Yan Huiqing

Yan Huiqing

Yan Huiqing (April 2, 1877 - May 24, 1950), a native of Hongkou, Shanghai, is a politician, diplomat and writer of the Republic of China. He graduated from Shanghai Tongwen library and went to the University of Virginia to study.

After returning to China, he was an English professor at St. John's University, commercial press, and counselor of the Qing Embassy in the United States. He was Minister of foreign affairs in 1909. In 1910, he was also the general manager of Tsinghua University. In April 1912, he was appointed by Li Yuanhong as the second minister of foreign affairs of the Beiyang government. He was appointed minister to Germany in January 1913 and later became minister to Denmark, Sweden and other countries. In 1919, he served as an adviser to the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. In August 1920, he was the foreign minister of Beijing government. In 1922, he resigned from the post of chief of foreign affairs and changed to the post of chief of interior. In the spring of 1926, he served as premier of state and took the post of president. In 1927, he moved to Tianjin and served as the chairman of Tianjin Continental Bank and water supply company. After the establishment of the Nanjing government, he served as ambassador to the UK, Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and chief representative of the League of nations. After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he engaged in charity and education in Shanghai. In February 1949, in order to oppose Chiang Kai Shek's continuation of the civil war, Zhang Shizhao, Shao Lizi and Jiang Yong went to Beiping and Shijiazhuang in private to discuss peace with the Communist Party of China. After the liberation of Shanghai, he presided over the preparatory work of Shanghai provisional Relief Committee and Sino Soviet Friendship Association. At the same time, he was invited to attend the first plenary session of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference. Since the founding of the people's Republic of China, he has successively served as vice chairman of the East China military and political Commission and member of the political and Legal Committee of the Central People's government.

Life of the characters

Qing Yang Jinshi

In April 1877, Yan Huiqing was born into a missionary family in Hongkou, Shanghai.

In October 1895, at the age of 18, Yan Huiqing graduated from Tongwen Library in Shanghai, and then studied in the University of Virginia.

In June 1900, he graduated from the literature department of the University of Virginia with all-round honors and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He is the first foreign student in the history of the university to receive a bachelor's degree.

In August 1900, Yan Huiqing returned to Shanghai and became the youngest Chinese professor at St. John's University, teaching geography, English, mathematics, etc. In the following six years of teaching career, he participated in the establishment of "Huanqiu Chinese student union", served as the English edition of Nanfang Daily, and was active in the cultural and educational circles of Shanghai.

In October 1906, the Ministry of education of the Qing Dynasty played out the regulations for testing the graduates of study tours. Yan Huiqing took the examination and ranked second in the liberal arts. After returning to Shanghai, he was employed by the commercial press to edit the standard dictionary of English and Chinese, which is the first large-scale English Chinese dictionary compiled by Chinese people.

Diplomatic talent

In February 1908, Yan Huiqing was sent to the United States with Wu Tingfang, minister to the United States. He received the rank of second-class counsellor and was responsible for the English copy of the embassy and the affairs of international students. During her stay in the United States, Yan Huiqing studied Spanish hard and went to George Washington University to study diplomatic theory.

In November 1909, Yan Huiqing was recruited by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Qing Dynasty to return to China as principal. He joined the information office and edited the English version of Beijing daily. At the same time, he helped to prepare for the establishment of Tsinghua preparatory school for studying in the United States and served as the general manager of Tsinghua School. In 1910, the plague broke out in the three eastern provinces, and Yan Huiqing participated in the establishment of the Manchuria epidemic prevention department. This was the first attempt to control the large-scale plague with western medicine in modern China, and it was successful at one stroke.

In the summer of 1910, the Qing government held another palace examination for the returned students. Yan Huiqing was awarded editor of the Imperial Academy. Soon, he was promoted to the Ministry of foreign affairs. Before the outbreak of the revolution of 1911, Yan Huiqing was promoted to Zuo Cheng of the Ministry of foreign affairs and began to enter the "leading core" of China's diplomatic circles.

Mission to Europe

After the establishment of the Beijing government, Lu Zhengxiang became the first foreign minister in May 1912, and Yan Huiqing became the second foreign minister. Due to Lu's weakness and illness, Yan Huiqing actually presided over the work of the Ministry of foreign affairs. Since then, the foreign minister has changed many times, but Yan Huiqing has always been the second minister.

In January 1913, Yan Huiqing became minister plenipotentiary to Germany, and then Minister to Denmark and minister to Sweden. During his diplomatic mission to Germany, Yan Huiqing facilitated Germany's recognition of the Beijing government, attended the second and Third International Conference on banning smoking, and signed the Convention on banning smoking on behalf of the Chinese government.

In 1914, World War I broke out, and Sino German relations gradually deteriorated. In March 1917, the Beijing government broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. In May, Yan Huiqing led members of the Chinese Embassy in Germany to withdraw to Denmark, becoming an important "intelligence station" of the Beijing government in Europe during the first World War.

Remote control Washington

In the late spring of 1920, Yan Huiqing resigned as Minister of the Three Kingdoms and returned to Shanghai with his family. On August 11, Yan Huiqing acted as the foreign minister of Jin Yunpeng's cabinet. After taking office, he first started with reforming the affairs of the Ministry of foreign affairs, which was not in line with international practice, and set up a "talent pool" within the Ministry to cultivate diplomatic talents. He took advantage of the opportunity of the new Soviet Russia's "galahan declaration" to personally preside over the negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union, and met with Soviet negotiator Youlin. He tried to break the diplomatic encirclement of Western powers to China, showing his foresight and sagacity as a professional diplomat. Unfortunately, at that time, the government changed frequently, and the Sino Soviet negotiations finally failed.

On June 14, 1921, Yan Huiqing was officially appointed as the foreign minister. He was responsible for handling the Hunchun case, the Fuzhou massacre and the miaojie incident, and successfully prevented the renewal of the Treaty of alliance between Britain and Japan, which was seriously unfavorable to China. At that time, the biggest challenge faced by Yan Huiqing was to preside over China's various negotiations at the Washington Conference. In October, the Chinese delegation to the China conference set out for the United States, and Yan Huiqing became the most solid backing and commander-in-chief of the diplomatic operation of the delegation in Beijing. During the negotiation, the Shandong issue and the dispute between China and Japan over the Jiaoji Railway attracted great attention from all over the country. Many Chinese hope that China can solve these problems through multilateral negotiations at the China Conference. Yan Huiqing, who has always been cautious and pragmatic in diplomacy, is not so optimistic. Because his country is weak and his words are light, he first agreed that the delegation would accept the way of "marginal negotiation" with Japan. After leading the Anti Japanese anger to Liang Shiyi, the then prime minister, he skillfully used the "cable war" between warlords, which not only enabled the Ministry of foreign affairs to gain control over the negotiation case of the Jiaoji railway, but also led to a war“ After the collapse of the Liang cabinet, Yan Huiqing acted as premier of state.

In February 1922, he authorized the Chinese delegation to the Washington conference to sign the Treaty on the settlement of Shandong's outstanding cases, which made certain achievements in China's diplomacy. However, in the Beijing government with numerous factions and warlords, it is difficult for Yan Huiqing to show his ambition. In a few years after he first acted as the premier of state, he formed a cabinet many times, but it was difficult for him to get rid of the result. On June 12, 1922, Yan Huiqing was appointed premier of state and Minister of foreign affairs of Li Yuanhong's government. He had to resign from the cabinet on July 29 because he was repeatedly harassed by the parliament.

In May 1926, with the support of Wu Peifu, Yan formed a cabinet again. However, due to the obstruction of Zhang zuolin, the Fengxi warlord, there was no cabinet member in the cabinet, and he fell into the joke of "bare cabinet". On June 20, Yan Huiqing was forced to step down and leave the political center of Beijing. He became an apartment in Tianjin and concentrated on investing in industry.

Out of the mountain again

Yan Huiqing incident became another outbreak of life.

In October 1931, he readily became a member of the special foreign affairs committee of the national government, mainly responsible for negotiations with the United States. In November, he was appointed minister to the United States. Shortly after arriving in the United States, he was appointed chief representative of China to the Executive Yuan meeting of the League of nations and head of the Chinese delegation to the League of nations.

On February 5, 1932, Yan attended the International Conference on Disarmament as China's chief representative, and under the cover of the conference, held secret talks with Soviet Foreign Minister levinov on the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries. After 10 months of repeated consultations, China and the Soviet Union formally resumed diplomatic relations, which to a certain extent broke China's diplomatic dilemma after September 18 and the deadlock in the diplomacy of the League of nations.

On January 31, 1933, Yan Huiqing was appointed Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union. On March 5, he arrived in Moscow to take office. After that, he began negotiations with the Soviet side on the signing of the Sino Soviet commercial treaty and the Sino Soviet non aggression treaty. However, due to various constraints, he failed. On May 18, he went to London to attend the world economic conference. On July 22, he signed the silver agreement on behalf of the national government. At the end of the year, dissatisfied with the Nanjing authorities' ineffective negotiation with the Soviet Union, they insisted on returning to China for vacation without the approval of the national government, and returned to Shanghai. They were unable to resign, so they called themselves ill and went back to Tianjin to recuperate. During this period, he visited Jiang twice, and Jiang urged him to return to Russia. Finally, on February 21, 1935, he set out to resume his post. On March 13, a Chinese cultural delegation to the Soviet Union, composed of Mei Lanfang and Hu Die, arrived in Moscow to try to improve relations between the two countries through non-governmental diplomacy. Unexpectedly, the Soviet Union openly sold the Middle East Railway to the puppet Manchukuo, and the relations between the two countries became tense again. Although Yan Huiqing ran in many ways, he had no way to return. In September, he attended the plenary session of the League of nations as the chief representative of China. The self preservation and appeasement of the major powers in dealing with the issue of Italy's invasion and occupation of Ethiopia made Yan Huiqing completely disappointed in the diplomacy of the League of nations. In March 1936, he resigned as an envoy to the Soviet Union University and was approved. On June 11, he returned to Shanghai and ended his career as a professional diplomat. He returned to his home in Tianjin, where he was engaged in business and charity.

When the Lugouqiao Incident broke out in July 1937, his family moved south to Shanghai. During the August 13 Anti Japanese war in Songhu, he presided over the relief of refugees and wounded soldiers in Shanghai, and served as chairman of Shanghai International Relief Committee and President of Shanghai Anti Tuberculosis Association

Chinese PinYin : Yan Hui Qing