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Zhang Jinghui
張景惠
Prime Minister of Manchukuo
In office 21 May 1935 – 20 August 1945
Monarch	Puyi
Preceded by	Zheng Xiaoxu
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Foreign Minister of Manchukuo
In office May 1937 – July 1937
Preceded by	Zhang Yanqing
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Minister of Defense of Manchukuo
In office 7 April 1932 – 20 May 1935
Preceded by	Ma Zhanshan
Succeeded by	Yu Zhishan
Minister of War of the Republic of China
In office May 1926 – June 1927
Preceded by	Jia Deyao
Succeeded by	He Fenglin
Personal details
Born	(1871-06-21)21 June 1871 Tai'an, Liaoning, China
Died	11 January 1959(1959-01-11) (aged 88) Fushun, Liaoning, China
Political party	Concordia Association
Military service
Allegiance	Qing dynasty Republic of China  Manchukuo
Rank	General
Battles/wars	First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War

Zhang Jinghui (Chang Ching-hui; traditional Chinese: 張景惠; simplified Chinese: 张景惠; pinyin: Zhāng Jǐnghuì; Wade–Giles: Chang Ching-hui; Hepburn: Chō Keikei; 21 June 1871 – 1 November 1959) was a Chinese general, warlord and politician during the Warlord era. He is noted for his role in the Japanese puppet regime of Manchukuo in which he served as Prime Minister for most of its existence.

Biography

Zhang Jinghui was born in Tai'an, southwest of Mukden, Liaoning Province. The area was a battlefield in the First Sino-Japanese War and he joined the Honghuzi irregular cavalry forces of the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin at an early age. These forces were recruited as mercenaries by the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05.

In the final years of the Qing dynasty, Zhang Zuolin was appointed Viceroy of Three Northeast Provinces with his base at Fengtian, and with the Xinhai Revolution managed to obtain recognition of his forces as part of the new Republic of China military. At that time he was appointed commander of the Beiyang Army’s 27th Infantry Brigade. However, with the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916, the Beiyang Army split into several mutually hostile factions.

Zhang Jinghui deserted Zhang Zuolin to join Wu Peifu's Zhili clique. He later rejoined Zhang Zuolin and served as his Minister of War in the Beiyang Government from May 1926 to June 1927 and as Minister of Industry in the National Pacification Army Government from June 1927 to June 1928. Within a year he was appointed governor of the Harbin and China Eastern Railway Special District in northern Manchuria. However, following the death of Zhang Zuolin in the Huanggutun Incident on 4 June 1928, Zhang Jinghui’s relations with his son and successor, Zhang Xueliang, deteriorated. Nevertheless, both men participated in a national unity conference called by Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek in January 1929 in Nanjing.

However, the political balance was changed after the Mukden Incident and the successful invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese Kwantung Army in 1931. Zhang called a conference in his office on 27 September 1931 to organize an "Emergency Committee of the Special District", with the goal of achieving the secession of Manchuria from China. Following the expulsion of pro-Kuomintang Gen. Ma Zhanshan from Qiqihar, Zhang proclaimed his territory to be self-governing and was inaugurated as governor on 7 January 1932. Uncertain of the intentions of the Soviet Union to the north, and unable to withstand the Japanese military presence to the south, Zhang reached an agreement with the Japanese and accepted an appointment as governor of Heilongjiang Province in the new Japanese-run state of Manchukuo. His refusal, though, to leave his stronghold in Harbin to take up residence in Qiqihar created friction with the Kwantung Army leadership. However, when Ma Zhanshan agreed to terms with the Japanese on 14 February 1932 in exchange for the post of Governor of Heilongjiang Province, Zhang was set aside. Ma revolted in April 1932 and Zhang took his place as Minister of Defense of the Empire of Manchukuo.

On 21 May 1935, Zhang succeeded Zheng Xiaoxu as Prime Minister of Manchukuo at the instigation of the Kwantung Army over the objections of Emperor Puyi. As Prime Minister of Manchukuo, Zhang preferred to take a passive figurehead role, allowing the Japanese advisors seconded from the Kwantung Army to handle all aspects of day-to-day administration while he spent his days copying Buddhist sutras. Reviled by modern Chinese historians for his pro-Japanese stance, and nicknamed “the Tofu Prime Minister” even in his lifetime, Zhang was recorded to have only once spoken out against the Japanese administration—to criticize the forced sale of lands to Japanese colonists. In 1943 he was the official delegate from Manchukuo to the Greater East Asia Conference held in Tokyo. That same year a false report was published in Time Magazine that Zhang had poisoned his family and killed his Japanese advisor and other members of the Manchukuo government before committing suicide.

Zhang held the position of Prime Minister until the collapse of Manchukuo following the Soviet Red Army's invasion of Manchuria in August 1945.

Following World War II he was held in custody by the Soviet Union in Siberia and extradited to the People's Republic of China in 1950, where he was imprisoned at the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre. He died of heart failure nine years later in 1959.

References

1. Mitter, The Manchurian Myth, pp. 79.
2. Mitter, The Manchurian Myth, pp. 128.
3. Yamamuro, Manchuria Under Japanese Domination. Pp. 170.
4. Japanese wikipedia
5. "CHINA: Noble End of Chang Ching-hui". TIME. Jan 4, 1943. Archived from the original on January 27, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2011.

• Rana Mitter (2000). The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22111-7.
• Yamamuro, Shinichi (2005). Manchuria Under Japanese Domination. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3912-1.

External links

• IMTFE Judgement, Invasion & Occupation of Manchuria
• Photo at World War II Database

v t e Foreign ministers of Manchukuo
Xie Jieshi (1932–1935) Zang Yanqing (1935–1937) Zhang Jinghui (1937) Chuichi Ohashi (1937–1938) Cai Yunsheng (1938–1940) Wei Huangzhang (1940–1942) Li Shaogeng (1942–1944) Ruan Zhenduo (1944–1945)

v t e Warlord Era and warlordism during the Nanjing decade
1915–1924 1925–1934 Factions 1911–1914 Bai Lang Rebellion 1913 Second Revolution 1915 Twenty-One Demands 1915–1916 Empire of China (Yuan Shikai) National Protection War 1916 Death of Yuan Shikai 1917 Manchu Restoration 1917–1922 Constitutional Protection Movement 1917–1929 Golok rebellions 1918–1920 Siberian intervention 1919 Paris Peace Conference Shandong Problem May Fourth Movement 1919–1921 Occupation of Outer Mongolia 1920 Zhili–Anhui War 1920–1921 Guangdong–Guangxi War 1920–1926 Spirit Soldier rebellions 1921 1st National CPC Congress 1921–1922 Washington Naval Conference 1922 First Zhili–Fengtian War 1923–1927 First United Front 1923 Lincheng Outrage 1924 Second Zhili–Fengtian War Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising Beijing Coup 1925 Yunnan–Guangxi War May Thirtieth Movement 1925–1926 Anti-Fengtian War Canton–Hong Kong strike 1926 Zhongshan Warship Incident 1926–1928 Northern Expedition Nanjing–Wuhan Split Nationalist-Communist Civil War 1927 Nanking incident of 1927 1927 Shanghai Commune of 1927 1927 Shanghai massacre 1927 July 15 Incident 1927–1930 Muslim conflict in Gansu 1928 Jinan incident Huanggutun incident Looting of the Eastern Mausoleum Northeast Flag Replacement 1928–1929 Third Red Spears' uprising in Shandong 1929 Chiang-Gui War Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong (incl. Beijing Revolt) Sino-Soviet conflict 1930 Central Plains War 1930–1932 Sino-Tibetan War / Qinghai–Tibet War 1931–1935 Kumul Rebellion / Soviet invasion of Xinjiang 1932 Han–Liu War 1932 Two-Liu war 1934 War in Ningxia Beiyang Anhui Zhili Fengtian (National Pacification Army) Zhili Army Shanxi Guominjun Ma Xinjiang Yunnan Sichuan Old Guangxi New Guangxi Guangdong Guizhou Kuomintang (KMT) Communist Party (CCP)
Republic of China (1912–1949)

• Chinese collaborators with Imperial Japan
• Prime ministers of Manchukuo
• Defence ministers of Manchukuo
• Government ministers of Manchukuo
• Republic of China warlords from Liaoning
• Politicians from Anshan
• World War II political leaders
• 1871 births
• 1959 deaths
• Chinese people imprisoned abroad
• Chinese people who died in prison custody
• Prisoners who died in Chinese detention
• Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China
• People extradited from the Soviet Union
• People extradited to China
• Chinese anti-communists
• Heads of government convicted of war crimes
• People convicted of treason