Liao Zhongkai | |
|---|---|
| 廖仲愷 | |
 Liao, sometime before 1920 | |
| Member of the Executive Committee of theKuomintang | |
| In office 1925–1925 | |
| Premier | Sun Yat-sen |
| Minister of Finance of theKuomintang | |
| In office 1921–1925 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 23, 1877 San Francisco,California, U.S. |
| Died | August 20, 1925 (1925-08-21) (aged 48) Canton,Guangdong, China |
| Nationality | Qing dynasty (1877-1912)Republic of China (1912-1925) |
| Political party | Kuomintang |
| Spouse | He Xiangning |
| Children | Liao Mengxing,Liao Chengzhi |
| Parent | Liao Zhubin |
| Education | Queen's College,Waseda University,Tokyo University |
| Liao Zhongkai | |||||||||||||||
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 Liao Zhongkai,He Xiangning and children in 1909 | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 廖仲愷 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 廖仲恺 | ||||||||||||||
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Liao Zhongkai (April 23, 1877 – August 20, 1925) was a Chinese-AmericanKuomintang leader and financier. He was the principal architect of the first Kuomintang–Chinese Communist Party (KMT–CCP)United Front in the 1920s. He was assassinated inCanton in August 1925.[1]
Liao was born in 1877 inSan Francisco and received his early education in the United States. He was one of twenty-four children. His father Liao Zhubin, who had five wives, was sent to San Francisco by theHong Kong and Shanghai Bank.
Returning toHong Kong in 1893, at the age of sixteen he studied atQueen's College from 1896. He marriedHe Xiangning in 1897. He then went toJapan in January 1903 to study political science atWaseda University. In 1907 he went toChuo University to study political and economic science.
Liao joined the ChineseRevolutionary Alliance in 1905 upon its founding and became the director of the financial bureau ofGuangdong after the founding of theRepublic of China.
In the early struggles of the party, Liao Zhongkai was arrested by Guangdong strongmanChen Jiongming in June 1922. After Chen's defeat Liao became Civil governor of Guangdong from May 1923 to February 1924, and then again from June to September 1924. During the first Kuomintang–Chinese Communist Party cooperation period, he was appointed to the Kuomintang Executive Committee.
When the KMT was reformed in 1924, he was named the head of the Department of Workers, and then Department of Peasants. Later he became Minister of Finance of the southern government, seated inGuangdong. WhenSun Yat-sen died in Beijing in March, 1925, and Liao was one of the three most powerful figures in the Kuomintang Executive Committee, the other two wereWang Jingwei andHu Hanmin.
Liao continued his belief in Sun's policy after Sun died, including one of the key policies of maintaining close relations with theSoviet Union as well as the Chinese Communist Party, which was strongly opposed by the KMT right wing. Liao was assassinated before a Kuomintang Executive Committee meeting on August 20, 1925, inGuangzhou, when five gunmen riddled him with bullets fromMauser C96s as he stepped out of his limousine. Suspicion for the act fell uponHu Hanmin, who was then arrested. This left only Wang Jingwei and the risingChiang Kai-shek as rivals for control of the Kuomintang.
Liao and He Xiangning had a daughter,Liao Mengxing, and a son,Liao Chengzhi. The latter had four sons,Liao Hui being the eldest.Anna Chennault is his niece.
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