Tang Shaoyi

Táng Shàoyí (Chinese:唐绍仪, changed to 唐绍怡 to avoid taboo of Puyi's name, later restored; Wade-Giles: T'ang Shao-i; Courtesy Shaochuan 少川) (1859—1938), was a Chinese diplomat, politician. He was the father-in-law of Wellington Koo and Lee Seng Gee.

Biography

Career

He was a native of Xiangshan, Guangdong, educated at Queen's College, Hong Kong and studied at Columbia University in New York. Tang was a friend of Yuan Shikai, and, during the Xinhai Revolution, negotiated on the latter's behalf in Shanghai with the revolutionaries' Wu Tingfang, ending up with the recognition of Yuan as President of the Republic of China.

Widely respected, he became the Republic's first Prime Minister in 1912, but quickly grew disillusioned with Yuan's lack of respect for rule of law and resigned. He later took part in Sun Yatsen's government in Guangzhou. Tang Shaoyi opposed Sun's taking of the "Extraordinary Presidency" in 1921 on constitutional grounds and resigned his position.

Retirement and death

In 1924, he refused an offer to be foreign minister under Duan Qirui's provisional government in Beijing, and was later in charge of Zhongshan county where he opposed Chen Jitang. He moved to Shanghai and quit politics.

When that city was occupied by the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invaders wanted him to collaborate but he refused. Nevertheless, he was assassinated by the Kuomintang, who feared he could eventually be compromised.