Chu Minyi

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Chu Minyi 褚民谊 (1884 - August 1946) was a close associate of Wang Ching-Wei, served under Wang as secretary general of the Executive Yuan (1932-1935) and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Wang Ching-Wei Japanese-sponsored government. He was executed as "National Traitor" in 1946.

A native of the Chekiang, Chu Minyi was born in a scholar-official family. In 1903, he went to Japan for education. In Toyko, he became active in the Tung-Meng-Hu, an organization dedicated to overthrowing the Manchu dynasty. After the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912, he studied in Europe, earning degrees in medicine and pharmacy, but never practiced medicine. In 1921, he became the Vice President of the Instit Franco-Chinois at the University of Lyons and held the post for a year.

In 1925, he returned to China and became a member of the National Government's educational commission and the head of the medical school in Kwangtung University. He also became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. As a Kuomintang Committee member, he organized the Chinese Arts Association, served as the Chairman of the Commission for the Establishment of National Hygiene and represented China in European countries.

In 1940, Chu joined his brother-in-law, Wang Ching-Wei as the Vice President of the Executive Yuan and the Foreign Minister of the Wang Ching-Wei Japanese-sponsored regime. (Chu's wife was Wang Ching-Wei's wife's sister.) As Foreign Minister, he negotiated the November 30, 1940 treaty in which Tokyo accorded formal recognition to the Wang Ching-Wei regime and the 1941 diplomatic recognition by the Axis Powers. Chu continued to pay an important role in the Wang Ching-Wei government until the end of World War II.

After the Japanese surrender, Chu was taken into custody by the Nationalist government in Canton in August 1945. He was brought to trial in Nanjing on charges of treason in April 1946. There was considerable public sympathy for Chu at the time of his trial for many people found it hard to consider Chu as a national traitor due his record as a fierce Chinese nationalist. Many people considered his wartime role as a result of his personal loyalty to Wang Ching-Wei. Nevertheless, Chu was found guilty of treason and executed at Nanjing on August 23, 1946. His last words were “I am not ashamed for my living, yet my dead will make more value. My body should be sent to the hospital to assist the study on medicine.”

There was a byword in China describing the main members of Wang Ching Wei’s government. “Chen Gongbo’s mouth, Zhou Fohai’s pen and Chu Minyi’s legs.”