Wang Ch‘ung-hui
王寵惠
(1881–1958)
Class of 1891 - Jurist and Foreign Minister
1891屆畢業 — 法學國際外交官
Wang Ch‘ung-hui studied at St. Paul’s College between 1887 and 1891. A gifted scholar, Wang was one of the Republic of China’s foremost jurists and diplomats. He briefly served as premier (1922), twice served as the Judicial Yuan’s first president (1928–31 and 1948–58), the foreign minister (1937–41), and secretary general of China’s war cabinet (1941–47). Wang was also a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice (1931–36), the direct predecessor to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Born to a Protestant missionary family, Wang lived at the To Tsai Church, where he first met Sun Yat-sen and then studied medicine. While studying in Tokyo in 1901, Wang edited the English section of the Chinese National, an anti-Qing, anti-imperialist journal.
Wang was named foreign minister in Sun Yat-sen’s short-lived provisional cabinet. Wang initially served the Beiyang government before becoming the Supreme Court’s chief justice in 1920. As the Kuomintang swept northward, Wang headed south to Nanjing. Helming the Judicial Yuan, Wang helped draft the Republic’s constitution, in particular its criminal code and governmental outline, giving a legal framework to Sun Yat-sen’s ‘five branches of government’ model.
Soon after Wang’s appointment as foreign minister, Japan launched its invasion of China. At the foreign ministry and the defence council, Wang courted international support, negotiating terms favourable to China in the post-war order — he was a key aide in the 1943 Cairo Conference and the 1945 San Francisco Conference, which respectively ensured China retook the North East and Taiwan and guaranteed China’s permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
In 1949, Wang made a brief detour to Hong Kong, where he reunited with College alumni.