jing. Li was then assigned to expand local militias in the fight against the
Taiping, so he returned to Anhui where he built up the Huai Army, con-
sidered one of the most modern and successful military forces in China.
Li had once tutored Prince Gong and he remained loyal to both the
prince and the empress dowager, but as a Han serving Manchu leaders he
was aware that he had to behave respectfully and cautiously. Because of Li’s
success, Zeng Guofan, with the approval of the imperial court, arranged for
Li to be appointed acting governor of Jiangsu at the age of thirty- nine. In
Shanghai, Zeng became acutely aware of the challenge of the West, as he
saw that foreign military forces, with their modern armaments, were far su-
perior to those of his “ever victorious army.” Li believed that China had to
train its troops, but first it had to have the technology to make up- to- date
armaments, and to do that it had to have funding.
In Li’s time, China did not have a Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After 1870
and for the following twenty- five years, Li held key positions as Zhili gov-
ernor (China’s most impor tant governorship, of an area that includes
present- day Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin), superintendent of trade of the
north (with an office in Tianjin, so he could greet foreign visitors before they
went to Beijing), and head of the Beiyang Fleet (China’s northern fleet).
He thus became the dominant voice in China’s foreign affairs. But it was
his grasp of foreign issues, his confidence in accepting responsibility in
areas where the lines of authority were unclear, and his awareness of how
far the imperial court would go to support him that led others to turn over
foreign-policy issues to him.
Li knew that China could not become strong simply by buying foreign
ships and foreign military equipment or by relying on foreign forces as al-
lies. For this reason he took the initiative to promote China’s Self-
Strengthening Movement (1861–1895), which sought to create a military
and industrial base to support the military. He led the establishment of the
Jiangnan Arsenal and the Tianjin Arsenal to enable China to produce more
modern ships as well as weapons such as rifles. In 1872–1873 he established
the Merchant Steamship Navigation Com pany to help Chinese merchants
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Biographies of Key Figures
compete with foreign steamship companies, and by the late 1870s the com-
pany had surpassed the British trading firms in terms of size. Li knew that
China had to send people abroad to learn foreign languages, not only to
serve as interpreters but also to study foreign developments. Additionally,
he set up institutions to train people in modern engineering and he tried to
expand iron and coal mining to avoid the financial drain due to purchasing
foreign resources. Unlike many of his peers who were overconfident about
the superiority of all things Chinese, Li was acutely aware of China’s orga-
nizational weaknesses compared with those of the Western powers and
Japan, and he sought to avoid conflicts with foreign countries while Chi-
na’s strength was still in its infancy.
Having seen Japan’s strengths as well as those of the Western powers
when he served in Shanghai, as early as 1863 Li expressed admiration for
Japan for its advances in military armaments and technological training and
as a model for military self- strengthening. In 1871 he was the Chinese ne-
gotiator supporting the first treaty between Japan and Qing China, which
fixed trade tariffs between the two countries. However, Japan’s initiatives
in Korea and its handling of the issue of the Rykuyu fishermen convinced
him that the Japa nese, while polite on the surface, were crafty in pursuing
their own ambitions. He remained wary of Japan’s intentions, but he was
also dedicated to finding ways to maintain a stable, peaceful relationship
with Japan.
Despite his talent and his ability to analyze prob lems, Li did not have
the depth of foreign training and contacts with foreign leaders, or the deep
understanding of foreign strategies, that his main Japa nese negotiating
partner, Ito Hirobumi, had acquired during his time abroad and from
the Japa nese bureaucracy’s systematic collection and analy sis of foreign in-
telligence. Operating within the range of what was pos si ble in his day, Li
accepted China’s examination system, administrative structure, and educa-
tional system; thus the results of his Self- Strengthening Movement, fo-
cusing mainly on military and technology, were far narrower than the re-
sults of Japan’s institutional changes.
It is China’s tragedy that the Self- Strengthening Movement was weak-
ened in 1885, when Prince Gong lost power, and again in 1894–1895, when
China became involved in the Sino- Japanese War. After the war, Li accepted
responsibility for negotiating the treaty that ended the war, knowing that
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Biographies of Key Figures
he would be criticized by Chinese conservatives for making too many con-
cessions, even though China was not in a position to refuse. While in Japan
for the negotiations, Li was shot by a radical Japa nese would-be assassin.
He chose not to have the bullet, lodged near his eye, removed, and within
several days he had generally recovered. He is remembered in Chinese his-
tory as a traitor who signed a humiliating treaty that Japan was able to force
on China because of its weaknesses— weaknesses that Li had dedicated
himself to correcting against strong domestic opposition.
For further reading, see Samuel C. Chu and Kwang- Ching Liu, eds., Li
Hung- chang and China’s Early Modernization (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe,
1994).
Liao Chengzhi, 1908–1983
The Chinese politician Liao Chengzhi was the only Politburo member who
had deep and warm personal relations with the Japa nese. His grand father,
a Hakka from Huizhou, the prefectural capital east of Guangzhou, had
been a representative of the Hong Kong– Shanghai Bank in San Francisco,
where Liao’s father, Liao Zhongkai, was born.
Liao Chengzhi’s father returned to Hong Kong in 1893, but in 1902 Liao
Zhongkai went to study in Japan at Waseda University and Chuo Univer-
sity. While in Japan he met Sun Yat- sen, a fellow Cantonese, and he be-
came a founding member of Sun’s Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui).
He was close to Sun and played a key role in publicizing Sun’s thinking, as
well as serving as Sun’s frequent traveling partner. On his return to China
Liao Zhongkai became governor of Guangdong and a member of the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the Guomin dang.
Liao Chengzhi was born in Japan in 1908. He and his family returned
to Hong Kong for several years and then, in 1915, went back to Japan, where
he entered the second grade at Gyosei, an elite Catholic school that taught
its students in Japa nese, En glish, and French. At Gyosei, Chengzhi was the
only non- Japanese student in his class of thirty. He made many friends
among the Japa nese children with whom he played. His Japa nese friends
defended him when other classmates criticized him because he was Chinese.
Because his family was well- to-do, while they were in Japan they could af-
ford to live in an upper- middle- class neighborhood and to employ a series
of nursemaids to take care of Chengzhi.
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Biographies of Key Figures
Immediately after Sun’s death, Chengzhi’s father, Liao Zhongkai, was one
of the three leading candidates, along with Wang Jing wei and Hu Hanmin, to
be Sun’s successor. But Liao Zhongkai was shot in 1925, presumably by as-
sassins hired by Hu Hanmin, a member of the right wing of the Guomin-
dang. Liao’s only sibling, Cynthia Liao, who was five years older and had
also studied in Japan, became personal secretary to Sun Yat- sen’s widow.
After his father was killed by a right- wing party member, Liao Chengzhi
turned firmly to the left, and in 1927, when Chiang Kai- shek began killing
the Communists in the Guomin dang, Liao escaped to Japan, where he at-
tended Waseda University from 1927 to 1928. It was during that year he
joined the Chinese Communist Party. In May 1928, after the Ji’nan Incident
of May 3, he took part in activities criticizing the Japa nese government. He
retained his friendships with Japanese, but he was expelled from Japan. He
did not return to Japan until 1954, when he was part of an official Chinese
del e ga tion.
In 1928 Liao Chengzhi returned to China briefly, but he then went to
Germany and then to Moscow to attend Sun Yat- sen University, where he
was a classmate of Chiang Ching- kuo, son of Chiang Kai- shek, whom he
had known when their fathers were both serving under Sun Yat- sen. Liao
returned to China to take part in the Shanghai under ground and then,
because of the danger in the city, he moved to rural Sichuan. When the Long
Marchers passed through Sichuan, he joined them on their trek to Yan’an.
During World War II Liao was dispatched from Yan’an to Hong Kong,
not far from his home in Huizhou, to take part in under ground Commu-
nist Party work. In 1942 he was captured by the Guomin dang and he re-
mained in custody until 1946, when he was rescued from prison. During
the Chinese Civil War he was involved in propaganda work and served for
a time as head of the Xin hua News Agency, where he was a liaison with
foreign countries.
In 1952 Zhou Enlai, who first knew Liao Chengzhi in Guangzhou in
1924 when Zhou was a po liti cal commissar at the Huangpu Military
Acad emy, assigned Liao to take charge of relations with Japan. For three
de cades, beginning in 1952, Liao was the key official in Beijing responsible
for meeting Japa nese guests. He also had responsibility for managing United
Front activities with overseas Chinese, Africans, and Rus sians. When
high- level Japa nese officials met with Mao, Liao usually served as inter-
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Biographies of Key Figures
preter. Japa nese visitors to China regarded Liao as an icon and a friend of
Japan. They were eager to meet him and to have their pictures taken with
him because of his fame, because he spoke Japa nese like a native and could
banter with them like an insider about events in Japan, and because they
believed he was influential in the Chinese Communist hierarchy. His Japa-
nese visitors included Socialist and Communist Party members and also
mainstream politicians. A 1954 del e ga tion included Nakasone Yasuhiro, a
future prime minister, and Sonoda Sunao, who later, as foreign minister,
would play a key role in the normalization of Sino- Japanese relations.
On his 1954 visit to Japan, his first trip there since being expelled in 1928,
Liao was part of a Red Cross del e ga tion, but he used the occasion to renew
contacts with Japa nese friends involved in vari ous Sino- Japanese friendship
associations.
Despite the fact that he had been arrested twelve times, in Japan, Ger-
many, the Soviet Union, and China, and had been imprisoned by the
Guomin dang from 1942 to 1946, Liao remained a warm, effusive, and confi-
dent person with a good sense of humor, and he played a key role in main-
taining relations with the Japa nese. Prior to normalization, he worked with
Takasaki Tatsunosuke to expand Sino-Japanese trade relations. In October
1978, after the Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed, when Deng
Xiaoping traveled to Japan to seek help with China’s new opening and re-
form policy, he had Liao Chengzhi at his side. Liao died in 1983.
For further reading, see Mayumi Itoh, Pioneers of Sino- Japanese Relations:
Liao and Takasaki (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Donald W. Klein
and Anne B. Clark, “Liao Ch’eng- chih,” in Biographic Dictionary of Chinese
Communism, 1921–1965, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1971).
Sun Yat- sen (Sun Zhongshan, Son Bun), 1866–1925
Sun Yat- sen, an English- speaking Cantonese, played a key role traveling
abroad to gather support for overthrowing the Qing dynasty. After the 1911
Revolution he was named the first provisional president of the Republic of
China, and he is therefore celebrated as the founding father of the Republic.
However, just six weeks after becoming president Sun yielded his position
to General Yuan Shikai, who had the military support that Sun Yat- sen
lacked. Between 1912 and 1920 Sun did not play a major role in the Chinese
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Biographies of Key Figures
government, but in 1920, when the warlords held power in Beijing, he used
the Nationalist Party (Guomin dang) that he had established shortly after
the 1911 Revolution to establish a base in Guangzhou. There, with Soviet
help, he set up the Huangpu Military Acad emy led by Chiang Kai- shek, to
train military officers who could play a leading role in building a national
army to unify the country. Sun attracted to Guangzhou Zhou Enlai, who
was a po liti cal commissar at the acad emy; Mao Zedong, who founded the
Peasant Training Institute there; and other progressive young leaders. Sun
managed to keep the Communists within the Guomin dang, but two years
after his death, in 1927, the Nationalists who had welcomed the Commu-
nists began attacking them, and the two parties have been split ever since.
Sun Yat- sen had a very close relationship with Japan and lived there for
many years. In 1905, when his life was in danger in China for promoting
revolution, he escaped to Japan and disguised himself by taking the Japa-
nese name Nakayama (in Chinese, Zhongshan). After the revolution, when
he split with Yuan Shikai, he once again sought refuge in Japan. He had
many supporters there, including Miyazaki Torazo (also known as Miyazaki
Toten), who remained a dedicated right- hand man to Sun throughout his
last two de cades.
Sun Yat- sen was born into a Hakka family in the village of Cuiheng
just north of Macao, on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, in a county
that has since been named after him (Zhongshan). After attending local
schools, in 1878, at the age of thirteen, he moved to Hawaii where he lived
with an elder brother and attended school until 1883, when
he returned to
China. For the next three years he studied in Hong Kong schools, and
during this time he also was baptized as a Christian. From 1886 to 1892 he
studied Western medicine in Hong Kong, graduating in 1892. He came to
believe that science in China was far behind Western science and thus China
had to undertake great changes. In 1894 Sun and a group of his friends
founded the Revive China Society. Upset about China’s failure to modernize
and disappointed with China’s loss in the war with Japan in 1895, the Re-
vive China Society planned to attack the Guangdong government, but word
leaked out and the attack was completely foiled. Leading officials in Bei-
jing, who had studied the Confucian classics, looked down on Sun Yat- sen
as someone not properly educated, and they did not consider his 1895 at-
tack in Guangdong to have been a major threat.
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Biographies of Key Figures
After 1895 Sun escaped to Japan and then traveled to the United States
and Eu rope. While in London in 1896, he was picked up by the Chinese
legation, which planned to execute him. British acquaintances publicized
his case in an attempt to free him, and after twelve days he was released.
His case received such great publicity in England that Sun became a well-
known public figure in Chinese communities throughout the world. As
Marie- Claire Bergère writes, Sun was an able publicist, skilled at telling his
audiences what they wanted to hear in order to achieve his po liti cal goals.
The content of his speeches varied from country to country, but he was con-
sistent in doing what he thought would be most useful to make China a
strong modern nation.
In 1900 Sun helped or ga nize an uprising in Huizhou, the prefectural
capital east of Guangzhou, but it too ended in failure. When he returned
to Japan again in 1905, most Chinese students were associating with people
from the same province. Along with others, he formed the Revolutionary
Alliance (Tongmenghui) to build a China- wide organ ization of students
from Hunan, Hubei, Shanghai, Guangdong, and elsewhere. He continued
traveling abroad to raise funds, and when he heard about the 1911 Revolu-
tion, he was raising funds in Colorado.
On November 29, 1911, while Sun was still traveling abroad, a number
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