaten by Fengtian clique in Second Zhili-Fengtian War, while Wen was invited by Fengtian clique's Military Governor Yang Yuting. Later National Revolutionary Army occupied Shanghai, so Wen defected to Japan, and retired from political circle for a while.

In the Provisional Government and the Wang Jingwei Regime

In December 1937 Wang Kemin established the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. Wen also participated in it, and was appointed Superintendent of Customs of Tianjin, Inspector of the Bank of Hebei Province and Chairperson of the Arranging Commission for tariff, etc.

On that time Pan Yugui (潘毓桂) was appointed Mayor of Tianjin Special City. But his birth place wasn't Tianjin, so the leading figure of Tianjin and the Japanese Special Service Agency of Tianjin didn't want to support him. While Wen Shizhen was born in Tianjin, and his work also better than Pan, so he won popularity with people in the political circle. Pan and Wen struggled with each other, in the end, in 1939, Pan resigned his post, then Wen became the Mayor.[1] In March 1940 the Wang Jingwei regime was established, while Wen stayed on his post. In February 1943 he resigned Mayor.

After the Wang Jingwei regime had collapsed, he was arrested by Chiang Kaishek's National Government, and because of the charge of treason and surrender to enemy (namely Hanjian), he was sentenced to death.[2] But Wen wasn't executed, while he was imprisoned in Tianjin.[2] In the end of 1948,[3] because the People's Liberation Army's entering Tianjin is coming, Wen was released by Kuomintang authority.[2] But in next January he was rearrested by the Tianjin People's Government, Communist Party of China.[2]

Wen Shizhen was executed by the authority of the People's Republic of China in 1951.[3]

References

  1. ^ By the Official Website of Hebei Ward, Tianjin. The Biographies of Most Recent Chinese Important People also wrote Wen took office in 1939. But Xu (main ed.) p. 2072 wrote Wen took office in "1938", and Liu (etc. ed.) p. 1140 wrote he took office in "April 1940".
  2. ^ a b c d Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo), February 14, 1949, p. 1.
  3. ^ a b Xu (main ed.), p. 2072.

Footnotes