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{{Short description|Chinese jurist, diplomat and politician}}
{{family name hatnote|[[Wang (surname)|Wang]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Wang Chonghui
| image = Wang Chonghui4.jpg
| order1 = [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Republic of China)|Foreign Minister of the Republic of China]]
| term_start1 = 4 March 1937
| term_end1 = 10 April 1941
| premier1 = [[Chiang Kai-shek]]<br>[[H. H. Kung]]
| predecessor1 = [[Zhang Qun]]
| successor1 = [[Quo Tai-chi]]
| order2 = [[Premier of the Republic of China]]
| term_start2 = 5 August 1922
| term_end2 = 29 November 1922
| president2 = [[Li Yuanhong]]
| predecessor2 = [[Yan Huiqing]]
| successor2 = [[Wang Daxie]] (acting)
| birth_date = 10 October 1881
| birth_place = [[British Hong Kong]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1958|3|15|1881|10|10|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]]
| nationality = [[Republic of China]]
| party = [[Kuomintang]]
| children = [[Wang Da-hong]] (son)
| profession =
| relations = [[Wang Chongyou]] (brother)
| education = [[Peiyang University]] ([[LL.B.|LLB]])<br/>[[University of California, Berkeley]]<br/>[[Yale University]] ([[D. C. L.|DCL]])
}}
{{Chinese
| t = 王寵惠
| s = 王宠惠
| p = Wáng Chǒnghuì
| w = Wang² Ch'ung³-hui⁴
| first = t
}}

'''Wang Chonghui''' ({{zh |t=王寵惠 |p=Wáng Chǒnghuì|w=Wang Ch'ung-hui}}; 10 October 1881 – 15 March 1958) was a prominent Chinese jurist, diplomat and politician who served the [[Republic of China]] from its foundation in 1912 until his death in 1958. He was a close associate of the republic's founding father, [[Sun Yat-sen]], an active member of the [[Kuomintang]] ("Chinese Nationalist Party"), and a judge on the [[Permanent Court of International Justice]] in the Hague.

==Early life==
Wang was born in [[Hong Kong]] in 1881, and graduated in 1900 from [[Peiyang University]] (later merged with [[Tianjin University]]) where he studied law. After briefly teaching at [[Nanyang Public School]], in 1901 he continued his study in Japan, and later traveled to the United States attending the [[University of California, Berkeley]] and [[Yale University]]. He received the degree of [[Doctor of Civil Law]] from [[Yale Law School]] in 1905.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Spiermann|first=Ole |year=2006 |title=Judge Wang Chung-hui at the Permanent Court of International Justice |journal=Chinese Journal of International Law |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=115–128 |doi=10.1093/chinesejil/jml013 }}</ref> Wang was called to the bar by the [[Middle Temple]] in 1907. In the same year, his translation of the [[German Civil Code]] (of 1896) into English was published.<ref>{{cite book |title=The German Civil Code, Translated and Annotated, with an Historical Introduction and Appendices |last=Wang |first=Chung Hui|year=1907 |publisher=Stevens and Sons, Ltd. |location=London}}</ref> During 1907 and 1911, he studied comparative law in Germany and France.

He returned to China from London in the autumn of 1911, and when the anti-dynastic [[Xinhai Revolution]] of October 10 began, he became adviser to [[Chen Qimei]], the revolutionary military governor of [[Shanghai]]. He represented Guangdong at the Nanjing convention which elected Dr. [[Sun Yat-sen]] provisional president of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]].

==Shanghai==
In 1912, Wang was designated first minister of foreign affairs of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]. After the rise of [[Yuan Shikai]], Wang was named minister of justice in the cabinet of [[Tang Shaoyi]]. He participated in drafting the republic's [[Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China|provisional constitution of 1912]]. Tang resigned in June 1912, and a month later Wang did the same. He moved to [[Shanghai]] and assumed the roles of vice-chancellor of [[Fudan University]] and chief editor of the [[Zhonghua Book Company]].

==Guangzhou==
Though he stayed out of some major political events during the early anti-Yuan era, in May 1916 he became deputy commissioner for foreign affairs of the military council in [[Guangzhou]], headed by [[Liang Qichao]] and [[Cai E]].

Wang served as chief justice of the Chinese supreme court in 1920 and justice minister of the [[Beiyang government]] of [[Li Yuanhong]] in June 1922. He briefly served as acting prime minister from September to November 1922. It was amid continued political power struggles and warlord rivalries that Wang gladly accepted an appointment as deputy judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice in the Hage from 1923 to 1925.

==Beijing==
[[File:1923 Wang Chonghui.jpg|thumb|[[Autochrome Lumière|Autochrome]] by Roger Dumas, 1923]]
Wang returned to [[Beijing]] in 1925. In 1926, he was elected to the Central Supervisory Committee of the northern government and he also briefly served as minister of education under prime minister W.W. Yen. In mid-1927, he left [[Beijing]] and joined [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s [[Nanjing]] government, serving as justice minister. He was fundamental in formulating the principles underlying the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]'s criminal and civil codes. When the [[Judicial Yuan]] was created in 1928, Wang was its first president. He retained that post, and became a member of the State Council, from 1928 to 1931. During these years, he worked to rid China of the extraterritoriality imposed by European powers and Japan. A loyal follower of [[Sun Yat-sen]], Wang also worked to move China into the "political tutelage" phase of the revolution which would pave the way for China to become a constitutional democracy.

In 1930, Wang was elected judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice, but he delayed his acceptance as he was guiding the process of drawing up the provisional constitution of 1931. He assumed his post in the Hague in 1931, and served out his term until 1936. He returned to China that year and was seen as a moderating influence in [[Nanjing]] during the [[Xi'an Incident]] in December of that year.

Wang Chonghui served as foreign minister from March 1937 - April 1941, a painful time during which Japanese invasion would kill millions of Chinese civilians and force the ROC government to relocate from [[Nanjing]] to a provisional capital in [[Chongqing]]. On August 21, 1937, he signed the [[Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact]] with Soviet ambassador {{interlanguage link|Dmitry Bogomolov|ru|Богомолов, Дмитрий Васильевич (дипломат)}}. This guaranteed the Soviet Union's financial support to the [[Kuomintang]] government, though they continued supporting [[Communist]] insurgents too.[[File:Wang Chonghui 1937.jpg|thumb|350px|Wang Chonghui talks about the Sino-Japanese relationship with Japanese reporters as Foreign Minister of the Republic of China in March 1937.]]In 1942, Wang became secretary general of the Chinese Supreme Defense Council. In this capacity, he accompanied President [[Chiang Kai-shek]] to India in 1942 and the [[Cairo Conference]] in 1943. In 1943, he also began serving on the People's Political Council.

==Taipei==
[[File:Wang Chung-hui's Tomb 04. 20241017.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Wang Chonghui]]
Dr. Wang was a member of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations in San Francisco in April 1945.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chai |first=Winberg |date=1970 |title=China and the United Nations: Problems of Representation and Alternatives |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2642389 |journal=Asian Survey |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=397–398 |doi=10.2307/2642389 |jstor=2642389 |issn=0004-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Upon his return to China, he served as director of the Far Eastern Branch Committee of the Commission for the Investigation of Pacific War Crimes. Wang then worked on the framing of the [[constitution of the Republic of China]], which was promulgated on January 1, 1947. In 1948, he was elected member of the [[Academia Sinica]] and once again became minister of justice. When mainland China fell to the [[Chinese Communist Party]] in 1949, Wang relocated to [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]].

Upon his resettlement in Taiwan, Wang served on the [[Kuomintang]]'s Central Reform Committee and its successor, the Central Advisory Committee. He continued to serve as president of the Judicial Yuan until his death on March 15, 1958. His son, [[Wang Da-hong]], was an important Taiwanese architect, regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture in Taiwan.

==References==
{{commons category|Wang Chung-hui}}
{{Reflist}}
*Columbia University: ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, Vol. 3''
* Thomas Weyrauch: ''Wang Chonghuis bleibendes Erbe. Recht – Diplomatie – Politik (Wang Chonghui's Remaining Legacy. Law – Diplomacy – Politics)''. Longtai, Heuchelheim / Germany 2024, ISBN 978-3-938946-32-9.

{{S-start}}
{{Succession box| before = [[Zhang Qun]] | title = [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Republic of China)|Foreign Minister of the Republic of China]]| years = 1937–1941 | after = [[Quo Tai-chi]]}}
{{succession box | before = [[Yan Huiqing]] | title = [[Premier of the Republic of China]]| years = 1922 | after = [[Wang Daxie]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{ROCPMs}}
{{Ministers of Education of the Republic of China}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Chung-Hui}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:Chinese Christians]]
[[Category:Foreign ministers of the Republic of China]]
[[Category:Justice ministers of the Republic of China]]
[[Category:Permanent Court of International Justice judges]]
[[Category:Members of Academia Sinica]]
[[Category:Tianjin University alumni]]
[[Category:Taiwanese presidents of the Judicial Yuan]]
[[Category:Politicians from Dongguan]]
[[Category:Republic of China politicians from Guangdong]]
[[Category:Hong Kong emigrants to Taiwan]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Judicial Yuan]]
[[Category:Chinese judges of international courts and tribunals]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]

Wang Chonghui - Revision history

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